1
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Henrich J, Muthukrishna M. What Makes Us Smart? Top Cogn Sci 2024; 16:322-342. [PMID: 37086053 DOI: 10.1111/tops.12656] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/12/2022] [Revised: 04/04/2023] [Accepted: 04/05/2023] [Indexed: 04/23/2023]
Abstract
How did humans become clever enough to live in nearly every major ecosystem on earth, create vaccines against deadly plagues, explore the oceans depths, and routinely traverse the globe at 30,000 feet in aluminum tubes while nibbling on roasted almonds? Drawing on recent developments in our understanding of human evolution, we consider what makes us distinctively smarter than other animals. Contrary to conventional wisdom, human brilliance emerges not from our innate brainpower or raw computational capacities, but from the sharing of information in communities and networks over generations. We review how larger, more diverse, and more optimally interconnected networks of minds give rise to faster innovation and how the cognitive products of this cumulative cultural evolutionary process feedback to make us individually "smarter"-in the sense of being better at meeting the challenges and problems posed by our societies and socioecologies. Here, we consider not only how cultural evolution supplies us with "thinking tools" (like counting systems and fractions) but also how it has shaped our ontologies (e.g., do germs and witches exist?) and epistemologies, including our notions of what constitutes a "good reason" or "good evidence" (e.g., are dreams a source of evidence?). Building on this, we consider how cultural evolution has organized and distributed cultural knowledge and cognitive tasks among subpopulations, effectively shifting both thinking and production to the level of the community, population, or network, resulting in collective information processing and group decisions. Cultural evolution can turn mindless mobs into wise crowds by facilitating and constraining cognition through a wide variety of epistemic institutions-political, legal, and scientific. These institutions process information and aid better decision-making by suppressing or encouraging the use of different cultural epistemologies and ontologies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joseph Henrich
- Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University
| | - Michael Muthukrishna
- Department of Psychological and Behavioral Science, London School of Economics and Political Science
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2
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Ben-Oren Y, Kolodny O, Creanza N. Cultural specialization as a double-edged sword: division into specialized guilds might promote cultural complexity at the cost of higher susceptibility to cultural loss. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2023; 378:20210418. [PMID: 36688386 PMCID: PMC9869445 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2021.0418] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/24/2023] Open
Abstract
The transition to specialization of knowledge within populations could have facilitated the accumulation of cultural complexity in humans. Specialization allows populations to increase their cultural repertoire without requiring that members of that population increase their individual capacity to accumulate knowledge. However, specialization also means that domain-specific knowledge can be concentrated in small subsets of the population, making it more susceptible to loss. Here, we use a model of cultural evolution to demonstrate that specialized populations can be more sensitive to stochastic loss of knowledge than populations without subdivision of knowledge, and that demographic and environmental changes have an amplified effect on populations with knowledge specialization. Finally, we suggest that specialization can be a double-edged sword; specialized populations may have an advantage in accumulating cultural traits but may also be less likely to expand and establish themselves successfully in new demes owing to the increased cultural loss that they experience during the population bottlenecks that often characterize such expansions. This article is part of the theme issue 'Human socio-cultural evolution in light of evolutionary transitions'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yotam Ben-Oren
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, Silberman Institute for Life Science, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 9190401, Israel
| | - Oren Kolodny
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, Silberman Institute for Life Science, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 9190401, Israel
| | - Nicole Creanza
- Department of Biological Sciences and Evolutionary Studies Initiative, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37212, USA
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3
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Hardy MD, Krafft PM, Thompson B, Griffiths TL. Overcoming Individual Limitations Through Distributed Computation: Rational Information Accumulation in Multigenerational Populations. Top Cogn Sci 2022; 14:550-573. [PMID: 35032363 PMCID: PMC9542743 DOI: 10.1111/tops.12596] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/28/2021] [Revised: 11/29/2021] [Accepted: 11/30/2021] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Many of the computational problems people face are difficult to solve under the limited time and cognitive resources available to them. Overcoming these limitations through social interaction is one of the most distinctive features of human intelligence. In this paper, we show that information accumulation in multigenerational social networks can be produced by a form of distributed Bayesian inference that allows individuals to benefit from the experience of previous generations while expending little cognitive effort. In doing so, we provide a criterion for assessing the rationality of a population that extends traditional analyses of the rationality of individuals. We tested the predictions of this analysis in two highly controlled behavioral experiments where the social transmission structure closely matched the assumptions of our model. Participants made decisions on simple categorization tasks that relied on and contributed to accumulated knowledge. Success required these microsocieties to accumulate information distributed across people and time. Our findings illustrate how in certain settings, distributed computation at the group level can pool information and resources, allowing limited individuals to perform effectively on complex tasks.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Bill Thompson
- Department of PsychologyPrinceton University
- Department of Computer SciencePrinceton University
| | - Thomas L. Griffiths
- Department of PsychologyPrinceton University
- Department of Computer SciencePrinceton University
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4
