scholarly journals How do humans learn about other people? Incorporating social knowledge structures into reinforcement learning

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Koen Frolichs ◽  
Gabriela Rosenblau ◽  
Christoph Korn
Keyword(s):  
Reinforcement Learning ◽  
Social Learning ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Reference Points ◽  
Knowledge Structures ◽  
Social Knowledge ◽  
Levels Of Detail ◽  
The People ◽  
Behavioural Experiments ◽  
Social Learning Processes

To navigate social interactions successfully, humans need to continuously learn about the personality traits of other people (e.g., how helpful or aggressive is the other person?). However, formal models that capture such complex social learning processes are currently lacking. In this study, we specified and tested potential strategies that humans could employ for learning about others. Standard reinforcement learning (RL) models only capture part of the learning process because they neglect inherent knowledge structures and omit previously acquired knowledge. We therefore formalized two social knowledge structures and implemented them in novel hybrid RL models to test their usefulness across different social learning tasks. We named these concepts granularity (knowledge structures about personality traits that can be utilized at different levels of detail during learning) and reference points (previous knowledge formalized into representations of average people within a social group). In five behavioural experiments, results indicated that participants combined the concepts of granularity and reference points in a rather optimal fashion—with the specific optimal combinations in models depending on the people and trait items that participants learned about. Overall, our experiments demonstrate that variants of RL algorithms, which incorporate social knowledge structures, describe crucial aspects of the dynamics at play when people interact with each other.

scholarly journals How social learning amplifies moral outrage expression in online social networks

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (33) ◽  
pp. eabe5641
Author(s):  
William J. Brady ◽  
Killian McLoughlin ◽  
Tuan N. Doan ◽  
Molly J. Crockett
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Reinforcement Learning ◽  
Social Learning ◽  
Online Social Networks ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Moral Outrage ◽  
Social Feedback ◽  
Learning Mechanisms ◽  
Behavioral Experiments ◽  
Social Learning Processes

Moral outrage shapes fundamental aspects of social life and is now widespread in online social networks. Here, we show how social learning processes amplify online moral outrage expressions over time. In two preregistered observational studies on Twitter (7331 users and 12.7 million total tweets) and two preregistered behavioral experiments (N = 240), we find that positive social feedback for outrage expressions increases the likelihood of future outrage expressions, consistent with principles of reinforcement learning. In addition, users conform their outrage expressions to the expressive norms of their social networks, suggesting norm learning also guides online outrage expressions. Norm learning overshadows reinforcement learning when normative information is readily observable: in ideologically extreme networks, where outrage expression is more common, users are less sensitive to social feedback when deciding whether to express outrage. Our findings highlight how platform design interacts with human learning mechanisms to affect moral discourse in digital public spaces.

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 Migration, acculturation, and the maintenance of between-group cultural variation

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Mesoudi
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Empirical Literature ◽  
Cultural Variation ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
And Migration ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Social Learning Processes

AbstractHow do migration and acculturation (i.e. psychological or behavioral change resulting from migration) affect within- and between-group cultural variation? Here I answer this question by drawing analogies between genetic and cultural evolution. Population genetic models show that migration rapidly breaks down between-group genetic structure. In cultural evolution, however, migrants or their descendants can acculturate to local behaviors via social learning processes such as conformity, potentially preventing migration from eliminating between-group cultural variation. An analysis of the empirical literature on migration suggests that acculturation is common, with second and subsequent migrant generations shifting, sometimes substantially, towards the cultural values of the adopted society. Yet there is little understanding of the individual-level dynamics that underlie these population-level shifts. To explore this formally, I present models quantifying the effect of migration and acculturation on between-group cultural variation, for both neutral and costly cooperative traits. In the models, between-group cultural variation, measured using F statistics, is eliminated by migration and maintained by conformist acculturation. The extent of acculturation is determined by the strength of conformist bias and the number of demonstrators from whom individuals learn. Acculturation is countered by assortation, the tendency for individuals to preferentially interact with culturally-similar others. Unlike neutral traits, cooperative traits can additionally be maintained by payoff-biased social learning, but only in the presence of strong sanctioning institutions. Overall, the models show that surprisingly little conformist acculturation is required to maintain realistic amounts of between-group cultural diversity. While these models provide insight into the potential dynamics of acculturation and migration in cultural evolution, they also highlight the need for more empirical research into the individual-level learning biases that underlie migrant acculturation.

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.

THE ROLE OF EDUCATION IN ROMANIA’S TOURISM SECTOR: FROM LEVEL DESCRIPTORS TO LEARNING OUTCOMES

2007 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-128
Author(s):  
Ana Ispas
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Middle Management ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Reference Points ◽  
Practical Training ◽  
Economic Sectors ◽  
High Turnover ◽  
Consultation Process ◽  
The People ◽  
Long Time

Tourism is generally and globally acknowledged as one of the few economic sectors that has more than significant growth prospects and is characterized as a catalyst for peace and prosperity. At the same time, this sector is known for its high turnover of staff, persistent lack of qualified personnel and rapidly changing skill needs. If Romania wants to be a competitive tourist destination, we must assure a high quality of the tourism services and the people who deliver them. The most important labour shortage in Romania’s tourism is at the management level (top and middle management) and entrepreneurs. There are several reasons for this. For a long time, Romania’s tourist industry was dominated by large public enterprises. Most often, top and middle management were not appointed and promoted according to their education and capabilities, but according to other non-professional criteria. Education at all levels, especially higher education, has not been producing a competent labour force. Management education has been especially weak, with no specialized education for management in tourism. Some available programmes were of too general and with little practical training. Although there are several institutions of higher education which provide education for tourism, all of them need to modernize their programmes with a greater emphasis on management, foreign languages, ICT, and practical training. Today, Romania started to reform education. This is a significant challenge for the entire education system, including higher education in tourism. This year a consultation process was started to identify the most important competences that should be formed or developed in a degree programme. The outcome of this consultation process will be reflected in the set of reference points – generic and subject specific competences – identified by 10 subject areas, including tourism.

Cognitive Biases

2018 ◽  
pp. 27-75
Keyword(s):  
Personality Traits ◽  
Cognitive Bias ◽  
Cognitive Biases ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Complete List ◽  
Group Influence ◽  
The People ◽  
Alphabetical List

The cognitive bias would be a pattern of deviation in judgment, in which the inferences we make about other people and/or situations can be illogical. To continue understanding more about the phenomenon, in this chapter a complete list of cognitive biases are displayed. Within these cognitive biases, some were produced by the processing of information, social or group influence, heuristics, expectations of the people, personality traits, etc. Furthermore, within the list of cognitive biases, a more exhaustive explanation of the most important studied cognitive biases will be explained. In addition, the author creates a table with an alphabetical list of each cognitive bias found in scientific literature with a brief definition.

scholarly journals A Game Theoretic Approach to Swarm Robotics

2006 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 131-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. N. Givigi ◽  
H. M. Schwartz
Keyword(s):  
Game Theory ◽  
Reinforcement Learning ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Evolutionary Psychology ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Swarm Robotics ◽  
Theoretic Approach ◽  
Intelligent Robots ◽  
Game Theoretic ◽  
Game Theoretic Approach

In this article, we discuss some techniques for achieving swarm intelligent robots through the use of traits of personality. Traits of personality are characteristics of each robot that, altogether, define the robot's behaviours. We discuss the use of evolutionary psychology to select a set of traits of personality that will evolve due to a learning process based on reinforcement learning. The use of Game Theory is introduced, and some simulations showing its potential are reported.

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