Simulating Language 2015, pre-reading 3 questions

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* 1. Which of the following is a good definition of natural selection?

The process by which variants with higher fitness increase in frequency in a population

Heritable variation in fitness

Survival of the fittest

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* 2. Which of the following is not required for natural selection to take place?

Offspring must resemble their parents

Organisms must differ in their ability to survive

There must be variation

Organisms must differ in the number of offspring they produce

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* 3. Genetic algorithms often involve some mutation operator, which takes a genotype and randomly changes some alleles. For example, if an individual's genotype is like this:

11110000

And a mutation occurs at the first and last position (or locus), then the resulting genotype would be this:

01110001

Which of the following statements is true about mutation, as implemented in genetic algorithms?

Mutations typically increase fitness

Mutations typically decrease fitness

Mutations typically introduce variation into a population

Mutation requires sexual recombination

Mutations tend to occur with low probability (i.e. they tend to be rare)

Mutations tend to occur with high probability (i.e. they tend to be common)

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* 4. Genetic algorithms typically specify a fitness function. What is a fitness function?

The fitness function specifies the space of possible genotypes.

This fitness function assigns a score to each simulated organism, and organisms with higher scores are more likely to be selected to reproduce.

The fitness function is a tool for analysing simulation results, and counts how many offspring each genotype has.

The fitness function describes how genotypes are recombined during reproduction to form new genotypes.

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* 5. We are going to use genetic algorithms to simulate the evolution of signalling systems, which are very simple models of communication. Many naturally-occuring signalling systems (e.g. alarm calling systems) are probably the product of natural selection. Do you think that human language is a product of natural selection? Try to explain why you have this opinion, either by reference to the preconditions for natural selection that are laid out in the reading, or on the basis of other stuff you know about language or natural selection.

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* 6. Is there anything you would like me to know before the lecture - any stuff you want me to go over again, anything you struggled with, any worries you have?