Baldwin effect

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File:Lamarck Compared to Darwin, Baldwin, Waddington.svg, Darwinian evolution, and Waddington's genetic assimilation. All the theories offer explanations of how organisms respond to a changed environment with adaptive inherited change.]]

In evolutionary biology, the Baldwin effect describes an effect of learned behaviour on evolution. James Mark Baldwin and others suggested that an organism's ability to learn new behaviours (e.g. to acclimatise to a new stressor) will affect its reproductive success and will therefore have an effect on the genetic makeup of its species through natural selection. It posits that subsequent selection might reinforce the originally learned behaviors, if adaptive, into more in-born, instinctive ones. Though this process appears similar to Lamarckism, that view proposes that living things inherited their parents' acquired characteristics. The Baldwin effect only posits that learning ability, which is genetically based, is another variable in / contributor to environmental adaptation. First proposed during the Eclipse of Darwinism in the late 19th century, this effect has been independently proposed several times, and today it is generally recognized as part of the modern synthesis.

"A New Factor in Evolution"

The effect, then unnamed, was put forward in 1896 in a paper "A New Factor in Evolution" by the American psychologist James Mark Baldwin, with a second paper in 1897.{{sfn|Baldwin|1896a}}{{sfn|Baldwin|1897}} The paper proposed a mechanism for specific selection for general learning ability. As the historian of science Robert Richards explains:{{cite book | last=Richards |first=Robert J. |author-link=Robert J. Richards | year=1987 | title=Darwin and the Emergence of Evolutionary Theories of Mind and Behavior| url=https://archive.org/details/darwinemergencee00rich | url-access=limited | publisher=The University of Chicago Press | isbn=978-0-226-71199-7 | page=[https://archive.org/details/darwinemergencee00rich/page/n410 399]}}

{{blockquote|If animals entered a new environment—or their old environment rapidly changed—those that could flexibly respond by learning new behaviours or by ontogenetically adapting would be naturally preserved. This saved remnant would, over several generations, have the opportunity to exhibit spontaneously congenital variations similar to their acquired traits and have these variations naturally selected. It would look as though the acquired traits had sunk into the hereditary substance in a Lamarckian fashion, but the process would really be neo-Darwinian.}}

Selected offspring would tend to have an increased capacity for learning new skills rather than being confined to genetically coded, relatively fixed abilities. In effect, it places emphasis on the fact that the sustained behaviour of a species or group can shape the evolution of that species. The "Baldwin effect" is better understood in evolutionary developmental biology literature as a scenario in which a character or trait change occurring in an organism as a result of its interaction with its environment becomes gradually assimilated into its developmental genetic or epigenetic repertoire.{{sfn|Simpson|1953}}{{sfn|Newman|2002}} In the words of the philosopher of science Daniel Dennett:

{{blockquote|Thanks to the Baldwin effect, species can be said to pretest the efficacy of particular different designs by phenotypic (individual) exploration of the space of nearby possibilities. If a particularly winning setting is thereby discovered, this discovery will create a new selection pressure: organisms that are closer in the adaptive landscape to that discovery will have a clear advantage over those more distant.}}

An update to the Baldwin effect was developed by Jean Piaget, Paul Weiss, and Conrad Waddington in the 1960s–1970s. This new version included an explicit role for the social in shaping subsequent natural change in humans (both evolutionary and developmental), with reference to alterations of selection pressures.{{cite journal | last=Burman |first=J. T. | year=2013 | title=Updating the Baldwin Effect: The biological levels behind Piaget's new theory | journal=New Ideas in Psychology | volume=31 | issue=3 | pages=363–373 | doi=10.1016/j.newideapsych.2012.07.003}}

Subsequent research shows that Baldwin was not the first to identify the process; Douglas Spalding mentioned it in 1873.Noble, R.; Noble, D. (2017) Was the Watchmaker Blind? Or Was She One-Eyed? Biology 2017, 6(4), 47; doi:10.3390/biology6040047, quoting Bateson, P. The adaptability driver: Links between behaviour and evolution. Biol. Theory 2006, 1, 342–345. See also Stigler's law.