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Deffner D, Kandler A, Fogarty L. Effective population size for culturally evolving traits. PLoS Comput Biol 2022; 18:e1009430. [PMID: 35395004 PMCID: PMC9020689 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009430] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/08/2021] [Revised: 04/20/2022] [Accepted: 02/21/2022] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Population size has long been considered an important driver of cultural diversity and complexity. Results from population genetics, however, demonstrate that in populations with complex demographic structure or mode of inheritance, it is not the census population size, N, but the effective size of a population, Ne, that determines important evolutionary parameters. Here, we examine the concept of effective population size for traits that evolve culturally, through processes of innovation and social learning. We use mathematical and computational modeling approaches to investigate how cultural Ne and levels of diversity depend on (1) the way traits are learned, (2) population connectedness, and (3) social network structure. We show that one-to-many and frequency-dependent transmission can temporally or permanently lower effective population size compared to census numbers. We caution that migration and cultural exchange can have counter-intuitive effects on Ne. Network density in random networks leaves Ne unchanged, scale-free networks tend to decrease and small-world networks tend to increase Ne compared to census numbers. For one-to-many transmission and different network structures, larger effective sizes are closely associated with higher cultural diversity. For connectedness, however, even small amounts of migration and cultural exchange result in high diversity independently of Ne. Extending previous work, our results highlight the importance of carefully defining effective population size for cultural systems and show that inferring Ne requires detailed knowledge about underlying cultural and demographic processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dominik Deffner
- Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
- Science of Intelligence Excellence Cluster, Technical University Berlin, Berlin, Germany
- Center for Adaptive Rationality, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany
- * E-mail:
| | - Anne Kandler
- Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Laurel Fogarty
- Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
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5
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Whiten A, Biro D, Bredeche N, Garland EC, Kirby S. The emergence of collective knowledge and cumulative culture in animals, humans and machines. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2022; 377:20200306. [PMID: 34894738 PMCID: PMC8666904 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0306] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/17/2021] [Accepted: 10/21/2021] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Andrew Whiten
- Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, School of Psychology and Neuroscience, Scottish Oceans Institute, School of Biology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK
| | - Dora Biro
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA
| | - Nicolas Bredeche
- Sorbonne Université, CNRS, Institut des Systèmes Intelligents et de Robotique, ISIR, 75005 Paris, France
| | - Ellen C. Garland
- Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, and Sea Mammal Research Unit, Scottish Oceans Institute, School of Biology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK
| | - Simon Kirby
- Centre for Language Evolution, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
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6
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Derex M. Human cumulative culture and the exploitation of natural phenomena. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2022; 377:20200311. [PMID: 34894732 PMCID: PMC8666902 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0311] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/31/2021] [Accepted: 09/09/2021] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Cumulative cultural evolution (CCE)-defined as the process by which beneficial modifications are culturally transmitted and progressively accumulated over time-has long been argued to underlie the unparalleled diversity and complexity of human culture. In this paper, I argue that not just any kind of cultural accumulation will give rise to human-like culture. Rather, I suggest that human CCE depends on the gradual exploitation of natural phenomena, which are features of our environment that, through the laws of physics, chemistry or biology, generate reliable effects which can be exploited for a purpose. I argue that CCE comprises two distinct processes: optimizing cultural traits that exploit a given set of natural phenomena (Type I CCE) and expanding the set of natural phenomena we exploit (Type II CCE). I argue that the most critical features of human CCE, including its open-ended dynamic, stems from Type II CCE. Throughout the paper, I contrast the two processes and discuss their respective socio-cognitive requirements. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'The emergence of collective knowledge and cumulative culture in animals, humans and machines'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maxime Derex
- CNRS, Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse, University of Toulouse 1 Capitole, France
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7
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Segovia-Martín J, Walker B, Fay N, Tamariz M. Network Connectivity Dynamics, Cognitive Biases, and the Evolution of Cultural Diversity in Round-Robin Interactive Micro-Societies. Cogn Sci 2021; 44:e12852. [PMID: 32564420 DOI: 10.1111/cogs.12852] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/08/2019] [Revised: 03/18/2020] [Accepted: 04/24/2020] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
The distribution of cultural variants in a population is shaped by both neutral evolutionary dynamics and by selection pressures. The temporal dynamics of social network connectivity, that is, the order in which individuals in a population interact with each other, has been largely unexplored. In this paper, we investigate how, in a fully connected social network, connectivity dynamics, alone and in interaction with different cognitive biases, affect the evolution of cultural variants. Using agent-based computer simulations, we manipulate population connectivity dynamics (early, mid, and late full-population connectivity); content bias, or a preference for high-quality variants; coordination bias, or whether agents tend to use self-produced variants (egocentric bias), or to switch to variants observed in others (allocentric bias); and memory size, or the number of items that agents can store in their memory. We show that connectivity dynamics affect the time-course of variant spread, with lower connectivity slowing down convergence of the population onto a single cultural variant. We also show that, compared to a neutral evolutionary model, content bias accelerates convergence and amplifies the effects of connectivity dynamics, while larger memory size and coordination bias, especially egocentric bias, slow down convergence. Furthermore, connectivity dynamics affect the frequency of high-quality variants (adaptiveness), with late connectivity populations showing bursts of rapid change in adaptiveness followed by periods of relatively slower change, and early connectivity populations following a single-peak evolutionary dynamic. We evaluate our simulations against existing data collected from previous experiments and show how our model reproduces the empirical patterns of convergence.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Bradley Walker
