How do people select plants for use? Matching the Ecological Apparency Hypothesis with Optimal Foraging Theory

Foraging Cognition: Reviving the Ecological Intelligence Hypothesis.

What are the origins of intelligent behavior? The demands associated with living in complex social groups have been the favored explanation for the evolution of primate cognition in general and human cognition in particular. However, recent comparative research indicates that ecological variation can also shape cognitive abilities. I synthesize the emerging evidence that 'foraging cognition' - ...

Optimal Foraging Theory Revisited

Optimal foraging theory explains adaptation via natural selection through quan-titative models. Behaviors that are most likely to be favored by natural selection canbe predicted by maximizing functions representing Darwinian fitness. Optimizationhas natural applications in engineering, and so this approach can also be used to de-sign behaviors of engineered agents. In this thesi...

Unorthodox Optimal Foraging Theory

As the Simulation of Adaptive Behaviour (SAB) eld continues to mature, it is essential that general methodological positions become elaborated into practical programmes of research. This paper describes how a particular avour of SAB modelling the use of genetic algorithms to design situated agent (animat) architectures-can eeec-tively complementòptimal foraging theory', as it is understood in t...

Optimal Foraging Theory - OFT

A New Application for the Optimal Foraging Theory: The Extraction of Medicinal Plants

The Optimal Foraging Theory was used to identify possible patterns in bark extraction and the selective cutting of Anadenanthera colubrina (Angico), a medicinal plant. The hypotheses were built on two approaches: selection of collection place and bark exploitation occurrence in only one of these resource areas. The results suggest that the distance that must be traveled to reach each gathering ...