Identifying Behavioral Novelty

Although there is no in-principle impediment to an EvoDevo of behavior, such an endeavor is not as straightforward as one might think; many of the key terms and concepts used in EvoDevo are tailored to suit its traditional focus on morphology, and are consequently difficult to apply to behavior. In...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inBiological theory Vol. 9; no. 2; pp. 135 - 148
Main Author Brown, Rachael L.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.06.2014
Subjects
Cognitive Psychology
Education
Evolutionary Biology
Long Article
Philosophy
Philosophy of Biology
Homology
Non-homology
Behavior
EvoDevo
Novelty
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Summary:Although there is no in-principle impediment to an EvoDevo of behavior, such an endeavor is not as straightforward as one might think; many of the key terms and concepts used in EvoDevo are tailored to suit its traditional focus on morphology, and are consequently difficult to apply to behavior. In this light, the application of the EvoDevo conceptual toolkit to the behavioral domain requires the establishment of a set of tractable concepts that are readily applicable to behavioral characters. Here, I begin the type of theoretical work that needs to be undertaken in order to achieve this, focusing in particular on the key concept of “novelty.” Building on existing criteria used for the identification of behavioral homology from behavioral ecology, I develop a set of operational criteria for identifying novelty in the behavioral domain. These criteria provide a conceptual foundation for the study of novelty in behavioral traits.
ISSN:1555-5542
1555-5550
DOI:10.1007/s13752-013-0150-y