J.M. McNamara & A.I. Houston, 2009. Integrating function and mechanism. Trends
in Ecology & Evolution 24(12):670-675. ABSTRACT. Behavioural ecology often makes
the assumption that animals can respond flexibly by adopting the optimal
behaviour for each circumstance. However, as ethologists have long known,
behaviour is determined by mechanisms that are not optimal in every
circumstance. As we discuss here, we believe that it is necessary to integrate
these separate traditions by considering the evolution of mechanisms, an
approach referred to as ‘Evo-mecho’. This integration is timely because
there is a growing awareness of the importance of environmental complexity in
shaping behaviour; there are established and effective computational procedures
for simulating evolution, and there is rapidly increasing knowledge of the
neuronal basis of decision-making. Although behavioural ecologists have built
complex models of optimal behaviour in simple
environments, we argue that they need to focus on simple mechanisms that
perform well in complex environments.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
cf. J.M. McNamara & A.I. Houston, 2005. If animals know their own fighting
ability, the evolutionarily stable level of fighting is reduced. Jour.
Theoretical Biology 232(1):1-6
 
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