School of Natural Sciences and Psychology, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK.
Wiley Interdiscip Rev Cogn Sci. 2014 May;5(3):345-60. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1289. Epub 2014 Apr 1.
Cognitive ecology integrates cognition, ecology, and neurobiology in one topic and has recently broadened into an exciting diversity of themes covering the entire range of cognition and ecological conditions. The review identifies three major environmental factors interacting with cognition: environmental variation (predictable and unpredictable), environmental complexity and predation. Generally, variable environments favor cognitive abilities such as exploration, learning, innovation, memory and also result in larger brains as compared to stable environments. Likewise, cognition is enhanced in complex versus simple environments, whereas the relationship between predation and cognitive abilities can be positive or negative. However, organisms have often evolved entire life-styles (e.g., residency versus migration, food-caching versus noncaching, generalism versus specialism) to deal with these environmental factors. Considering cognition within this framework provides a much more diverse picture of how cognitive abilities evolved in conjunction with other adaptations to environmental challenges. This integrated approach identifies gaps of knowledge and allows the formulation of hypotheses for future testing. Several recently emerged approaches study cognitive abilities at a new and in part highly integrated level. For example, the effect that environment has on the development of cognitive abilities during ontogeny will improve our understanding about cause and effect and gene-environment interactions. Together with two recently emerged highly integrative approaches that link personality and pace-of-life syndromes with cognitive ecology these new directions will improve insight how cognition is interlinked with other major organizational processes. For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website.
The author has declared no conflicts of interest for this article.
认知生态学将认知、生态学和神经生物学整合在一个主题中，最近已经扩展到涵盖认知和生态条件各个方面的令人兴奋的多样性主题。该综述确定了与认知相互作用的三个主要环境因素：环境变化（可预测和不可预测）、环境复杂性和捕食。一般来说，变化的环境有利于探索、学习、创新、记忆等认知能力，与稳定的环境相比，也会导致大脑更大。同样，复杂环境比简单环境更能增强认知能力，而捕食与认知能力之间的关系可能是积极的也可能是消极的。然而，生物体通常进化出一整套生活方式（例如，居留与迁徙、觅食与非觅食、广域适应与特化适应）来应对这些环境因素。在这种框架内考虑认知，可以更全面地了解认知能力是如何与其他适应环境挑战的能力一起进化的。这种综合方法可以发现知识的空白，并为未来的测试提出假设。最近出现的几种方法从一个新的、部分高度综合的角度研究认知能力。例如，环境对个体发育过程中认知能力发展的影响将提高我们对因果关系和基因-环境相互作用的理解。与最近出现的将人格和生活史速度综合征与认知生态学联系起来的两种高度综合的方法一起，这些新的方向将改善我们对认知如何与其他主要组织过程相互关联的理解。欲获取本文相关资源，请访问 WIREs 网站。
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