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Seminars

April 15, 2026

12:00pm – 1:00pm Hershey Hall 158

Dr. Arnon Lotem
Tel-Aviv University

" Evolution of Diverse (and Advanced) Cognitive Abilities Through Adaptive Fine-Tuning of Learning and Chunking Mechanisms "

Understanding the evolution of advanced cognition requires explaining how it could have gradually evolved through selection acting on heritable variations in simpler cognitive mechanisms. Making use of a previously proposed theory, I will explain how the evolution of cognitive abilities can be captured by the fine-tuning of basic learning and chunking mechanisms. Specifically, I will demonstrate how the process by which elements are combined into chunks and associated with other chunks, or elements, may be critical for what the brain can do, and that it must be fine-tuned to ecological conditions in order to produce adaptive behaviors.


Host: Professor Noa Pinter-Wollman

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The UCLA Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology acknowledges the Gabrielino/Tongva peoples as the traditional land caretakers of Tovaangar (the Los Angeles basin and So. Channel Islands). As part of a California land grant institution, we pay our respects to the Honuukvetam (Ancestors), ‘Ahiihirom (Elders) and ‘Eyoohiinkem (our relatives/relations) past, present and emerging.