Game theory has revolutionized the study of animal behavior. The fundamental principle of evolutionary game theory--that the strategy adopted by one individual depends on the strategies exhibited by others--has proven a powerful tool in uncovering the forces shaping otherwise mysterious behaviors. In this volume, the first since 1982 devoted to evolutionary game theory, leading researchers describe applications of the theory to diverse types of behavior, providing an overview of recent discoveries and a synthesis of current research. The volume begins with a clear introduction to game theory and its explanatory scope. This is followed by a series of chapters on the use of game theory to understand a range of behaviors: social foraging, cooperation, animal contests, communication, reproductive skew and nepotism within groups, sibling rivalry, alternative life-histories, habitat selection, trophic-level interactions, learning, and human social behavior. In addition, the volume includes a discussion of the relations among game theory, optimality, and quantitative genetics, and an assessment of the overall utility of game theory to the study of social behavior. Presented in a manner accessible to anyone interested in animal behavior but not necessarily trained in the mathematics of game theory, the book is intended for a wide audience of undergraduates, graduate students, and professional biologists pursuing the evolutionary analysis of animal behavior.
Game Theory and Animal Behavior
and over 1.5 million other books are available for Amazon Kindle . Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. Learn more. |
Book Description
Product details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, and more.
Product Description
Review
"Describes many interesting examples of animal behaviour, including games between foraging producers and scroungers, reciprocal grooming in impala, territorial defence by birds and spiders, animal communication, parent-offspring conflict, and colony founding by ants. There are many accounts of experimental tests of game theory models, along with clear discussions of the limitations of the game theory approach. The quality of writing (often a problem in edited volumes) is uniformly good. The chapter by R. Gomulkiewicz is especially important, because it connects game theory, other optimization methods, and quantitative genetics with a focus on an empirical strategy for detecting adaptation and constraint." --Nature
"The book is a worthwhile addition to graduate collections and some undergraduate collections emphasizing behavioral ecology, as most chapters are sufficiently general to be of use for a longer time than the typical symposium volume."--Choice
Listed in Wildlife Activist
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
When Charles Darwin developed his theory of natural selection, he created a picture of the evolutionary process in which organismic adaptation was ultimately caused by competition for survival and reproduction. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
When Charles Darwin developed his theory of natural selection, he created a picture of the evolutionary process in which organismic adaptation was ultimately caused by competition for survival and reproduction. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The Game Theory & Animal Behavior is about agents and how agents enabled complex life, social behavior and ecological interactions, to arise. But complex life will require fine adjustment adaptation . Natural selection will favor "selfish" genes, ones that can beat the odds and get passed on. But if this happened all the time, complex life could not exist. So how does it? Enter what this book describes animal behavior as a system in which game theory and socionomics are the tools to understand how, in a behavioral and ecological context, genes are passed on in a random fashion, and prevents selfish genes from sabotaging that randomness.
Although this is a technical book, its ideas aren't complicated. The style is methodical, broken by the necessary mathematical aside. Evolutionary biologists and other assorted PhDs will no doubt be interested. Popular-science and undergraduates readers may find it slow going, but they will be rewarded by a thorough understanding of the topic.
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Health, Family & Lifestyle > Psychology & Psychiatry > Schools of Thought > Evolutionary Psychology
- Books > Science & Nature > Biological Sciences > Animal Sciences > Behaviour
- Books > Science & Nature > Biological Sciences > Evolution > Animal
- Books > Science & Nature > Mathematics > Applied Mathematics
- Books > Science & Nature > Mathematics > Optimisation > Game Theory
- Books > Science & Nature > Popular Science > Maths
- Books > Scientific, Technical & Medical
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
