We describe a formal framework for analyzing how statistical properties of natural environments and the process of natural selection interact to determine the design of perceptual and cognitive systems. The framework consists of two parts: a Bayesian ideal observer with a utility function appropriate for natural selection, and a Bayesian formulation of Darwin's theory of natural selection. Simulations of Bayesian natural selection were found to yield new insights, for example, into the co‐evolution of camouflage, color vision, and decision criteria. The (...) Bayesian framework captures and generalizes, in a formal way, many of the important ideas of other approaches to perception and cognition. (shrink)

In their important work on locus equations, Sussman and his colleagues have helped to simplify the theoretical problem of how human listeners identify place of articulation contrasts among consonants, but much work remains before this problem is solved.