Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Concept Videos

Environmental Influences on Intelligence01:29

Environmental Influences on Intelligence

216
Despite the strong genetic influence on traits like intelligence, environmental factors significantly shape outcomes. For example, while over 90% of height variation is due to genetic differences, environmental factors such as nutrition also have a notable impact. Similarly, for intelligence, changes in a child's surroundings can significantly alter their IQ. Research shows that enriched environments boost children's academic success and help them develop key cognitive skills. Children...
216
Evolutionary Psychology01:20

Evolutionary Psychology

251
Evolutionary psychology explores the origins of human behavior and mental processes by framing them within the context of natural selection, a theory famously propounded by Charles Darwin. This field asserts that many behaviors common across human societies — ranging from instinctive fear reactions to complex social interactions — arose as evolutionary adaptations. These adaptations enhanced the survival and reproductive success of our ancestors, thereby becoming embedded in the...
251
Language and Cognition01:27

Language and Cognition

329
Language serves as a bridge between ideas and communication, influencing how individuals perceive and interact with the world. Psychologists have long debated whether language shapes thought or vice versa. This discussion gained grip with Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf in the 1940s, who proposed that language determines thought, a concept known as linguistic determinism. They suggested that the vocabulary and structure of a language influence how its speakers think and perceive reality.
329
Cognitivism01:17

Cognitivism

1.4K
Cognitive psychology emerged as a significant field in the mid-20th century. It focused on understanding humans' internal mental processes. This approach emphasizes how people perceive, remember, think, and solve problems—elements critical to human cognition.
Previously dominated by behaviorism, which prioritized observable behaviors and largely ignored mental processes, psychology transformed in the 1950s. Cognitive psychologists argue that understanding how we think and process...
1.4K
Biological Influences on Intelligence01:30

Biological Influences on Intelligence

74
Intelligence is often thought to be linked to brain size, but the relationship is more complex than that. While brain size does correlate modestly with some abilities, like verbal skills, the connection is weaker for others, such as spatial reasoning. Other factors, like brain structure, also play crucial roles. For instance, despite Einstein's smaller-than-average brain, his parietal cortex, which is involved in spatial reasoning, was 15% wider, suggesting that neural density might matter...
74
Cognitive Learning01:21

Cognitive Learning

222
Cognitive learning is based on purposive behavior, incidental learning, and insight learning.
E. C. Tolman's theory of purposive behavior emphasizes that much behavior is goal-directed. He argued that to understand behavior, we must look at the entire sequence of actions leading to a goal. For instance, high school students study hard, not just due to past reinforcement but also to achieve the goal of getting into a good college.
Tolman introduced the idea that behavior is influenced by...
222

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

A reporting checklist for large language models in behavioural science.

Nature human behaviour·2026
Same author

Resolving Feynman's restaurant problem reveals optimal solutions and human strategies.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026
Same author

Levels of analysis for large language models.

Philosophical transactions. Series A, Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences·2026
Same author

Human prestige psychology can promote adaptive inequality in social influence.

Nature communications·2026
Same author

Complex brains allow functioning in a complex environment by using information.

The Behavioral and brain sciences·2025
Same author

Predicting human decisions with behavioural theories and machine learning.

Nature human behaviour·2025

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 9, 2025

Wheel Running and Environmental Complexity as a Therapeutic Intervention in an Animal Model of FASD
06:09

Wheel Running and Environmental Complexity as a Therapeutic Intervention in an Animal Model of FASD

Published on: February 2, 2017

6.7K

Environmental complexity and regularity shape the evolution of cognition.

Cameron Rouse Turner1, Thomas J H Morgan2,3, Thomas L Griffiths1

  • 1Computational Cognitive Sciences Lab, Department of Computer Science, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA.

Proceedings. Biological Sciences
|October 22, 2024
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Cognitive evolution can arise from environmental complexity and regularity. Our model shows that processing information compensates for unreliable senses, explaining biases in sophisticated animals and reconciling two major theories of cognition.

Keywords:
cognitive evolutioninformation usesensory ecologysensory system evolutionsignal detection theory

More Related Videos

A Method for Investigating Age-related Differences in the Functional Connectivity of Cognitive Control Networks Associated with Dimensional Change Card Sort Performance
09:01

A Method for Investigating Age-related Differences in the Functional Connectivity of Cognitive Control Networks Associated with Dimensional Change Card Sort Performance

Published on: May 7, 2014

10.1K
Creating Objects and Object Categories for Studying Perception and Perceptual Learning
14:38

Creating Objects and Object Categories for Studying Perception and Perceptual Learning

Published on: November 2, 2012

11.8K

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jun 9, 2025

Wheel Running and Environmental Complexity as a Therapeutic Intervention in an Animal Model of FASD
06:09

Wheel Running and Environmental Complexity as a Therapeutic Intervention in an Animal Model of FASD

Published on: February 2, 2017

6.7K
A Method for Investigating Age-related Differences in the Functional Connectivity of Cognitive Control Networks Associated with Dimensional Change Card Sort Performance
09:01

A Method for Investigating Age-related Differences in the Functional Connectivity of Cognitive Control Networks Associated with Dimensional Change Card Sort Performance

Published on: May 7, 2014

10.1K
Creating Objects and Object Categories for Studying Perception and Perceptual Learning
14:38

Creating Objects and Object Categories for Studying Perception and Perceptual Learning

Published on: November 2, 2012

11.8K

Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary biology
  • Cognitive science
  • Animal behavior

Background:

  • Two main theories on cognitive evolution, environmental complexity and signal detection theory, appear contradictory.
  • Environmental complexity emphasizes cognition for navigating changing environments.
  • Signal detection theory highlights cognition exploiting environmental regularities through biases.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To reconcile theories of cognitive evolution by examining the joint evolution of sensory and decision-making systems.
  • To extend signal detection models to include the evolution of information detection and processing.
  • To investigate how environmental complexity and regularity influence cognitive evolution.

Main Methods:

  • Developed an extended signal detection model.
  • Analyzed the joint evolution of sensory systems (information detection) and decision-making systems (information processing).
  • Investigated the role of error trade-offs and behavioral biases in cognitive evolution.

Main Results:

  • Cognition emerges when information processing compensates for unreliable sensory systems through error trade-offs.
  • Sophisticated sensory systems can be overridden by behavioral biases, explaining why reliable information is sometimes disregarded.
  • Both environmental complexity and regularity can drive the evolution of cognition.

Conclusions:

  • Reconciled the environmental complexity and signal detection theories of cognitive evolution.
  • Demonstrated that cognition involves a balance between sensory reliability and processing biases.
  • Highlighted the nuanced interplay of environmental factors in shaping cognitive evolution.