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20 - The Adaptive Problem of Exploiting Resources

Human Foraging Behavior in Patchy Environments

from Part V - Evolution and Cognition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 March 2020

By
Andreas Wilke
Edited by
Lance Workman ,
Will Reader  and
Jerome H. Barkow
Lance Workman
Affiliation:
University of South Wales
Will Reader
Affiliation:
Sheffield Hallam University
Jerome H. Barkow
Affiliation:
Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia
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Summary

Over evolutionary time, humans have had to solve problems regarding many important foraging activities, such as deciding where to find crucial resources, when to move on to more resource-rich locations with higher intake rates, and how well past foraging success might predict the future likelihood of return. This chapter will argue that these reoccurring foraging behaviors of our ancestral past left an eminent footprint in our evolved cognitive system – and specifically in our information processing mechanisms that deal with risk and uncertainty. This chapter on evolution, cognition, and decision-making will review empirical work from animal behavior, biological anthropology, and evolutionary psychology to show that our mind possesses various cognitive foraging adaptations that coevolved with the statistical regularities of natural resource environments.

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Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Behavior , pp. 241 - 250
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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