Beyond exaptation: The modules and metaphors program

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Beyond exaptationThe modules and metaphors
program

• Laurence Fiddick
• James Cook University

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The adaptivist program vs. the adaptationist
program

• Adaptivist program focused on the reproductive
  consequences of traits. Traits that increase
  reproductive success are adaptive and held to be
  adaptations the product of natural selection.

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The adaptivist program vs. the adaptationist
program

• Adaptationist program focused on mechanisms
  that are complex and functionally integrated
  bear evidence of special-design which are held
  to be adaptations.

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Different programs, different problems

• Adaptivist program need to be vigilant for
  traits that currently increase reproductive
  success but lack the right evolutionary history.
• Adaptationist program need to be vigilant for
  traits that display evidence of special design,
  but lack the right evolutionary history.

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Exaptations An adaptivists problem

• We suggest that such characters, evolved for
  other usages (or for no function at all), and
  later coopted for their current role, be called
  exaptations (Gould Vrba, 1982, p. 6).

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Two sources of exaptation

• A character, previously shaped by natural
  selection for a particular function (an
  adaptation), is coopted for a new use
  cooptation.
• A character whose origin cannot be ascribed to
  the direct action of natural selection (a
  nonaptation), is coopted for a current use
  cooptation.

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What Gould Vrba do NOT say

• They do NOT claim that randomly ordered traits
  cannot be exaptations.

What Gould Vrba DO say
They DO claim that all exaptations have current
utility.
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• A completely random, disorganized trait can be an
  exaptation provided that it increases current
  reproductive success.

Exaptations the adaptivists headache
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But what causes the adaptationist to lose sleep?

• Exadaptations the adaptationists headache
• Adaptations that have been largely been coopted
  for new applications, regardless of whether these
  new applications increase reproductive success.

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Other sources of complexly organized functionality

• Cultural evolution?
• Intensive learning?
• Human artifice?

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Exadaptation How does that work?

• Adaptations have an organized structure
  embodying a particular mode of operation (a modus
  operandi) that was designed for a specific set of
  problems in ancestral environments (a domain of
  application)

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Exadaptation How does that work?

• Evolution through natural selection is a slow
  process. Accumulated design is slow to change.
• Environments can change much faster

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Exadaptation How does that work?

• The modus operandi of an adaptation is a
  reflection of its accumulated design.
• An adaptations domain of application is in part
  determined by the environment in which it
  operates.
• Proper vs. actual domains

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Exadaptation How does that work?

• With environmental change, the modus operandi of
  an adaptation can potentially organize a
  different domain of inputs.

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Exadaptations Do they exist?

• Possible examples
• Moral disgust (Rozin, Haidt, McCauley, 1999)
• Written language (Pinker, 1994)
• Law (Fiddick, 2004)
• Mathematics (Dehaene, 1997)
• Music (Dissanayake, 2000)
• Poetry (Miall Dissanayke, 2003)
• Race (Gil-White, 2001 Hirschfeld, 1996 Kurzban,
  Tooby, Cosmides, 2001)
• Religion (Boyer, 1994 Kirkpatrick, 1999)
• Science (Atran, 1990)

Are these exaptations?
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Possibly ... but
. but

• No effort to establish that these traits increase
  current reproductive success.
• Every effort made to understand the organization
  of the phenomenon.
• The organization of the phenomenon is traced back
  in part to prior adaptations.

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What would be a good example of an exaptation?

• Sperm bank donations fairly high probability
  that ones reproductive success will be increased
  by doing so but clearly an evolutionarily novel
  behavior.

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Increase Reproductive Success?
Yes
No
Music Poetry
Mathematics Science
Kinship Classification Manipulation Sperm Bank
Donations
Recycling Plastic Watching TV
Exaptations
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Increase Reproductive Success?
Yes
No
Yes
Exadaptations
Complex Functionality?
Music Poetry
Mathematics Science
No
Kinship Classification Manipulation Sperm Bank
Donations
Recycling Plastic Watching TV
Exaptations
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A systematic program of research without a name
Moral disgust (Rozin, Haidt, McCauley,
1999) Written language (Pinker, 1994) Law
(Fiddick, 2004) Mathematics (Dehaene, 1997) Music
(Dissanayake, 2000) Poetry (Miall Dissanayke,
2003) Race (Gil-White, 2001 Hirschfeld, 1996
Kurzban, Tooby, Cosmides, 2001) Religion
(Boyer, 1994 Kirkpatrick, 1999) Science (Atran,
1990)

• The modules and metaphors program

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Modules

• An evolved faculty of mind that is flexibly,
  domain-specific.
• The proper domain of the mechanism is given by
  its selective history.
• Flexibility is brought about by changes in the
  mechanisms environment which affect its actual
  domain of application, but not its modus operandi

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Metaphors

• Taking a system of concepts and inferences from a
  base domain and applying them to a novel target
  domain.
• Evolutionary theory as a scientifically coherent
  account of base domains.
• Evolutionarily novel situations as possible
  target domains.

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How does the program work?

• Focus on a complexly organized, but
  evolutionarily novel trait.
• 2

some practitioners even explicitly note that
this is what they are doing e.g. Gil-White
and Kurzban et al. when investigating race
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How does the program work?

• Focus on a complexly organized, but
  evolutionarily novel trait.
• 2) Characterize the modus operandi of the trait
  how is the phenomenon organized?
• 3) Draw parallels with a plausible adaptation
  that possesses the same modus operandi.
• 4) Demonstrate a previously unknown aspect of the
  novel trait that is known to exist in the evolved
  trait or vice versa.

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How does the program work?

