FREE ESSAY ON EVOLUTION

EVOLUTION

Adam Carpenter
Psych 211
Reaction Paper #4
December 11, 2000
Evolution is a very controversial topic in the world today. Many people believe in it,
while at the same time, many don't. Like it or not there are many factors that point to
the existence of evolution, but what role does evolution play in the theory of learning.

It is obvious that learning has an important bearing on evolution. Ideas or actions that
are advantageous to the life of an organism are going to be continued, while ones that
are not advantageous to the life of an organism are not continues, as it may become
harmful to the livelihood of the species. This may be an obvious point, but when you take
the time to actually analyze this it is very interesting. It is Darwin's point plainly
stated that organisms that aren't smart enough to adapt to new situations are slowly
phased out of their environment, while the smarter species make efforts to adapt to the
environment. This is evidence that learning occurs in each and every species of organism
on this planet. From the smallest amoeba to the largest whale, cognition is evident. It
is interesting that, for example, an organism will know that it needs to switch it's
eating habits to stay healthy in an ever-changing environment. They may realize that one
source of food is depleting so they need to switch to another.
The idea of evolution is interesting in the since that only the smart will survive. They
may must learn to adapt to new surroundings. Some people may have a hard time
understanding this point, but it is true it. Extinction is proof that evolution and
cognition in the smallest of species occurs.