- School of Psychological Sciences, University of Western Australia
| | - Nicolas Fay
- School of Psychological Sciences, University of Western Australia
| | - Monica Tamariz
- Psychology, School of Social Sciences, Heriot-Watt University
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8
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Chimento M, Alarcón-Nieto G, Aplin LM. Population turnover facilitates cultural selection for efficiency in birds. Curr Biol 2021; 31:2477-2483.e3. [PMID: 33826905 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.03.057] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/05/2021] [Revised: 03/08/2021] [Accepted: 03/16/2021] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Abstract
Culture, defined as socially transmitted information and behaviors that are shared in groups and persist over time, is increasingly accepted to occur across a wide range of taxa and behavioral domains.1 While persistent, cultural traits are not necessarily static, and their distribution can change in frequency and type in response to selective pressures, analogous to that of genetic alleles. This has led to the treatment of culture as an evolutionary process, with cultural evolutionary theory arguing that culture exhibits the three fundamental components of Darwinian evolution: variation, competition, and inheritance.2-5 Selection for more efficient behaviors over alternatives is a crucial component of cumulative cultural evolution,6 yet our understanding of how and when such cultural selection occurs in non-human animals is limited. We performed a cultural diffusion experiment using 18 captive populations of wild-caught great tits (Parus major) to ask whether more efficient foraging traditions are selected for, and whether this process is affected by a fundamental demographic process-population turnover. Our results showed that gradual replacement of individuals with naive immigrants greatly increased the probability that a more efficient behavior invaded a population's cultural repertoire and outcompeted an established inefficient behavior. Fine-scale, automated behavioral tracking revealed that turnover did not increase innovation rates, but instead acted on adoption rates, as immigrants disproportionately sampled novel, efficient behaviors relative to available social information. These results provide strong evidence for cultural selection for efficiency in animals, and highlight the mechanism that links population turnover to this process.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael Chimento
- Cognitive and Cultural Ecology Lab, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Am Obstberg 1, 78315 Radolfzell, Germany; Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour, Konstanz University, Universitätsstraße 10, 78464 Konstanz, Germany; Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Universitätsstraße 10, 78464 Konstanz, Germany.
| | - Gustavo Alarcón-Nieto
- Cognitive and Cultural Ecology Lab, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Am Obstberg 1, 78315 Radolfzell, Germany
| | - Lucy M Aplin
- Cognitive and Cultural Ecology Lab, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Am Obstberg 1, 78315 Radolfzell, Germany; Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour, Konstanz University, Universitätsstraße 10, 78464 Konstanz, Germany
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9
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Lipo CP, DiNapoli RJ, Madsen ME, Hunt TL. Population structure drives cultural diversity in finite populations: A hypothesis for localized community patterns on Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile). PLoS One 2021; 16:e0250690. [PMID: 33979335 PMCID: PMC8115772 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0250690] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/28/2020] [Accepted: 04/13/2021] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
Understanding how and why cultural diversity changes in human populations remains a central topic of debate in cultural evolutionary studies. Due to the effects of drift, small and isolated populations face evolutionary challenges in the retention of richness and diversity of cultural information. Such variation, however, can have significant fitness consequences, particularly when environmental conditions change unpredictably, such that knowledge about past environments may be key to long-term persistence. Factors that can shape the outcomes of drift within a population include the semantics of the traits as well as spatially structured social networks. Here, we use cultural transmission simulations to explore how social network structure and interaction affect the rate of trait retention and extinction. Using Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile) as an example, we develop a model-based hypothesis for how the structural constraints of communities living in small, isolated populations had dramatic effects and likely led to preventing the loss of cultural information in both community patterning and technology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carl P. Lipo
- Department of Anthropology, Environmental Studies Program, Harpur College of Arts and Sciences, Binghamton University, Binghamton, NY, United States of America
| | - Robert J. DiNapoli
- Department of Anthropology, Environmental Studies Program, Harpur College of Arts and Sciences, Binghamton University, Binghamton, NY, United States of America
| | - Mark E. Madsen
- Department of Anthropology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States of America
| | - Terry L. Hunt
- The Honors College and School of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, United States of America
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10
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Abstract
Cultural diversity is disappearing quickly. Whilst a phylogenetic approach makes explicit the continuous extinction of cultures, and the generation of new ones, cultural evolutionary changes such as the rise of agriculture or more recently colonisation can cause periods of mass cultural extinction. At the current rate, 90% of languages will become extinct or moribund by the end of this century. Unlike biological extinction, cultural extinction does not necessarily involve genetic extinction or even deaths, but results from the disintegration of a social entity and discontinuation of culture-specific behaviours. Here we propose an analytical framework to examine the phenomenon of cultural extinction. When examined over millennia, extinctions of cultural traits or institutions can be studied in a phylogenetic comparative framework that incorporates archaeological data on ancestral states. Over decades or centuries, cultural extinction can be studied in a behavioural ecology framework to investigate how the fitness consequences of cultural behaviours and population dynamics shift individual behaviours away from the traditional norms. Frequency-dependent costs and benefits are key to understanding both the origin and the loss of cultural diversity. We review recent evolutionary studies that have informed cultural extinction processes and discuss avenues of future studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hanzhi Zhang
