Environment of Evolutionary Adaptedness

"The Environment of Evolutionary Adaptedeness (EEA) concept is extremely important for understanding the functional properties of organisms, including the functional organization of the human brain. As outlined in the previous section, the functional properties of organisms arise by the process of evolution by natural selection. This means that the functions that organisms have are precisely those that solved long standing, recurrent reproductive problems. Reproductive problems are all the various things organisms had to do to survive and reproduce in a particular environment over evolutionary time--find food, find mates, avoid predators, combat pathogens, etc.
This observation is particularly important for understanding the functional organization of the human brain. Because we cannot (yet) directly study the wiring of the brain (except in a very few cases), we need another 'window' or set of tools for perceiving brain functions. Darwin's theory provides this window. If we can specify all the reproductive problems faced by our ancestors (i.e., if we can specify the human EEA), we can specify all the potential functions that our bodies and brains could have, in principle. With respect to the brain in particular, if we can specify all the reproductive problems involving information processing, we can specify all the possible psychological mechanisms that could have evolved. Whether humans possess any particular psychological mechanism (i.e., an ability to solve a particular reproductive problem involving information processing), becomes an empirical question... Studying the past is, at present, easier than studying brain wiring. The EEA concept therefore provides a much needed tool for determining, a priori, what kinds of functions, or mechanisms, the human brain is likely to have: the human brain solves the reproductive problems posed by past environments; it allows us to do all the things we needed to do to survive and reproduce in ancestral environments--find food, find mates, detect and avoid predators and other dangerous animals, etc."