Controversy and acceptance

Initially Baldwin's ideas were not incompatible with the prevailing, but uncertain, ideas about the mechanism of transmission of hereditary information and at least two other biologists put forward very similar ideas in 1896.{{Cite journal |last=Morgan |first=C. L. |author-link=C. Lloyd Morgan |year=1896 |title=On modification and variation |journal=Science |volume=4 |issue=99 |pages=733–740 |doi=10.1126/science.4.99.733|pmid=17735249 |bibcode=1896Sci.....4..733L |url=https://zenodo.org/record/1448227 }}{{Cite journal |last=Osborne |first=H. F. |author-link=Henry Fairfield Osborne |year=1896 |title=Ontogenic and phylogenic variation |journal=Science |volume=4|issue=100 |pages=786–789 |doi=10.1126/science.4.100.786|pmid=17734840 |bibcode=1896Sci.....4..786O |url=https://zenodo.org/record/1448151 }} In 1901, Maurice Maeterlinck referred to behavioural adaptations to prevailing climates in different species of bees as "what had merely been an idea, therefore, and opposed to instinct, has thus by slow degrees become an instinctive habit".{{Cite book |title=The Life of the Bee |last=Materlinck |first=Maurice |author-link=Maurice Maeterlinck |publisher=Dodd, Mead and Co. |year=1901 |pages=Chapter VII section 102}} The Baldwin effect theory subsequently became more controversial, with scholars divided between "Baldwin boosters" and "Baldwin skeptics".Depew, David J. (2003), "Baldwin Boosters, Baldwin Skeptics" in: {{cite book |last1=Weber |first1=Bruce H. |first2=David J. |last2=Depew |title=Evolution and Learning: The Baldwin Effect Reconsidered |year=2003 |publisher=MIT Press |isbn=978-0-262-23229-6 |pages=3–31 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yBtRzBilw1MC&pg=PR9}} The theory was first called the "Baldwin effect" by George Gaylord Simpson in 1953. Simpson "admitted that the idea was theoretically consistent, that is, not inconsistent with the modern synthesis", but he doubted that the phenomenon occurred very often, or if so, could be proven to occur. In his discussion of the reception of the Baldwin-effect theory Simpson points out that the theory appears to provide a reconciliation between a neo-Darwinian and a neo-Lamarckian approach and that "Mendelism and later genetic theory so conclusively ruled out the extreme neo-Lamarckian position that reconciliation came to seem unnecessary".{{sfn|Simpson|1953}} In 1942, the evolutionary biologist Julian Huxley promoted the Baldwin effect as part of the modern synthesis, saying the concept had been unduly neglected by evolutionists.{{sfn|Simpson|1953}}{{cite journal |last=Scheiner |first=Samuel M. |title=The Baldwin Effect: Neglected and Misunderstood |journal=The American Naturalist |publisher=University of Chicago Press |volume=184 |issue=4 | year=2014 |issn=0003-0147 |doi=10.1086/677944 |pages=ii–iii|pmid=25354416 |bibcode=2014ANat..184D...2S |s2cid=9214778 }}{{cite book |last=Belew |first=Richard K. |title=Adaptive Individuals In Evolving Populations: Models And Algorithms |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tcTADwAAQBAJ&pg=PA100 |year=2018 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-0-429-97145-7 |page=100}}

In the 1960s, the evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr contended that the Baldwin effect theory was untenable because

the argument is stated in terms of the individual genotype, whereas what is really exposed to the selection pressure is a phenotypically and genetically variable population;
it is not sufficiently emphasized that the degree of modification of the phenotype is in itself genetically controlled;
it is assumed that phenotypic rigidity is selectively superior to phenotypic flexibility.{{cite book |last=Mayr |first=Ernst |author-link=Ernst Mayr |year=1963 |title=Animal Species and Evolution| url=https://archive.org/details/animalspeciesevo00mayr | url-access=registration |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-03750-2}}

In 1987 Geoffrey Hinton and Steven Nowlan demonstrated by computer simulation that learning can accelerate evolution, and they associated this with the Baldwin effect.{{cite journal |title=How learning can guide evolution |last1=Hinton |first1=Geoffrey E. |author-link=Geoffrey Hinton |last2=Nowlan |first2=Steven J. |year=1987 |journal=Complex Systems |volume=1 |pages=495–502}}{{cite journal |title=When learning guides evolution|author-link=John Maynard Smith |last=Maynard Smith |first=John |year=1987 |journal=Nature |volume=329 |issue=6142 |pages=761–762 |doi=10.1038/329761a0|pmid=3670381 |bibcode=1987Natur.329..761S |s2cid=5476916 |doi-access=free }}{{cite book| last=Puentedura |first=Ruben R. |year=2003 |chapter=The Baldwin effect in the age of computation |title=Evolution and Learning: The Baldwin Effect Reconsidered | url=https://archive.org/details/evolutionlearnin00webe | url-access=limited |editor-last=Weber |editor-first=Bruce H. |editor2-last=Depew |editor2-first=David J.|publisher=MIT press |pages=[https://archive.org/details/evolutionlearnin00webe/page/n229 219]–234|isbn=9780262232296 }}

