scholarly journals How material constraints affect the cultural evolution of rhythm

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helena Miton ◽  
Thomas Wolf ◽  
Cordula Vesper ◽  
Günther Knoblich ◽  
Sperber
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Investigation ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Physical Environment ◽  
Ecological Factors ◽  
Proof Of Concept ◽  
Cultural Productions ◽  
Transmission Chain ◽  
Material Constraints

While widely acknowledged in the cultural evolution literature, ecological factors - i.e., differences in the physical environment in which cultural productions evolve - haven’t been investigated experimentally. Here we present an experimental investigation of this type of factors by using a transmission chain experiment. We predicted that differencesin the distance between identical tools (drums) and in the order in which they are to be used would cause the evolution of different rhythms. The evidence confirms our predictions and thus provide a proof of concept that ecological factors can influence cultural productions and that their effects can be experimentally isolated and measured. One noteworthy finding is that ecological factors can on their own lead to more complex rhythms.

scholarly journals Motor constraints influence cultural evolution of rhythm

2020 ◽  
Vol 287 (1937) ◽  
pp. 20202001
Author(s):  
Helena Miton ◽  
Thomas Wolf ◽  
Cordula Vesper ◽  
Günther Knoblich ◽  
Dan Sperber
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Investigation ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Physical Environment ◽  
Ecological Factors ◽  
Proof Of Concept ◽  
Learning Experiment ◽  
Cultural Productions ◽  
Transmission Chain ◽  
Iterated Learning ◽  
The Way

While widely acknowledged in the cultural evolution literature, ecological factors—aspects of the physical environment that affect the way in which cultural productions evolve—have not been investigated experimentally. Here, we present an experimental investigation of this type of factor by using a transmission chain (iterated learning) experiment. We predicted that differences in the distance between identical tools (drums) and in the order in which they are to be used would cause the evolution of different rhythms. The evidence confirms our predictions and thus provides a proof of concept that ecological factors—here a motor constraint—can influence cultural productions and that their effects can be experimentally isolated and measured. One noteworthy finding is that ecological factors can on their own lead to more complex rhythms.

scholarly journals From storytelling to Facebook. Content biases when retelling or sharing a story

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alberto Acerbi
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Specific Content ◽  
Oral Storytelling ◽  
Oral Transmission ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Transmission Chain ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Content Information

Cultural evolution researchers use transmission chain experiments to investigate which content is more likely to survive when transmitted from one individual to another. These experiments resemble oral storytelling, where individuals need to understand, memorise, and reproduce the content. However, prominent contemporary forms of cultural transmission—think an online sharing— only involve the willingness to transmit the content. Here I present two fully preregistered online experiments that explicitly investigated the differences between these two modalities of transmission. The first experiment (N=1080) examined whether negative content, information eliciting disgust, and threat-related information were better transmitted than their neutral counterpart in a traditional transmission chain set-up. The second experiment (N=1200), used the same material, but participants were asked whether they would share or not the content in two conditions: in a large anonymous social network, or with their friends, in their favourite social network. Negative content was both better transmitted in transmission chain experiments and shared more than its neutral counterpart. Threat-related information was successful in transmission chain experiments but not when sharing, and, finally, information eliciting disgust was not advantaged in either. Overall, the results present a composite picture, suggesting that the interactions between the specific content and the medium of transmission are important and, possibly, that content biases are stronger when memorisation and reproduction are involved in the transmission—like in oral transmission—than when they are not—like in online sharing.

Experimental investigation of the thermal power pump cycle – Proof of concept

2018 ◽  
Vol 134 ◽  
pp. 182-193 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack Nihill ◽  
Abhijit Date ◽  
Jason Velardo ◽  
Sandesh Jadkar
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Investigation ◽  
Thermal Power ◽  
Proof Of Concept

scholarly journals Evaluating the relative contributions of copying and reconstruction processes in cultural transmission episodes

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (9) ◽  
pp. e0256901
Author(s):  
James W. A. Strachan ◽  
Arianna Curioni ◽  
Merryn D. Constable ◽  
Günther Knoblich ◽  
Mathieu Charbonneau
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Proof Of Concept ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms ◽  
Contextual Cues ◽  
Task Context ◽  
Biological Mechanisms ◽  
Transmission Chain ◽  
Pragmatic Inference ◽  
The One