- Department of Anthropology, University College London, LondonWC1H 0BW, UK
| | - Ruth Mace
- Department of Anthropology, University College London, LondonWC1H 0BW, UK
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11
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Padilla-Iglesias C, Gjesfjeld E, Vinicius L. Geographical and social isolation drive the evolution of Austronesian languages. PLoS One 2020; 15:e0243171. [PMID: 33259529 PMCID: PMC7707576 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0243171] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/18/2020] [Accepted: 11/16/2020] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
The origins of linguistic diversity remain controversial. Studies disagree on whether group features such as population size or social structure accelerate or decelerate linguistic differentiation. While some analyses of between-group factors highlight the role of geographical isolation and reduced linguistic exchange in differentiation, others suggest that linguistic divergence is driven primarily by warfare among neighbouring groups and the use of language as marker of group identity. Here we provide the first integrated test of the effects of five historical sociodemographic and geographic variables on three measures of linguistic diversification among 50 Austronesian languages: rates of word gain, loss and overall lexical turnover. We control for their shared evolutionary histories through a time-calibrated phylogenetic sister-pairs approach. Results show that languages spoken in larger communities create new words at a faster pace. Within-group conflict promotes linguistic differentiation by increasing word loss, while warfare hinders linguistic differentiation by decreasing both rates of word gain and loss. Finally, we show that geographical isolation is a strong driver of lexical evolution mainly due to a considerable drift-driven acceleration in rates of word loss. We conclude that the motor of extreme linguistic diversity in Austronesia may have been the dispersal of populations across relatively isolated islands, favouring strong cultural ties amongst societies instead of warfare and cultural group marking.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Erik Gjesfjeld
- Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Lucio Vinicius
- Department of Anthropology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
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12
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Strassberg SS, Creanza N. Cultural evolution and prehistoric demography. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2020; 376:20190713. [PMID: 33250027 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2019.0713] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
One prominent feature of human culture is that different populations have different tools, technologies and cultural artefacts, and these unique toolkits can also differ in size and complexity. Over the past few decades, researchers in the fields of prehistoric demography and cultural evolution have addressed a number of questions regarding variation in toolkit size and complexity across prehistoric and modern populations. Several factors have been proposed as possible explanations for this variation: in particular, the mobility of a population, the resources it uses, the volatility of its environment and the number of individuals in the population. Using a variety of methods, including empirical and ethnographic research, computational models and laboratory-based experiments, researchers have found disparate results regarding each hypothesis. These discordant findings have led to debate over the factors that most significantly influence toolkit size and composition. For instance, several computational, empirical and laboratory studies of food-producing populations have found a positive correlation between the number of individuals in a population and toolkit size, whereas similar studies of hunter-gatherer populations have found little evidence of such a link. In this paper, we conduct a comprehensive review of the literature in this field of study and propose corollaries and interdisciplinary approaches with the goal of reconciling dissimilar findings into a more comprehensive view of cultural toolkit variation. This article is part of the theme issue 'Cross-disciplinary approaches to prehistoric demography'.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Nicole Creanza
- Department of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37240, USA
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13
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Subiaul F, Stanton MA. Intuitive invention by summative imitation in children and adults. Cognition 2020; 202:104320. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104320] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/07/2019] [Revised: 04/22/2020] [Accepted: 05/03/2020] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
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14
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Romano V, Lozano S, Fernández‐López de Pablo J. A multilevel analytical framework for studying cultural evolution in prehistoric hunter-gatherer societies. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc 2020; 95:1020-1035. [PMID: 32237025 PMCID: PMC7383820 DOI: 10.1111/brv.12599] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/14/2019] [Revised: 03/10/2020] [Accepted: 03/17/2020] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Over the past decade, a major debate has taken place on the underpinnings of cultural changes in human societies. A growing array of evidence in behavioural and evolutionary biology has revealed that social connectivity among populations and within them affects, and is affected by, culture. Yet the interplay between prehistoric hunter-gatherer social structure and cultural transmission has typically been overlooked. Interestingly, the archaeological record contains large data sets, allowing us to track cultural changes over thousands of years: they thus offer a unique opportunity to shed light on long-term cultural transmission processes. In this review, we demonstrate how well-developed methods for social structure analysis can increase our understanding of the selective pressures underlying cumulative culture. We propose a multilevel analytical framework that considers finer aspects of the complex social structure in which regional groups of prehistoric hunter-gatherers were embedded. We put forward predictions of cultural transmission based on local- and global-level network metrics of small-scale societies and their potential effects on cumulative culture. By bridging the gaps between network science, palaeodemography and cultural evolution, we draw attention to the use of the archaeological record to depict patterns of social interactions and transmission variability. We argue that this new framework will contribute to improving our understanding of social interaction patterns, as well as the contexts in which cultural changes occur. Ultimately, this may provide insights into the evolution of human behaviour.
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Affiliation(s)
- Valéria Romano
- Instituto Universitario de Investigación en Arqueología y Patrimonio Histórico (INAPH)Universidad de Alicante, Edificio Institutos Universitarios03690San Vicente del RaspeigAlicanteSpain
- Institut Català de Paleoecología Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES), Edificio W3, Campus Sescelades URV, Zona Educacional 443007TarragonaSpain
| | - Sergi Lozano
- Institut Català de Paleoecología Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES), Edificio W3, Campus Sescelades URV, Zona Educacional 443007TarragonaSpain
- Departament d'Història Econòmica, Institucions, Política i Economia MundialUniversitat de Barcelona, Av. Diagonal 69008034BarcelonaSpain
- Universitat de Barcelona Institute of Complex Systems (UBICS)Universitat de Barcelona, Martí Franqués 108028BarcelonaSpain
| | - Javier Fernández‐López de Pablo
- Instituto Universitario de Investigación en Arqueología y Patrimonio Histórico (INAPH)Universidad de Alicante, Edificio Institutos Universitarios03690San Vicente del RaspeigAlicanteSpain
- Institut Català de Paleoecología Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES), Edificio W3, Campus Sescelades URV, Zona Educacional 443007TarragonaSpain
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15
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Lew-Levy S, Milks A, Lavi N, Pope SM, Friesem DE. Where innovations flourish: an ethnographic and archaeological overview of hunter-gatherer learning contexts. EVOLUTIONARY HUMAN SCIENCES 2020; 2:e31. [PMID: 37588392 PMCID: PMC10427478 DOI: 10.1017/ehs.2020.35] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Research in developmental psychology suggests that children are poor tool innovators. However, such research often overlooks the ways in which children's social and physical environments may lead to cross-cultural variation in their opportunities and proclivity to innovate. In this paper, we examine contemporary hunter-gatherer child and adolescent contributions to tool innovation. We posit that the cultural and subsistence context of many hunter-gatherer societies fosters behavioural flexibility, including innovative capabilities. Using the ethnographic and developmental literature, we suggest that socialisation practices emphasised in hunter-gatherer societies, including learning through autonomous exploration, adult and peer teaching, play and innovation seeking may bolster children's ability to innovate. We also discuss whether similar socialisation practices can be interpreted from the archaeological record. We end by pointing to areas of future study for understanding the role of children and adolescents in the development of tool innovations across cultures in the past and present.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sheina Lew-Levy
- Simon Fraser University, Department of Psychology, Burnaby, BC, Canada
- Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Annemieke Milks
- Institute of Archaeology, University College London, London, UK
| | - Noa Lavi
- Department of Anthropology, University College London, London, UK
| | - Sarah M. Pope
- Department of Comparative and Cultural Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - David E. Friesem
- McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
- Zinman Institute of Archaeology, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel
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16
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Derex M, Mesoudi A. Cumulative Cultural Evolution within Evolving Population Structures. Trends Cogn Sci 2020; 24:654-667. [PMID: 32466991 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2020.04.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 42] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/20/2020] [Revised: 04/24/2020] [Accepted: 04/28/2020] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
Our species has the peculiar ability to accumulate cultural innovations over multiple generations, a phenomenon termed 'cumulative cultural evolution' (CCE). Recent years have seen a proliferation of empirical and theoretical work exploring the interplay between demography and CCE. This has generated intense discussion about whether demographic models can help explain historical patterns of cultural changes. Here, we synthesize empirical and theoretical studies from multiple fields to highlight how both population size and structure can shape the pool of cultural information that individuals can build upon to innovate, present the potential pathways through which humans' unique social structure might promote CCE, and discuss whether humans' social networks might partly result from selection pressures linked to our extensive reliance on culturally accumulated knowledge.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maxime Derex
- Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse, UMR 5314, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Toulouse 31015, France.
| | - Alex Mesoudi
- Human Behaviour and Cultural Evolution Group, Department of Biosciences, University of Exeter, Penryn, TR10 9FE, UK
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Ashton BJ, Thornton A, Ridley AR. Larger group sizes facilitate the emergence and spread of innovations in a group-living bird. Anim Behav 2019; 158:1-7. [PMID: 31875855 PMCID: PMC6915762 DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2019.10.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/05/2018] [Revised: 01/30/2019] [Accepted: 08/27/2019] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
The benefits of group living have traditionally been attributed to risk dilution or the efficient exploitation of resources; individuals in social groups may therefore benefit from access to valuable information. If sociality facilitates access to information, then individuals in larger groups may be predicted to solve novel problems faster than individuals in smaller groups. Additionally, larger group sizes may facilitate the subsequent spread of innovations within animal groups, as has been proposed for human societies. We presented a novel foraging task (where a food reward could be accessed by pushing a self-shutting sliding door) to 16 groups of wild, cooperatively breeding Australian magpies, Cracticus tibicen dorsalis, ranging in size from two to 11 individuals. We found a nonlinear decline in the time taken for the innovative behaviour to emerge with increasing group size, and social information use facilitated the transmission of novel behaviour, with it spreading more quickly in larger than smaller groups. This study provides important evidence for a nonlinear relationship between group size and the emergence of innovation (and its subsequent transmission) in a wild population of animals. Further work investigating the scope and strength of group size-innovation relationships, and the mechanisms underpinning them, will help us understand the potential advantages of living in larger social groups.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benjamin J. Ashton
- Centre for Evolutionary Biology, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Alex Thornton
- Centre for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus, UK
| | - Amanda R. Ridley
- Centre for Evolutionary Biology, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia
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18
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Abstract
Cumulative technological culture (CTC) refers to the increase in the efficiency and complexity of tools and techniques in human populations over generations. A fascinating question is to understand the cognitive origins of this phenomenon. Because CTC is definitely a social phenomenon, most accounts have suggested a series of cognitive mechanisms oriented toward the social dimension (e.g., teaching, imitation, theory of mind, and metacognition), thereby minimizing the technical dimension and the potential influence of non-social, cognitive skills. What if we have failed to see the elephant in the room? What if social cognitive mechanisms were only catalyzing factors and not the sufficient and necessary conditions for the emergence of CTC? In this article, we offer an alternative, unified cognitive approach to this phenomenon by assuming that CTC originates in non-social cognitive skills, namely technical-reasoning skills which enable humans to develop the technical potential necessary to constantly acquire and improve technical information. This leads us to discuss how theory of mind and metacognition, in concert with technical reasoning, can help boost CTC. The cognitive approach developed here opens up promising new avenues for reinterpreting classical issues (e.g., innovation, emulation vs. imitation, social vs. asocial learning, cooperation, teaching, and overimitation) in a field that has so far been largely dominated by other disciplines, such as evolutionary biology, mathematics, anthropology, archeology, economics, and philosophy.
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Muthukrishna M, Schaller M. Are Collectivistic Cultures More Prone to Rapid Transformation? Computational Models of Cross-Cultural Differences, Social Network Structure, Dynamic Social Influence, and Cultural Change. PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY REVIEW 2019; 24:103-120. [PMID: 31253070 DOI: 10.1177/1088868319855783] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
Societies differ in susceptibility to social influence and in the social network structure through which individuals influence each other. What implications might these cultural differences have for changes in cultural norms over time? Using parameters informed by empirical evidence, we computationally modeled these cross-cultural differences to predict two forms of cultural change: consolidation of opinion majorities into stronger majorities, and the spread of initially unpopular beliefs. Results obtained from more than 300,000 computer simulations showed that in populations characterized by greater susceptibility to social influence, there was more rapid consolidation of majority opinion and also more successful spread of initially unpopular beliefs. Initially unpopular beliefs also spread more readily in populations characterized by less densely connected social networks. These computational outputs highlight the value of computational modeling methods as a means to specify hypotheses about specific ways in which cross-cultural differences may have long-term consequences for cultural stability and cultural change.
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20
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Tureček P, Slavík J, Kozák M, Havlíček J. Non-particulate inheritance revisited: evolution in systems with Parental Variability-Dependent Inheritance. Biol J Linn Soc Lond 2019. [DOI: 10.1093/biolinnean/blz041] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Petr Tureček
- Department of Philosophy and History of Science, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Viničná, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Jakub Slavík
- Department of Stochastic Informatics, Institute of Information Theory and Automation, The Czech Academy of Sciences, Pod Vodárenskou věží Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Michal Kozák
- Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Trojanova, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Jan Havlíček
- Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Viničná, Prague, Czech Republic
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21
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Abstract
The extent to which larger populations enhance cumulative cultural evolution (CCE) is contentious. We report a large-scale experiment (n = 543) that investigates the CCE of technology (paper planes and their flight distances) using a transmission-chain design. Population size was manipulated such that participants could learn from the paper planes constructed by one, two, or four models from the prior generation. These social-learning conditions were compared with an asocial individual-learning condition in which individual participants made repeated attempts at constructing a paper plane, without having access to any planes produced by other participants. Larger populations generated greater variation in plane performance and gave participants access to better-adapted planes, but this did not enhance CCE. In fact, there was an inverse relationship between population size and CCE: plane flight distance did not improve over the experimental generations in the 2-Model and 4-Model conditions, but did improve over generations in the 1-Model social-learning condition. The incremental improvement in plane flight distance in the 1-Model social-learning condition was comparable to that in the Individual Learning condition, highlighting the importance of trial-and-error learning to artifact innovation and adaptation. An exploratory analysis indicated that the greater variation participants had access to in the larger populations may have overwhelmed their working memory and weakened their ability to selectively copy the best-adapted plane(s). We conclude that larger populations do not enhance artifact performance via CCE, and that it may be only under certain specific conditions that larger population sizes enhance CCE.
