Cognitive Ecology: The Evolutionary Ecology of Information Processing and Decision Making

This study examines how the environment shapes the way an animal processes information and makes decisions, and how constraints imposed on nervous systems affect an animal’s activities. To help answer these questions, this text integrates evolutionary ecology and cognitive science, demonstrating how studies of perception, memory and learning can deepen understanding of animal behaviour and ecology. The book considers such issues as: the evolution of learning and its influence on behaviour; the effects of cognitive mechanisms on the evolution of signalling behaviour; how neurobiological and evolutionary processes have shaped navigational activities; functional and mechanical explanations for altered behaviours in response to changing environments; how foragers make decisions and how these decisions are influenced by the risk of predation; and how cognitive mechanisms affect partner choice. The study should encourage biologists to consider how animal cognition affects behaviour, and should also interest comparative psychologists and cognitive scientists.