The ability to transmit information between individuals through social learning is a foundational component of cultural evolution. However, how this transmission occurs is still debated. On the one hand, the copying account draws parallels with biological mechanisms for genetic inheritance, arguing that learners copy what they observe and novel variations occur through random copying errors. On the other hand, the reconstruction account claims that, rather than directly copying behaviour, learners reconstruct the information that they believe to be most relevant on the basis of pragmatic inference, environmental and contextual cues. Distinguishing these two accounts empirically is difficult based on data from typical transmission chain studies because the predictions they generate frequently overlap. In this study we present a methodological approach that generates different predictions of these accounts by manipulating the task context between model and learner in a transmission episode. We then report an empirical proof-of-concept that applies this approach. The results show that, when a model introduces context-dependent embedded signals to their actions that are not intended to be transmitted, it is possible to empirically distinguish between competing predictions made by these two accounts. Our approach can therefore serve to understand the underlying cognitive mechanisms at play in cultural transmission and can make important contributions to the debate between preservative and reconstructive schools of thought.

scholarly journals Human biases limit algorithmic boosts of cultural evolution.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Levin Brinkmann ◽  
Deniz Gezerli ◽  
KIRA VON KLEIST ◽  
Thomas Franz Müller ◽  
Iyad Rahwan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Task Environment ◽  
Improve Performance ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Transmission Of Knowledge ◽  
Transmission Chain ◽  
Human Participant ◽  
Problem Solving Strategies ◽  
The Many

Humans are impressive social learners. Researchers of cultural evolution have studied the many biases that enable solutions and behaviours to spread socially from one human to the next, selecting from whom we copy and what we copy. In a digital society, algorithmic and human agents both contribute to transmission of knowledge. One hypothesis is that machines may influence the patterns of social transmission not only by providing a means for spreading human behavior but also by providing novel behaviors themselves. We propose that certain algorithms might show (either by learning or by design) different behaviors, biases and problem-solving abilities than their human counterparts. This may in turn foster better decisions in environments where diversity in problem-solving strategies is beneficial. In this study, we ask whether machines with complementary biases to humans could boost cultural evolution in a lab-based planning task, where humans show suboptimal biases. We conducted a large behavioral study and an agent-based simulation to test the performance of transmission chains with human and machine players. In half of the chains, an algorithmic bot replaced a human participant. We show that the bot boosts the performance of immediately following participants in the chain, but this gain is lost for participants further down the transmission chain. Our findings suggest that machines can potentially improve performance, but human bias can hinder machine solutions from being preserved, especially under conditions of uncertainty or high cognitive load. Our results suggest that the conditions for hybrid social learning and cultural evolution may be limited by task environment and human biases.

scholarly journals Culture, humanities, evolution: the complexity of meaning-making over time

2021 ◽  
Vol 376 (1828) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joep Leerssen
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Physical Environment ◽  
Information Transfer ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Human Sciences ◽  
Theme Issue ◽  
Semiotic System ◽  
Human Culture ◽  
Cultural Exchanges ◽  
Over Time

This article outlines how the historical human sciences see ‘culture’ and its dynamic developments over time and over generations. The operations of human culture are systemically self-reflexive and, as a result, exhibit a complexity that sets them apart, as a semiotic system, from mere communicative information transfer. Peculiar to this complexity is the two-way interaction between the ‘etic’ substance of the cultural exchanges and their ‘emic’ function. Cultural signals require parallel etic/emic processing at stacked levels of complexity. As a result of this complexity, the homeostasis and autopoiesis of human culture, including its dynamics and development over time, cannot be explained fully in terms of responses to the physical environment. How, this article ponders by way of conclusion, can an evolutionary approach be reconciled with these characteristics of human culture, or the notion of culture be applied to evolutionary modelling? This article is part of the theme issue ‘Foundations of cultural evolution’.

scholarly journals Cultural evolution leads to vocal iconicity in an experimental iterated learning task

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Niklas Erben Johansson ◽  
Jon W Carr ◽  
Simon Kirby
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Cognitive Biases ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Word Form ◽  
Single Word ◽  
Evolution Of Language ◽  
Transmission Chain ◽  
Audio Recordings ◽  
Iterated Learning

Abstract Experimental and cross-linguistic studies have shown that vocal iconicity is prevalent in words that carry meanings related to size and shape. Although these studies demonstrate the importance of vocal iconicity and reveal the cognitive biases underpinning it, there is less work demonstrating how these biases lead to the evolution of a sound symbolic lexicon in the first place. In this study, we show how words can be shaped by cognitive biases through cultural evolution. Using a simple experimental setup resembling the game telephone, we examined how a single word form changed as it was passed from one participant to the next by a process of immediate iterated learning. About 1,500 naïve participants were recruited online and divided into five condition groups. The participants in the control-group received no information about the meaning of the word they were about to hear, while the participants in the remaining four groups were informed that the word meant either big or small (with the meaning being presented in text), or round or pointy (with the meaning being presented as a picture). The first participant in a transmission chain was presented with a phonetically diverse word and asked to repeat it. Thereafter, the recording of the repeated word was played for the next participant in the same chain. The sounds of the audio recordings were then transcribed and categorized according to six binary sound parameters. By modelling the proportion of vowels or consonants for each sound parameter, the small-condition showed increases of front unrounded vowels and the pointy-condition increases of acute consonants. The results show that linguistic transmission is sufficient for vocal iconicity to emerge, which demonstrates the role non-arbitrary associations play in the evolution of language.

