Selection for Optimal Age-Dependent Schedules of Play Behavior

Positive and negative effects of play behavior are modeled in a life-historical cost-benefit framework in order to derive predictions about optimal age-dependent scheduling of play. The model predicts that not all animal species will exhibit play behavior, that play should be more frequent in K-selected species than in r-selected species, that younger animals should tend to devote more time and energy to play than older animals, that adults of...