The optimal timing of teaching and learning across the life course.

ABSTRACT: The evolutionary biologist W. D. Hamilton (Hamilton 1966 J. Theor. Biol.12, 12-45. (doi:10.1016/0022-5193(66)90184-6)) famously showed that the force of natural selection declines with age, and reaches zero by the age of reproductive cessation. However, in social species, the transfer of fitness-enhancing resources by postreproductive adults increases the value of survival to late ages. While most research has focused on intergenerational food transfers in social animals, here we consider the potential fitness benefits of information transfer, and investigate the ecological contexts where pedagogy is likely to occur. Although the evolution of teaching is an important topic in behavioural biology and in studies of human cultural evolution, few formal models of teaching exist.

SUBMITTER: Gurven MD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7293159 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature