scholarly journals Effects of verbal instruction vs. modelling on imitation and overimitation

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aliki Papa ◽  
Mioara Cristea ◽  
Nicola McGuigan ◽  
Monica Tamariz
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Evolutionary Process ◽  
Social Transmission ◽  
Verbal Instruction ◽  
Ratchet Effect ◽  
Action Sequence ◽  
Complex Behaviour ◽  
Causal Function ◽  
Transmission Mechanisms ◽  
Cumulative Cultural Evolution

AbstractHuman culture is the result of a unique cumulative evolutionary process. Despite the importance of culture for our species the social transmission mechanisms underlying this process are still not fully understood. In particular, the role of language—another unique human behaviour—in social transmission is under-explored. In this first direct, systematic comparison of demonstration vs. language-based social learning, we ran transmission chains of participants (6- to 8-year-old children and adults from Cyprus) who attempted to extract a reward from a puzzle box after either watching a model demonstrate an action sequence or after listening to verbal instructions describing the action sequence. The initial seeded sequences included causally relevant and irrelevant actions allowing us to measure transmission fidelity and the accumulation of beneficial modifications through the lens of a subtractive ratchet effect. Overall, we found that, compared to demonstration, verbal instruction specifically enhanced the faithful transmission of causally irrelevant actions (overimitation) in children, but not in adults. Cumulative cultural evolution requires the faithful transmission of sophisticated, complex behaviour whose function may not be obvious. This indicates that, by supporting the retention of actions that appear to lack a causal function specifically by children, language may play a supportive role in cumulative cultural evolution.

scholarly journals The role of language in cultural evolution

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aliki Papa ◽  
Mioara Cristea ◽  
Nicola McGuigan ◽  
Monica Tamariz
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Evolutionary Process ◽  
Social Transmission ◽  
Verbal Instruction ◽  
Action Sequence ◽  
Complex Behaviour ◽  
Transmission Mechanisms ◽  
Supportive Role ◽  
Cumulative Cultural Evolution

Human culture is the result of a unique cumulative evolutionary process. The social transmission mechanisms underlying this process are still not fully understood. In particular, the role of language – another unique human behaviour – in social transmission is under-explored. In this first direct, systematic comparison of demonstration vs language-based social learning, we measured the transmission fidelity and cumulative improvement of an action sequence whose objective was to extract a reward from a box. Participants were organised in transmission chains, and each of them either watched a model demonstrate an action sequence or listened to verbal instructions to produce the action sequence. In order to explore imitation and overimitation, the sequences included actions that were causally relevant or irrelevant, respectively, to extracting the reward. We explored these effects in transmission adults and in 6 to 8-year-old children. Overall, we found more copying under demonstration than verbal instruction, and of causally-relevant than irrelevant actions. However, children (but not adults) copied more causally-irrelevant actions under verbal instruction, but more causally-relevant actions under demonstration. Cumulative cultural evolution produces sophisticated, complex behaviour whose function may not be obvious. By promoting the retention of behaviour even when its function is not understood, specifically in children, language may play a supportive role in cumulative cultural evolution.

scholarly journals Rationalization enables cooperation and cultural evolution

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neil Levy
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Mental Representations ◽  
Future Planning ◽  
Ratchet Effect ◽  
Cumulative Cultural Evolution

Abstract Cushman argues that the function of rationalization is to attribute mental representations to ourselves, thereby making these representations available for future planning. I argue that such attribution is often not necessary and sometimes maladaptive. I suggest a different explanation of rationalization: making representations available to other agents, to facilitate cooperation, transmission, and the ratchet effect that underlies cumulative cultural evolution.

scholarly journals Evolución cultural acumulativa y ‘efecto trinquete’ en animales no humanos. Una objeción a Tomasello

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Oscar David Caicedo
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Biological Evolution ◽  
Cumulative Culture ◽  
Ratchet Effect ◽  
Palabras Clave ◽  
Nonhuman Animals ◽  
Cumulative Cultural Evolution

RESUMEN:Michael Tomasello considera que, aunque todos los animales son el resultado (no acabado) de la evolución biológica y aunque en muchos animales no humanos la utilización de herramientas es latente (uno de los principales signos de rasgos culturales), solo en los humanos se produce la evolución cultural acumulativa y el efecto trinquete, esto es, la acumulación progresiva (e innovadora) de mejoras a lo largo de la historia sobre los artefactos creados. Contrario a esto, se sugiere em este artículo que algunos estudios recientes pueden utilizarse para, también en este aspecto, reafirmar el continuum animal-humano y extender la cultura acumulativa a otros animales. PALABRAS CLAVE: EVOLUCIÓN CULTURAL ACUMULATIVA, EFECTO TRINQUETE, IMITACIÓN, INNOVACIÓN.ABSTRACTMichael Tomasello believes that although all animals are the result (not finished) of biological evolution, and in many nonhuman animals using tools is latent (one of the main signs of culturaltraits), the cumulative cultural evolution and ratchet effect, i.e., progressive (and innovative) accumulation of improvements over history about the artifacts created, occur only in humans. Contrary to this, I believe that some recent studies can be used with the purpose of, also in this regard, reaffirming the animal-human continuum and extend the cumulative culture to other animals.KEYWORDS: CUMULATIVE CULTURAL EVOLUTION, RATCHET EFFECT, IMITATION, INNOVATION

scholarly journals Social network architecture and the tempo of cumulative cultural evolution

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mauricio Cantor ◽  
Michael C. Chimento ◽  
Simeon Q. Smeele ◽  
Peng He ◽  
Danai Papageorgiou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Population Size ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Network Architecture ◽  
Size Structure ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Transmission Mechanisms ◽  
Cultural Traits ◽  
Cumulative Cultural Evolution

