Yao X (1999) Evolving artificial neural networks. Proceedings of the IEEE 87: 1423±1447. Further Reading Davis L (ed.) (1991) Handbook of Genetic Algorithms. New York, NY: Van Nostrand. DawkinsR(1976,2ndedn.1989) TheSelfishGene.Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Fogel D (1995) Evolutionary Computation: Towards a New Philosophy of Machine Intelligence. Piscataway, NJ: IEEE Press. Fogel D (1998) EvolutionaryComputation:theFossilRecord. Piscataway, NJ: IEEE Press. Langdon WB (1998) Genetic Programming and Data Structures. Hingham, MA: Kluwer. MichalewiczZ(1992) GeneticAlgorithms  DataStructures  Evolution Programs. New York, NY: Springer-Verlag. Introductory article Evolutionary Psychology: Applications and Criticisms Aaron Sell, University of California, Santa Barbara, California, USA Edward H Hagen, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany Leda Cosmides, University of California, Santa Barbara, California, USA John Tooby, University of California, Santa Barbara, California, USA Theories from evolutionary biology have many im- plications for research in the cognitive sciences. Evolutionary psychologists have been using these theories to guide their research, the goal of which is to map the evolved, species-typical cognitive and neural architecture of humans (and other species). INTRODUCTION Evolutionary psychology (EP) is a paradigm that can be applied to any issue in psychology, rather than a subfield built around the study of a single topic such as vision, social psychology, or child development. As a result, evolutionary theories have opened up many previously unexplored re- search areas to investigation. Moreover, topics that have already been explored from other perspec- tives can be advanced empirically and theoretically by adding an evolutionary perspective to the mix. This is because few (if any) of the mechanisms that make up the human mind/brain have been com- pletely mapped. Evolutionary analyses of the adaptive functions that a mechanism evolved to perform usually provide specific hypotheses about its as yet unmapped and undetected design features, prompting further discoveries. Even if the mechanism under study were fully mapped, a cor- rect theory of its adaptive function would still be needed to explain how it came to exist, and why it has the computational design that it does; and to identify which of its components are design fea- tures (i.e., functional components), which are inci- dental byproducts of the mechanism's functional design, and which are evolutionary accidents. In this way, EP is playing the central role in trans- forming psychology from a largely atheoretical col- lection of findings to a discipline with principled explanations for why the components of the mind/ brain have the designs that they do. APPLICATIONS OF EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY Heuristic Role of Evolutionarily Derived Predictions A feature that distinguishes evolutionary psych- ology from other approaches is that researchers have principled theoretical reasons for their hy- pothesesderivedfromevolutionarybiology,paleo- anthropology, game theory, and hunter±gatherer CONTENTS Introduction Applications of evolutionary psychology Criticisms of evolutionary psychology Evolutionary Psychology: Applications and Criticisms 47