Topic guide · Evolution and other minds / Cells, circuits and brains / Methods, evidence and reproducibility
What can—and cannot—we learn by comparing brains across species?
Move from brain size and proportional scaling to cellular development and task-specific behaviour, without turning the comparison into a ranking of intelligence.
Topic guide · Personality and individual differences / Development across life / Methods, evidence and reproducibility / Evolution and other minds
How do genes and environment influence behaviour?
Interpret family and twin comparisons, population heritability and developmental experiments without turning them into percentages of a person or claims of inevitable outcomes. This route explains foundational inference, not personal genetic risk or modern genome-wide prediction.
Topic guide · Social and cultural behaviour / Evolution and other minds / Methods, evidence and reproducibility
How do group identities shape collective behaviour?
Compare identity, norms, incentives and authority as possible explanations, then examine the move from research findings to policy proposals.
Topic guide · Evolution and other minds / Consciousness and philosophy / Methods, evidence and reproducibility
How can we investigate consciousness in other animals?
Compare evidence about experience with evidence about particular behavioural abilities, while making alternative explanations explicit.
Topic guide · Evolution and other minds / Social and cultural behaviour / Emotion, motivation and sleep
How does social attachment work across species?
Distinguish kinds of relationship and connect behavioural, physiological, developmental and ecological questions.
Topic guide · Evolution and other minds / Social and cultural behaviour / Methods, evidence and reproducibility
How can evolutionary explanations of human behaviour be tested?
Separate mechanism, development, ancestry and possible function, then ask which comparative observations could distinguish rival accounts.
Lectures and explanations
Selections below prioritise source-checked annotations. Inclusion does not assess scientific correctness.
Open Yale Courses · Source-checked annotation
Lecture 12 - Evolutionary Stability: Social Convention, Aggression, and Cycles
Applies evolutionary stability to conventions and Hawk–Dove games, then considers a setting without an evolutionarily stable population.
CARTA · Source-checked annotation
CARTA: The Biology of Grandmaternal Love
James Rilling explores evolutionary and biological hypotheses about grandmaternal caregiving.
CARTA · Source-checked annotation
Love, monogamy, and fatherhood in Latin American monkeys
Eduardo Fernandez-Duque uses long-term field studies of titi and owl monkeys to examine monogamy, pair bonds and paternal care.
Open Yale Courses · Source-checked annotation
Lecture 11 - Evolution, Emotion, and Reason: Emotions, Part I
Presents an evolutionary approach to emotion through examples of smiling, fear, family relationships and infants' responses to caregivers.
World Science U · Source-checked annotation
Constraints and Diversity
Suzana Herculano-Houzel discusses physical constraints and metabolic models as possible explanations of biological diversity.
Royal Institution · Source-checked annotation
How did consciousness evolve? - with Nicholas Humphrey
Nicholas Humphrey presents an evolutionary account of consciousness. The Royal Institution explicitly flags his restriction of phenomenal consciousness to warm-blooded animals as controversial and contrary to broad scientific opinion.
Open Yale Courses · Source-checked annotation
Lecture 10 - Evolution, Emotion, and Reason: Evolution and Rationality
Introduces an evolutionary perspective on psychology and discusses how evolutionary arguments are used to constrain explanations of behaviour and choice.
CARTA · Source-checked annotation
Delayed neuronal maturation in humans
Carol Marchetto examines hypotheses about prolonged neuronal maturation in humans compared with other primates.
Open Yale Courses · Source-checked annotation
Lecture 11 - Evolutionary Stability: Cooperation, Mutation, and Equilibrium
Introduces evolutionary stability and relates it to domination and Nash equilibrium. Yale flags a notation error in the informal argument and supplies a correction in the accompanying notes.
iBiology · Source-checked annotation
Neural Underpinnings of Individual Recognition in the Brain
Isabella Catalano studies how zebra finches recognise individuals using auditory and visual information.
World Science U · Source-checked annotation
Suzana Herculano-Houzel -- Scaling and Sizes
Suzana Herculano-Houzel introduces scaling as a way to compare differently shaped and sized brains.
CARTA · Source-checked annotation
Social complexity: Why modern humans are more like certain ants than chimpanzees
Mark Moffett uses comparisons between ant societies and human groups to examine identity, coordination and social organisation.
World Science U · Source-checked annotation
Power Laws, Scale Invariance, and Diversity
Suzana Herculano-Houzel distinguishes scaling that preserves proportions from scaling that changes them.
Open Yale Courses · Source-checked annotation
Lecture 2 - Food Then, Food Now: Modern Food Conditions and Their Mismatch with Evolution
Presents an evolutionary-mismatch explanation of why preferences shaped in earlier food environments may operate differently in modern ones.
Open Yale Courses · Source-checked annotation
Lecture 14 - What Motivates Us: Sex
Presents a 2007 course discussion of evolutionary explanations and psychological studies concerning attraction, sex, gender differences and sexual orientation.
CARTA · Source-checked annotation
CARTA: Love, Loss, and Luminance
Karen Bales compares pair bonds and responses to loss across several species.