AbstractThe ability to build upon previous knowledge—cumulative cultural evolution (CCE)—is a hallmark of human societies. While CCE depends on the interaction between social systems, cognition and the environment, there is increasing evidence that CCE is facilitated by larger and more structured societies. However, the relative importance of social network architecture as an additional factor shaping CCE remains unclear. By simulating innovation and diffusion of cultural traits in populations with stereotyped social structures, we disentangle the relative contributions of network architecture from those of population size and connectivity. We demonstrate that while multilevel societies can promote the recombination of cultural traits into high-value products, they also hinder spread and make products more likely to go extinct. We find that transmission mechanisms are therefore critical in determining the outcomes of CCE. Our results highlight the complex interaction between population size, structure and transmission mechanisms, with important implications for future research.

scholarly journals Social network architecture and the tempo of cumulative cultural evolution

2021 ◽  
Vol 288 (1946) ◽  
pp. 20203107
Author(s):  
Mauricio Cantor ◽  
Michael Chimento ◽  
Simeon Q. Smeele ◽  
Peng He ◽  
Danai Papageorgiou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Population Size ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Network Architecture ◽  
Size Structure ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Transmission Mechanisms ◽  
Cultural Traits ◽  
Cumulative Cultural Evolution

The ability to build upon previous knowledge—cumulative cultural evolution—is a hallmark of human societies. While cumulative cultural evolution depends on the interaction between social systems, cognition and the environment, there is increasing evidence that cumulative cultural evolution is facilitated by larger and more structured societies. However, such effects may be interlinked with patterns of social wiring, thus the relative importance of social network architecture as an additional factor shaping cumulative cultural evolution remains unclear. By simulating innovation and diffusion of cultural traits in populations with stereotyped social structures, we disentangle the relative contributions of network architecture from those of population size and connectivity. We demonstrate that while more structured networks, such as those found in multilevel societies, can promote the recombination of cultural traits into high-value products, they also hinder spread and make products more likely to go extinct. We find that transmission mechanisms are therefore critical in determining the outcomes of cumulative cultural evolution. Our results highlight the complex interaction between population size, structure and transmission mechanisms, with important implications for future research.

Social transmission bias and the cultural evolution of folk-economic beliefs

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Hirshleifer ◽  
Siew Hong Teoh
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Social Transmission ◽  
Cognitive Approach ◽  
Economic Problems ◽  
Economic Attitudes ◽  
The Social ◽  
Economic Beliefs ◽  
Over Time

AbstractEvolved dispositions influence, but do not determine, how people think about economic problems. The evolutionary cognitive approach offers important insights but underweights the social transmission of ideas as a level of explanation. The need for asocialexplanation for the evolution of economic attitudes is evidenced, for example, by immense variations in folk-economic beliefs over time and across individuals.

Copy the In-group: Group Membership Trumps Perceived Reliability, Warmth, and Competence in a Social-Learning Task

2021 ◽  
pp. 095679762110322
Author(s):  
Marcel Montrey ◽  
Thomas R. Shultz
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Learning Strategy ◽  
Group Membership ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Minimal Group Paradigm ◽  
Learning Game ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Cumulative Cultural Evolution

Surprisingly little is known about how social groups influence social learning. Although several studies have shown that people prefer to copy in-group members, these studies have failed to resolve whether group membership genuinely affects who is copied or whether group membership merely correlates with other known factors, such as similarity and familiarity. Using the minimal-group paradigm, we disentangled these effects in an online social-learning game. In a sample of 540 adults, we found a robust in-group-copying bias that (a) was bolstered by a preference for observing in-group members; (b) overrode perceived reliability, warmth, and competence; (c) grew stronger when social information was scarce; and (d) even caused cultural divergence between intermixed groups. These results suggest that people genuinely employ a copy-the-in-group social-learning strategy, which could help explain how inefficient behaviors spread through social learning and how humans maintain the cultural diversity needed for cumulative cultural evolution.

scholarly journals Understanding cumulative cultural evolution

2016 ◽  
Vol 113 (44) ◽  
pp. E6724-E6725 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Henrich ◽  
Robert Boyd ◽  
Maxime Derex ◽  
Michelle A. Kline ◽  
Alex Mesoudi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Cumulative Cultural Evolution

scholarly journals An evolutionary process without variation and selection

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (180) ◽  
pp. 20210334
Author(s):  
Liane Gabora ◽  
Mike Steel
Keyword(s):  
Germ Cells ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Self Assembly ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Evolutionary Process ◽  
Adaptive Change ◽  
Assembly Code ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Special Case ◽  
Variation And Selection

Natural selection successfully explains how organisms accumulate adaptive change despite that traits acquired over a lifetime are eliminated at the end of each generation. However, in some domains that exhibit cumulative, adaptive change—e.g. cultural evolution, and earliest life—acquired traits are retained; these domains do not face the problem that Darwin’s theory was designed to solve. Lack of transmission of acquired traits occurs when germ cells are protected from environmental change, due to a self-assembly code used in two distinct ways: (i) actively interpreted during development to generate a soma, and (ii) passively copied without interpretation during reproduction to generate germ cells. Early life and cultural evolution appear not to involve a self-assembly code used in these two ways. We suggest that cumulative, adaptive change in these domains is due to a lower-fidelity evolutionary process, and model it using reflexively autocatalytic and foodset-generated networks. We refer to this more primitive evolutionary process as self–other reorganization (SOR) because it involves internal self-organizing and self-maintaining processes within entities, as well as interaction between entities. SOR encompasses learning but in general operates across groups. We discuss the relationship between SOR and Lamarckism, and illustrate a special case of SOR without variation.

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