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22
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Do a few tools necessarily mean a few people? A techno-morphological approach to the question of group size at Gesher Benot Ya'aqov, Israel. J Hum Evol 2019; 128:45-58. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2018.11.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/02/2018] [Revised: 11/12/2018] [Accepted: 11/12/2018] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
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23
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Fogarty L. Cultural complexity and evolution in fluctuating environments. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2018; 373:rstb.2017.0063. [PMID: 29440528 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2017.0063] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 12/12/2017] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
The effect of environmental change on the rate of innovation and level of cultural complexity in a population is a theoretically understudied piece of an important puzzle at the heart of cultural evolution. Many mathematical models of cultural complexity have focused on the role of demographic factors such as population size or density. However, statistical studies often point to environmental variability as an important factor determining complexity in many cases. The aim of this study is to explore the interaction between environmental fluctuations and the rate of cultural innovation within a population and to examine the relationship between rates of innovation and the probability of maintaining a complex cultural repertoire in a changing environment. Two models are presented that draw on previous models used to examine rates of genetic mutation. The models show that, as in a genetic system, the stable rate of cultural innovation in a population decreases with environmental stability and increases in unstable environments. This effect is similar but quantitatively different for different modes of cultural transmission (success bias, conformity bias and random oblique learning). The model shows that innovation can increase diversity but that this relationship depends critically on learning mode and learning parameters.This article is part of the theme issue 'Bridging cultural gaps: interdisciplinary studies in human cultural evolution'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laurel Fogarty
- CoMPLEX, University College London, Gower Street, London W1E 6BT, UK
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24
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Derex M, Perreault C, Boyd R. Divide and conquer: intermediate levels of population fragmentation maximize cultural accumulation. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2018; 373:rstb.2017.0062. [PMID: 29440527 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2017.0062] [Citation(s) in RCA: 53] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 12/01/2017] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Identifying the determinants of cumulative cultural evolution is a key issue in the interdisciplinary field of cultural evolution. A widely held view is that large and well-connected social networks facilitate cumulative cultural evolution because they promote the spread of useful cultural traits and prevent the loss of cultural knowledge through factors such as drift. This view stems from models that focus on the transmission of cultural information, without considering how new cultural traits actually arise. In this paper, we review the literature from various fields that suggest that, under some circumstances, increased connectedness can decrease cultural diversity and reduce innovation rates. Incorporating this idea into an agent-based model, we explore the effect of population fragmentation on cumulative culture and show that, for a given population size, there exists an intermediate level of population fragmentation that maximizes the rate of cumulative cultural evolution. This result is explained by the fact that fully connected, non-fragmented populations are able to maintain complex cultural traits but produce insufficient variation and so lack the cultural diversity required to produce highly complex cultural traits. Conversely, highly fragmented populations produce a variety of cultural traits but cannot maintain complex ones. In populations with intermediate levels of fragmentation, cultural loss and cultural diversity are balanced in a way that maximizes cultural complexity. Our results suggest that population structure needs to be taken into account when investigating the relationship between demography and cumulative culture.This article is part of the theme issue 'Bridging cultural gaps: interdisciplinary studies in human cultural evolution'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maxime Derex
- Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA .,Human Biological and Cultural Evolution Group, Department of Biosciences, University of Exeter, Penryn TR10 9FE, UK.,Laboratory for Experimental Anthropology-ETHICS (EA 7446), Lille Catholic University, 59016 Lille, France
| | - Charles Perreault
- Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA.,School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA
| | - Robert Boyd
- Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA.,School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA
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25
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Kapitány R, Kavanagh C, Whitehouse H, Nielsen M. Examining memory for ritualized gesture in complex causal sequences. Cognition 2018; 181:46-57. [PMID: 30125739 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2018.08.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/16/2018] [Revised: 08/06/2018] [Accepted: 08/07/2018] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Humans have created and maintained an exponentially large and sophisticated behavioral corpus over evolutionary time. In no small part this was achieved due to our tendency to imitate behaviours rather than to emulate outcomes. This tendency, however, can lead to inefficiency and redundancy in our behavioral repertoires. Drawing on evidence from multiple fields of psychology, we propose two novel competing hypotheses. The 'catalyst hypothesis' suggests that low (but not high) proportions of ritualized gesture in instrumental action sequences will improve subsequent recall of the entire action sequence (without itself enhancing the instrumental utility of the sequence). Conversely, the 'cost hypothesis' suggests that increasing proportions of ritualized gesture will impair recall, due to the introduction of cognitive load. The null hypothesis states that ritualized gestures are neither beneficial nor costly. In a pre-registered experiment, we presented participants with multiple versions of two complicated 2-min action sequences in which we varied the proportion of ritualized gesture. We then quantified the influence ritualized gesture had on recall for individuals gestures, overall outcomes, and described detail. We found clear evidence that high proportions of ritualized gestures impair recall for individual gestures and overall success, and weak evidence that low proportions increase overall success. At present, we may reject the null, but cannot rule out either of our competing hypotheses. We discuss potential implications for cultural evolution, and generate competing predictions that allow for adjudication between Ritual Modes theory (Whitehouse, 2004) and the 'Cognitive Resource Depletion' account of Religious Interaction (Schjoedt et al., 2013). All files (including data and syntax) are freely available at https://osf.io/spz68/.
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Affiliation(s)
- R Kapitány
- The University of Oxford, United Kingdom.
| | - C Kavanagh
- The University of Oxford, United Kingdom; Hokkaido University, United Kingdom
| | | | - M Nielsen
- The University of Queensland, Australia; University of Johannesburg, South Africa
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26
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Miton H, Charbonneau M. Cumulative culture in the laboratory: methodological and theoretical challenges. Proc Biol Sci 2018; 285:20180677. [PMID: 29848653 PMCID: PMC5998114 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2018.0677] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/25/2018] [Accepted: 05/08/2018] [Indexed: 12/23/2022] Open
Abstract
In the last decade, cultural transmission experiments (transmission chains, replacement, closed groups and seeded groups) have become important experimental tools in investigating cultural evolution. However, these methods face important challenges, especially regarding the operationalization of theoretical claims. In this review, we focus on the study of cumulative cultural evolution, the process by which traditions are gradually modified and, for technological traditions in particular, improved upon over time. We identify several mismatches between theoretical definitions of cumulative culture and their implementation in cultural transmission experiments. We argue that observed performance increase can be the result of participants learning faster in a group context rather than effectively leading to a cumulative effect. We also show that in laboratory experiments, participants are asked to complete quite simple tasks, which can undermine the evidential value of the diagnostic criterion traditionally used for cumulative culture (i.e. that cumulative culture is a process that produces solutions that no single individual could have invented on their own). We show that the use of unidimensional metrics of cumulativeness drastically curtail the variation that may be observed, which raises specific issues in the interpretation of the experimental evidence. We suggest several solutions to these mismatches (learning times, task complexity and variation) and develop the use of design spaces in experimentally investigating old and new questions about cumulative culture.