Paul Griffiths{{cite book| last=Griffiths |first=Paul E. |year=2003 |chapter=Beyond the Baldwin effect: James Mark Baldwin's 'social heredity', epigenetic inheritance, and niche construction |title=Evolution and Learning: The Baldwin Effect Reconsidered |url=https://archive.org/details/evolutionlearnin00webe |url-access=limited |publisher=MIT Press |pages=193–215 |isbn=9780262232296 |editor-last=Weber |editor-first=Bruce H. |editor2-last=Depew |editor2-first=David J.}} suggests two reasons for the continuing interest in the Baldwin effect. The first is the role mind is understood to play in the effect. The second is the connection between development and evolution in the effect. Baldwin's account of how neurophysiological and conscious mental factors may contribute to the effect{{cite journal |title=Heredity and instinct |last=Baldwin |first=J. Mark |author-link=James Mark Baldwin |year=1896b |journal=Science |volume=3 |issue=64 |pages=438–441, 558–561|doi=10.1126/science.3.64.438 |pmid=17780356|bibcode=1896Sci.....3..438B |url=https://zenodo.org/record/1448082 }}{{cite journal |title=Consciousness and evolution |last=Baldwin |first=J. Mark |author-link=James Mark Baldwin |year=1896c |journal=Psychological Review |volume=3 |issue=3 |pages=300–309 |doi=10.1037/h0063996 |pmid=17835006 |url=https://zenodo.org/record/1429086 }}{{sfn|Baldwin|1896a}} brings into focus the question of the possible survival value of consciousness.{{cite book| last=Lindahl |first=B. I. B. |year=2001 |chapter=Consciousness, behavioural patterns and the direction of biological evolution: implications for the mind–brain problem |title=Dimensions of Conscious Experience | url=https://archive.org/details/dimensionsconsci00pylk | url-access=limited |publisher=John Benjamins |pages=73–99 |editor-last=Pylkkänen |editor-first=Paavo |editor2-last=Vadén |editor2-first=Tere |isbn=978-90-272-5157-2}}

File:Carpodacus mexicanus -Madison, Wisconsin, USA-8.jpg's colonisation of North America has provided empirical evidence of the Baldwin effect.]]

Still, David Depew observed in 2003, "it is striking that a rather diverse lot of contemporary evolutionary theorists, most of whom regard themselves as supporters of the Modern Synthesis, have of late become 'Baldwin boosters'". These

{{blockquote|are typically evolutionary psychologists who are searching for scenarios in which a population can get itself by behavioral trial and error onto a "hard to find" part of the fitness landscape in which human brain, language, and mind can rapidly coevolve. They are searching for what Daniel Dennett, himself a Baldwin booster, calls an "evolutionary crane," an instrument to do some heavy lifting fast.}}

According to Dennett, also in 2003, recent work has rendered the Baldwin effect "no longer a controversial wrinkle in orthodox Darwinism".Dennett, Daniel (2003), "The Baldwin Effect: a Crane, not a Skyhook" in: {{cite book |title=Evolution and Learning: The Baldwin Effect Reconsidered |last1=Weber |first1=Bruce H. |first2=David J. |last2=Depew |year=2003 |publisher=MIT Press |isbn=978-0-262-23229-6 |pages=69–106 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yBtRzBilw1MC&pg=PR9}} Potential genetic mechanisms underlying the Baldwin effect have been proposed for the evolution of natural (genetically determinant) antibodies.{{Cite journal |last=Anderson |first=Russell |date=1996 |title=How the adaptive antibodies facilitate the evolution of natural antibodies |journal=Immunology and Cell Biology |volume=74 |issue=2 |pages=286–291 |doi=10.1038/icb.1996.50 |pmid=8799730|s2cid=20023879 }} In 2009, empirical evidence for the Baldwin effect was provided from the colonisation of North America by the house finch.{{cite journal |last=Badyaev |first=Alexander V. |title=Evolutionary significance of phenotypic accommodation in novel environments: an empirical test of the Baldwin effect |journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B |date=March 2009 |volume=364 |issue=1520 |doi=10.1098/rstb.2008.0285 |pmid=19324617 |pages=1125–1141 |pmc=2666683}}

The Baldwin effect has been incorporated into the extended evolutionary synthesis.Pigliucci, Massimo. [https://academic.oup.com/mit-press-scholarship-online/book/13527/chapter-abstract/167051852 Phenotypic Plasticity]. In Massimo Pigliucci, and Gerd B. Müller (eds), Evolution: The Extended Synthesis (Cambridge, MA, 2010; online edn, MIT Press Scholarship Online, 22 Aug. 2013).{{cite journal|author=Loison, Laurent|year=2019|title=Canalization and genetic assimilation: Reassessing the radicality of the Waddingtonian concept of inheritance of acquired characters|journal=Semin Cell Dev Biol|volume=88|issue=|pages=4–13|doi=10.1016/j.semcdb.2018.05.009|pmid=29763656|doi-access=free}}{{cite journal|author=Aaby, Bendik Hellem|year=2022|title=The Ecological Dimension of Natural Selection|journal=Philosophy of Science|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/philosophy-of-science/article/abs/ecological-dimension-of-natural-selection/A0DD0DCBB4B31B8896DBA6AAA2037DEF|volume=88|issue=5|pages=1199–1209|doi=10.1086/714999|url-access=subscription}}