scholarly journals High-fidelity copying is not necessarily the key to cumulative cultural evolution: a study in monkeys and children

2019 ◽  
Vol 286 (1904) ◽  
pp. 20190729 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carmen Saldana ◽  
Joël Fagot ◽  
Simon Kirby ◽  
Kenny Smith ◽  
Nicolas Claidière
Keyword(s):  
Task Performance ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
High Fidelity ◽  
Fundamental Properties ◽  
Visual Patterns ◽  
Copying Task ◽  
Transmission Chain ◽  
Lineage Specificity ◽  
Systematic Structure ◽  
Cumulative Cultural Evolution

The unique cumulative nature of human culture has often been explained by high-fidelity copying mechanisms found only in human social learning. However, transmission chain experiments in human and non-human primates suggest that cumulative cultural evolution (CCE) might not necessarily depend on high-fidelity copying after all. In this study, we test whether defining properties of CCE can emerge in a non-copying task. We performed transmission chain experiments in Guinea baboons and human children where individuals observed and produced visual patterns composed of four squares on touchscreen devices. In order to be rewarded, participants had to avoid touching squares that were touched by a previous participant. In other words, they were rewarded for innovation rather than copying. Results nevertheless exhibited fundamental properties of CCE: an increase over generations in task performance and the emergence of systematic structure. However, these properties arose from different mechanisms across species: children, unlike baboons, converged in behaviour over generations by copying specific patterns in a different location, thus introducing alternative copying mechanisms into the non-copying task. In children, prior biases towards specific shapes led to convergence in behaviour across chains, while baboon chains showed signs of lineage specificity. We conclude that CCE can result from mechanisms with varying degrees of fidelity in transmission and thus that high-fidelity copying is not necessarily the key to CCE.

scholarly journals Human biases limit cumulative innovation

2021 ◽  
Vol 288 (1946) ◽  
pp. 20202752
Author(s):  
Bill Thompson ◽  
Thomas L. Griffiths
Keyword(s):  
Mathematical Model ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Optimization Problem ◽  
Continuous Optimization ◽  
Human Learning ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Technological Advancement ◽  
Laboratory Setting ◽  
Transmission Chain ◽  
Cumulative Innovation

Is technological advancement constrained by biases in human cognition? People in all societies build on discoveries inherited from previous generations, leading to cumulative innovation. However, biases in human learning and memory may influence the process of knowledge transmission, potentially limiting this process. Here, we show that cumulative innovation in a continuous optimization problem is systematically constrained by human biases. In a large ( n = 1250) behavioural study using a transmission chain design, participants searched for virtual technologies in one of four environments after inheriting a solution from previous generations. Participants converged on worse solutions in environments misaligned with their biases. These results substantiate a mathematical model of cumulative innovation in Bayesian agents, highlighting formal relationships between cultural evolution and distributed stochastic optimization. Our findings provide experimental evidence that human biases can limit the advancement of knowledge in a controlled laboratory setting, reinforcing concerns about bias in creative, scientific and educational contexts.

Job Satisfaction of Library Professionals of University of Calicut: An Analytical Study

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 132-135
Author(s):  
V. G. Rabaeka Rachael ◽  
B. Mini Devi
Keyword(s):  
Job Satisfaction ◽  
Personal Growth ◽  
Physical Environment ◽  
Analytical Study ◽  
Ecological Factors ◽  
Point Scale ◽  
Ict Infrastructure ◽  
Questionnaire Method ◽  
High Level ◽  
Library Professionals

Job and job satisfaction are the twin co-related components of human resource management. It is encompasses the physiological psychological and ecological factors and determines the level of job satisfaction of the employees in any organization. [1] The purpose of this study is to measure the job satisfaction among library professionals in C.H Mohammad Koya Library: University of Calicut. Job satisfaction is an individual feeling which could cause by a variety of factors. The six components of job satisfaction were measures derived through literature: physical environment & ICT infrastructure, organizational culture, personal growth and development, salary, promotion and nature of work.5-point scale were used to examine the job satisfaction of respondents. Questionnaire method was used for data collection and results are tabulated. Outcome of the study has been discussed that although library professionals working in this university library were slightly satisfied with their nature of work, while the salary, promotion, and denied access to benefits were identified as major constraints to job satisfaction. Based on the results, the study recommended that review the conditions attached to promotion, salary, among others as measures for enhancing job satisfaction. It is also suggested that the encourage and motivate the library professionals more incentives and good salary packages are to be offered so that their achievement drive can be activated that in turn lead to high level of job satisfaction.

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