Meeting Abstract

68.4  Monday, Jan. 6 08:45  Proportional psychophysics and the evolution of behavior: The broad influence of Weber’s law AKRE, K.L.*; JOHNSEN, S.; Duke University; Duke University karin.akre@gmail.com

Animal decision-making guides reproduction, foraging, predator avoidance, navigation, aggression, and every area of behavior. Sensory systems that translate physical stimuli into perceived quantities allow animals to make decisions such as choosing the greater amount, matching a given quantity, or recognizing a particular stimulus as meaningful. Frequently, nervous systems use a logarithmic scale to reduce the enormous variation in magnitude of physical stimuli, such that sensory systems notice smaller amounts of change when stimuli are small in magnitude, and larger amounts of change as stimuli increase in magnitude. As a result, animals compare physical quantities using their proportional difference, as described by Weber’s law. This proportion-based perceptual and cognitive processing imposes selection on behavioral evolution. We review instances where adherence to Weber’s law influences the evolution of behavior, and make predictions about other areas where this is likely to occur. We then discuss the consequences of a Weber-wired brain in a broader context, such as in the evolution of musicality and mathematics.