Comparison with genetic assimilation

The Baldwin effect has been confused with, and sometimes conflated with, a different evolutionary theory also based on phenotypic plasticity, C. H. Waddington's genetic assimilation. The Baldwin effect includes genetic accommodation, of which one type is genetic assimilation.{{cite journal |last=Crispo |first=Erika | year=2007 |title=The Baldwin effect and genetic assimilation: revisiting two mechanisms of evolutionary change mediated by phenotypic plasticity |journal=Evolution |volume=61 |issue=11 |pages=2469–2479 |doi=10.1111/j.1558-5646.2007.00203.x |pmid=17714500 |s2cid=9292273 |doi-access=free }} Science historian Laurent Loison has written that "the Baldwin effect and genetic assimilation, even if they are quite close, should not be conflated".{{cite journal|author=Loison, Laurent|year=2021|title=Epigenetic inheritance and evolution: a historian's perspective|journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences|volume=376|issue=1826|pages=|doi=10.1098/rstb.2020.0120|doi-access=free|pmid=33866812 |pmc=8059632}}

Notes

References

{{cite journal |last=Bateson |first=Patrick |year=2004 |title=The Active Role of Behaviour in Evolution |journal= Biology and Philosophy |volume=19 |issue=2|pages=283–298 |doi=10.1023/b:biph.0000024468.12161.83 |s2cid=85267141 |ref=none }}
{{cite journal |last=Baldwin |first=J. Mark |author-link=James Mark Baldwin |year=1896a |title=A New Factor in Evolution |url=http://www.brocku.ca/MeadProject/Baldwin/Baldwin_1896_h.html |journal=The American Naturalist |volume=30 |issue=354|pages=441–451 |doi=10.1086/276408|bibcode=1896ANat...30..441B |s2cid=7059820 |url-access=subscription }}
{{cite journal |last=Baldwin |first=J. Mark |author-link=James Mark Baldwin |year=1897 |title=Organic Selection |journal=Science |volume=5 |issue=121|pages=634–636 |doi=10.1126/science.5.121.634|pmid=17781159 |bibcode=1897Sci.....5..634B |url=https://zenodo.org/record/1448253 }}
{{cite journal |last=Hall |first=Brian K. |year=2001 |title=Organic Selection: Proximate Environmental Effects on the Evolution of Morphology and Behaviour |doi=10.1023/a:1006773408919 |journal= Biology and Philosophy |volume=16 |issue=2 |pages=215–237 |s2cid=80821399 |ref=none }}
{{cite journal |last=Newman |first=Stuart A. |year=2002 |title=Putting Genes in their place |url=http://www.nymc.edu/sanewman/PDFs/Putting%20Genes%20in%20their%20Place.pdf |journal=Journal of Biosciences |volume=27 |issue= 2|pages=97–104 |doi=10.1007/bf02703765 |pmid=11937679 |s2cid=1162454 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081217013308/http://www.nymc.edu/sanewman/PDFs/Putting%20Genes%20in%20their%20Place.pdf |archive-date=2008-12-17 }}
{{cite journal |last=Osborn |first=Henry F. |author-link=Henry Fairfield Osborn |year=1896 |title=Ontogenic and Phylogenic Variation|journal=Science |volume=4 |issue=100|pages=786–789 |doi=10.1126/science.4.100.786|pmid=17734840 |bibcode=1896Sci.....4..786O |url=https://zenodo.org/record/1448151 |ref=none }}
{{cite journal |last=Simpson |first=G. Gaylord |author-link=George Gaylord Simpson |year=1953 |title=The Baldwin effect |journal=Evolution |volume=7 |issue=2|pages=110–117 |doi=10.2307/2405746|jstor=2405746 }}
{{cite journal |last1=Sznajder |first1=B. |last2=Sabelis |first2=M. W. |last3=Egas |first3=M. |title=How Adaptive Learning Affects Evolution: Reviewing Theory on the Baldwin Effect |journal=Evolutionary Biology |date=September 2012|volume=39|issue=3 |pages=301–310 |doi=10.1007/s11692-011-9155-2 |pmid=22923852 |pmc=3423563 |bibcode=2012EvBio..39..301S |ref=none }}

External links

[http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Cognition.Sociobiology.98/0101.html Baldwinian evolution]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20060810005608/http://www2.create.human.nagoya-u.ac.jp/baldwin/ Bibliography]

Category:Extended evolutionary synthesis

Category:Evolutionary biology

Category:Selection