scholarly journals The scope and limits of overimitation in the transmission of artefact culture

2011 ◽  
Vol 366 (1567) ◽  
pp. 1158-1167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Derek E. Lyons ◽  
Diana H. Damrosch ◽  
Jennifer K. Lin ◽  
Deanna M. Macris ◽  
Frank C. Keil
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Learning Processes ◽  
Novel Object ◽  
Causal Understanding ◽  
Learning Function ◽  
Intentional Actions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Learning Processes ◽  
Unfamiliar Object

Children are generally masterful imitators, both rational and flexible in their reproduction of others' actions. After observing an adult operating an unfamiliar object, however, young children will frequently overimitate , reproducing not only the actions that were causally necessary but also those that were clearly superfluous. Why does overimitation occur? We argue that when children observe an adult intentionally acting on a novel object, they may automatically encode all of the adult's actions as causally meaningful. This process of automatic causal encoding (ACE) would generally guide children to accurate beliefs about even highly opaque objects. In situations where some of an adult's intentional actions were unnecessary, however, it would also lead to persistent overimitation. Here, we undertake a thorough examination of the ACE hypothesis, reviewing prior evidence and offering three new experiments to further test the theory. We show that children will persist in overimitating even when doing so is costly (underscoring the involuntary nature of the effect), but also that the effect is constrained by intentionality in a manner consistent with its posited learning function. Overimitation may illuminate not only the structure of children's causal understanding, but also the social learning processes that support our species' artefact-centric culture.

scholarly journals Experimental studies illuminate the cultural transmission of percussive technologies in Homo and Pan

2015 ◽  
Vol 370 (1682) ◽  
pp. 20140359 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Whiten
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Tool Use ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Field Studies ◽  
Learning Processes ◽  
Cognitive Context ◽  
The Social ◽  
Special Power ◽  
Social Learning Processes

The complexity of Stone Age tool-making is assumed to have relied upon cultural transmission, but direct evidence is lacking. This paper reviews evidence bearing on this question provided through five related empirical perspectives. Controlled experimental studies offer special power in identifying and dissecting social learning into its diverse component forms, such as imitation and emulation. The first approach focuses on experimental studies that have discriminated social learning processes in nut-cracking by chimpanzees. Second come experiments that have identified and dissected the processes of cultural transmission involved in a variety of other force-based forms of chimpanzee tool use. A third perspective is provided by field studies that have revealed a range of forms of forceful, targeted tool use by chimpanzees, that set percussion in its broader cognitive context. Fourth are experimental studies of the development of flint knapping to make functional sharp flakes by bonobos, implicating and defining the social learning and innovation involved. Finally, new and substantial experiments compare what different social learning processes, from observational learning to teaching, afford good quality human flake and biface manufacture. Together these complementary approaches begin to delineate the social learning processes necessary to percussive technologies within the Pan – Homo clade.

scholarly journals Linking Facebook to WordPress for educational purposes – a proposed architecture sustaining social learning

2020 ◽  
pp. 6-11
Author(s):  
I. A. Bogoslov ◽  
M. R. Georgescu ◽  
A. G. Pitic
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Social Learning ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Learning Processes ◽  
Learning Systems ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
E Learning ◽  
Social Learning Processes

Ensuring social educational processes does not only represent a trend in terms of the evolution of e-Learning systems, but also one of the main points of interest targeted by the developers of certain social platforms. In fact, raising awareness with respect to the importance of using Social Media tools in education leads to a two-way approach: both by integrating social tools into e-Learning systems and by integrating learning facilities into Social Media platforms. Over time, the social network Facebook has benefited from intense use at global level, including in e-Learning processes. In order to meet the current needs in terms of teaching and learning, Facebook has provided users with built-in opportunities to facilitate social learning processes. However, expanding the Social Learning features integrated in Facebook can be a challenge at present, because of the policies imposed for the social network. The present article outlines a proposed architecture for extending the Social Learning functionalities offered within Facebook Groups by ensuring the correlation with WordPress open-source CMS. Aspects related to how the correlation between the two platforms can be ensured, the necessary tools and the steps involved will be discussed. Also, the main implications and advantages offered by such an architecture and the identified limitations will be highlighted.

A cognitive approach to cumulative technological culture is useful and necessary but only if it also applies to other species

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thibaud Gruber
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Learning Processes ◽  
Cognitive Approach ◽  
Technological Culture ◽  
Social Learning Processes

Abstract The debate on cumulative technological culture (CTC) is dominated by social-learning discussions, at the expense of other cognitive processes, leading to flawed circular arguments. I welcome the authors' approach to decouple CTC from social-learning processes without minimizing their impact. Yet, this model will only be informative to understand the evolution of CTC if tested in other cultural species.

scholarly journals The Psychological Reach of Culture in Animals’ Lives

2021 ◽  
pp. 096372142199311
Author(s):  
Andrew Whiten
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Cultural Change ◽  
Learning Processes ◽  
Cumulative Culture ◽  
Knowledge And Skills ◽  
Social Learning Processes ◽  
Learning From Others ◽  
Behavioral Domains

Culture—the totality of traditions acquired in a community by social learning from other individuals—has increasingly been found to be pervasive not only in humans’ but in many other animals’ lives. Compared with learning on one’s own initiative, learning from others can be very much safer and more efficient, as the wisdom already accumulated by other individuals is assimilated. This article offers an overview of often surprising recent discoveries charting the reach of culture across an ever-expanding diversity of species, as well as an extensive variety of behavioral domains, and throughout an animal’s life. The psychological reach of culture is reflected in the knowledge and skills an animal thus acquires, via an array of different social learning processes. Social learning is often further guided by a suite of adaptive psychological biases, such as conformity and learning from optimal models. In humans, cumulative cultural change over generations has generated the complex cultural phenomena observed today. Animal cultures have been thought to lack this cumulative power, but recent findings suggest that elementary versions of cumulative culture may be important in animals’ lives.

scholarly journals Explorative healthy aging approaches fostering social innovation: thematizing life course narratives of older women participating in a documentary film

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Susie Riva-Mossman ◽  
Henk Verloo
Keyword(s):  
Older Women ◽  
Healthy Aging ◽  
Social Innovation ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Learning Processes ◽  
Exploratory Research ◽  
Relational Networks ◽  
Important Concern ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Learning Processes

The transformative process of investigating life stories and their impact on healthy aging has only recently been explored. The relationship between hope and individual healthy aging strategies is still an under-researched area. This study contributes to filling the knowledgeability gap. The authors examine senior stories of hope and the experience of self-determination and well-being. The study documents the social learning processes of older people as they narratively search for solutions and imagine a hopeful future of healthy aging. A group of four older women participated in a semi-structured filmed interview, questioned by an academic expert. Healthy aging emerged as an important concern among all participants, confirming the need to actively learn how to age well. This exploratory research brought forth thematic clusters, orienting shared value solutions to demographic change. Qualitative research methods reinforce lifelong, collaborative learning processes that not only produce scientific literature, but also put in place relational networks that can grow and endure over time, generating social innovation. The film documented the role of hope and resilience in healthy aging.

scholarly journals Social Learning Processes in Swiss Soil Protection—The ‘From Farmer - To Farmer’ Project

Human Ecology ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 475-489 ◽  
Author(s):  
Flurina Schneider ◽  
Patricia Fry ◽  
Thomas Ledermann ◽  
Stephan Rist
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Learning Processes ◽  
Soil Protection ◽  
Social Learning Processes
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