Evolution of Psychological Mechanisms
I use novel theoretical approaches to integrate functional and mechanistic approaches to understanding the behaviour of animals. We are interested in understanding why mechanisms or rules of thumb have evolved, exposing the causes of irrational behaviour, and predicting how laboratory and other artificial environments determine unnatural responses. For example, i have published several papers on the evolutionary reasons that humans (and domestic animals) are susceptible to becoming obese.
Animals have been long used as models for understanding negative affective states of humans, such as depression and anxiety disorder. In this project we seek to understand these states in the context of a model foraging animal that must respond appropriate to a world where food and predation risk are variable and unknown. We hope to shed light on why depression and anxiety disorder are so prevalent by understanding why evolution has selected for the tendency for both to develop in animals and people.