• Focus on a complexly organized, but
  evolutionarily novel trait.
• 2) Characterize the modus operandi of the trait
  how is the phenomenon organized?
• 3) Draw parallels with a plausible adaptation
  that possesses the same modus operandi.
• 4) Demonstrate a previously unknown aspect of the
  novel trait that is known to exist in the evolved
  trait or vice versa.

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How does the program work?

• Focus on a complexly organized, but
  evolutionarily novel trait.
• 2) Characterize the modus operandi of the trait
  how is the phenomenon organized?
• 3) Draw parallels with a plausible adaptation
  that possesses the same modus operandi.
• Ideally
• 4) Demonstrate a previously unknown aspect of the
  novel trait that is known to exist in the evolved
  trait or vice versa.

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Is it compatible with evolutionary psychology?

• Critics of evolutionary psychology have argued
  that precisely these sorts of phenomena are
  incompatible with and raise serious doubts about
  evolutionary psychology (Mithen, 1996 Chiappe,
  2000).
• Violates evolutionary psychologys presumed
  modularity.

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Is it compatible with evolutionary psychology?

• Evolutionary psychologists are committed to the
  study of functional structure.
• They assume that functional structure is best
  explained in evolutionary terms.

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Is it compatible with evolutionary psychology?

• Evolutionary psychologists are NOT committed to
  the view that present environments are the same
  as ancestral environments.
• Given that the domain of an adaptations
  application is in part a function of the
  environment in which it operates, evolutionary
  psychologists are NOT committed to the view that
  the actual domain of a module is fixed.

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Is it compatible with evolutionary psychology?

• Evolutionary psychology is compatible with the
  possibility that novel environments can alter the
  actual domain of an adaptation.
• Evolutionary psychology is not compatible with
  the possibility that novel environments can alter
  the functional organization of an adaptation in
  function preserving ways.

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• The concept of metaphor, itself,
• presupposes the preservation of conceptual
• and inferential organization
• from the base domain to the target domain.

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What do evolutionary psychologists have to gain
from the program?

1. An alternative account of expertise
2. A defendable boundaries to adaptationist
   proposals
3. A rich source of data

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Face Processing
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A
B
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A
B
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A
B
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A
B
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Kanwisher, McDermott, Chun (1997)
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Greebles
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Gauthier, et al. (1999)
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Gauthier, et al. (1999)
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But

• Abacus experts show a bilateral increase in
  superior frontal sulcus and superior parietal
  lobule activation in a digit memory task (Tanaka,
  et al. 2002)
• Expert pilots show more frontal and prefrontal
  activation, less visual and motor activation in
  an aviation track-following task (Peres, et al.
  2000)

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What do evolutionary psychologists have to gain
from the program?

1. An alternative account of expertise
2. A defendable boundaries to adaptationist
   proposals
3. A rich source of data

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Social Contract Theory (Cosmides, 1985)

• Proposal humans possess an evolved, look for
  cheaters algorithm
• Based on evolutionary theories of reciprocal
  altruism (Axelrod, 1984 Axelrod Hamilton,
  1981 Trivers, 1971)
• Evidence studies conducted on the Wason
  selection task

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Social Contracts

• If you take the benefit, then you must pay the
  cost
• Two types
• Personal exchanges two parties cooperating for
  mutual benefit
• Social laws one person granted a benefit on the
  basis of a societal law

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• If you take the benefit, then you must pay the
  cost
• Only personal exchanges correspond to the form of
  interaction modelled by evolutionary theory
• Personal exchanges two parties cooperating for
  mutual benefit
• Social laws one person granted a benefit on the
  basis of a societal law

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Two possibilities

• Amend the evolutionary theory
• Draw a distinction between the proper domain of
  the adaptation (personal exchanges) and the
  actual domain of the adaptation (personal
  exchanges and social laws).
• Social laws as a metaphorical extension of
  cognitive adaptations for social exchange

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• Do NOT claim that novel expressions of the
  adaptation are part of its evolved function

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What do evolutionary psychologists have to gain
from the program?

1. An alternative account of expertise
2. A defendable boundaries to adaptationist
   proposals
3. A rich source of data

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Psychological Experiments

• Many psychological experiments used to test
  adaptationist hypotheses rely upon the
  application of mental adaptations to
  evolutionarily novel situations.

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Romance and Pornography

• Given conflicts of interest between the two
  sexes, it could be difficult to see the
  organization of female and male mating psychology
  in their unconstrained form.
• The idealized worlds of romance literature and
  pornography potentially represent a valuable
  source of data about the ways that females and
  males think about mating and sexual relations.

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• Fin

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Social Contracts vs. Precautions

• Reasoning about social contracts and precautions
  is neurologically dissociable.
• e.g., Stone, Cosmides, Tooby, Kroll, Knight
  (2002)

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Precautions activate pain centers insula and
cingulate cortex
Fiddick, Spampinato, Grafman (in prep)
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Social contracts activate VLPFC and DMPFC regions
Fiddick, Spampinato, Grafman (in prep)
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But suppose one were to speculate that

• Catholicism is based on a precautionary logic.
• The community is the body of Christ. Sin
  constitutes a threat to ones soul and the body
  of Christ. Need to take precautionary measures to
  protect ones soul and heal any wounds it may
  suffer.
• Protestantism is based on a contractual logic.
• The community and ones relation to God are
  based on contractual relations placing one in a
  socially precarious position (you can be
  replaced). Need to establish deep engagement
  with God and members of the community so that one
  is irreplaceable.

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What about saints?

• Catholics venerate saints, Protestants dont
• Specific saints for specific problems
• Dysentery? Polycarp
• Infertility? Agatha
• Kidney disease? Ursus of Ravenna

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• Perhaps the psychology of hazards is
  particularistic, whereas the psychology of
  contracts is not
• Any item of trade can be exchange for any other.