As expected, interpretive benefit increases with increasing correlation between the sign and the interpretive environment.
Thus for this variant, the presence of Ca2+ more dramatically alters the differentiation between the favorable and unfavorable states, allowing the ribozyme to better distinguish the disparity in Mg2+ content and hence be interpretive of its environment.
Thus, this study aims to utilize an effective approach to interpret individual, subjective human experiences in natural environments using interpretive structural modeling.
At lower levels of probability of the favourable environment the interpretive benefit is limited by false positives (presence of the sign in the absence of the favourable environment).. Of the three parameter spaces represented in Figure 5b the greatest interpretive benefit is available where the probability of the favourable environment is close to 0.3.
At higher levels of probability of the favourable environment the interpretive benefit is limited by the occurrence of false negatives (absence of the sign in the presence of the favourable environment).
Note that for a given probability of the favourable environment the maximal interpretive benefit occurs when the probability of the favourable environment is equal to the probability of the sign.
This may be expressed in terms of three inequalities that together provide the minimum criteria for interpretive behaviour in a 2-environment, 2-states-of-an-entity system.
Here the evolutionary pressure for this particular kind of molecule would be for maximal and controllable catalytic activity, rather than for the ability to take advantage of signs of the state of the external environment, and thus interpretive behaviour would have been diminished or lost as it would no longer confer any selective advantage.
When the correlation between sign and favourable environment is maximal, and the probabilities of the sign and favourable environment are equal, the interpretive component of total fitness at this location in parameter space is 46%.
The relationship between interpretive benefit and the probability of the favourable environment is explored further in Figure 5c, which shows the maximum interpretive benefit available at different probabilities of the presence of a favourable environment (i.e., parameter spaces in which the probability of the sign is equal to the probability of the favourable environment).