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Affiliation(s)
- Helena Miton
- Department of Cognitive Science, Central European University, Október 6 u., 7, 1051, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Mathieu Charbonneau
- Department of Cognitive Science, Central European University, Október 6 u., 7, 1051, Budapest, Hungary
- Department of Philosophy, Central European University, Nádor u., 13, 1051, Budapest, Hungary
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27
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McGuigan N, Burdett E, Burgess V, Dean L, Lucas A, Vale G, Whiten A. Innovation and social transmission in experimental micro-societies: exploring the scope of cumulative culture in young children. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2018; 372:rstb.2016.0425. [PMID: 29061897 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2016.0425] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 07/26/2017] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The experimental study of cumulative culture and the innovations essential to it is a young science, with child studies so rare that the scope of cumulative cultural capacities in childhood remains largely unknown. Here we report a new experimental approach to the inherent complexity of these phenomena. Groups of 3-4-year-old children were presented with an elaborate array of challenges affording the potential cumulative development of a variety of techniques to gain increasingly attractive rewards. In contrast to a prior study, we found evidence for elementary forms of cumulative cultural progress, with inventions of solutions at lower levels spreading to become shared innovations, and some children then building on these to create more advanced but more rewarding innovations. This contrasted with markedly more constrained progress when children worked only by themselves, or if groups faced only the highest-level challenges from the start. Further experiments that introduced higher-level inventions via the inclusion of older children, or that created ecological change, with the easiest habitual solutions no longer possible, encouraged higher levels of cumulative innovation. Our results show children are not merely 'cultural sponges', but when acting in groups, display the beginnings of cycles of innovation and observational learning that sustain cumulative progress in problem solving.This article is part of the themed issue 'Process and pattern in innovations from cells to societies'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicola McGuigan
- Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, South Street, St Andrews KY16 9JP, UK.,School of Life Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, UK
| | - Emily Burdett
- Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, South Street, St Andrews KY16 9JP, UK.,Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX2 6PN, UK.,Brain, Belief, and Behavior Lab; Centre for Psychology, Behaviour, and Achievement, Coventry University, Coventry CV1 5FB, UK
| | - Vanessa Burgess
- Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, South Street, St Andrews KY16 9JP, UK
| | - Lewis Dean
- Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, South Street, St Andrews KY16 9JP, UK
| | - Amanda Lucas
- Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, South Street, St Andrews KY16 9JP, UK.,College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter TR10 9EZ, UK
| | - Gillian Vale
- Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, South Street, St Andrews KY16 9JP, UK.,National Center for Chimpanzee Care, Michale E. Keeling Center for Comparative Medicine and Research, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Bastrop, TX, USA.,Departments of Psychology and Philosophy, Neuroscience, Institute and Language Research Center, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Andrew Whiten
- Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, South Street, St Andrews KY16 9JP, UK
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28
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Smaldino PE. Social identity and cooperation in cultural evolution. Behav Processes 2017; 161:108-116. [PMID: 29223462 DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2017.11.015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/24/2017] [Revised: 11/06/2017] [Accepted: 11/24/2017] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
I discuss the function of social identity signaling in facilitating cooperative group formation, and how the nature of that function changes with the structure of social organization. I propose that signals of social identity facilitate assortment for successful coordination in large-scale societies, and that the multidimensional, context-dependent nature of social identity is crucial for successful coordination when individuals have to cooperate in different contexts. Furthermore, the structure of social identity is tied to the structure of society, so that as societies grow larger and more interconnected, the landscape of social identities grows more heterogeneous. This discussion bears directly on the need to articulate the dynamics of emergent, ephemeral groups as a major factor in human cultural evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paul E Smaldino
- Cognitive and Information Sciences, University of California, 5200 N. Lake Rd, Merced, CA 95340 United States.
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29
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Mesoudi A. Pursuing Darwin's curious parallel: Prospects for a science of cultural evolution. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2017; 114:7853-7860. [PMID: 28739929 PMCID: PMC5544269 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1620741114] [Citation(s) in RCA: 42] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
In the past few decades, scholars from several disciplines have pursued the curious parallel noted by Darwin between the genetic evolution of species and the cultural evolution of beliefs, skills, knowledge, languages, institutions, and other forms of socially transmitted information. Here, I review current progress in the pursuit of an evolutionary science of culture that is grounded in both biological and evolutionary theory, but also treats culture as more than a proximate mechanism that is directly controlled by genes. Both genetic and cultural evolution can be described as systems of inherited variation that change over time in response to processes such as selection, migration, and drift. Appropriate differences between genetic and cultural change are taken seriously, such as the possibility in the latter of nonrandomly guided variation or transformation, blending inheritance, and one-to-many transmission. The foundation of cultural evolution was laid in the late 20th century with population-genetic style models of cultural microevolution, and the use of phylogenetic methods to reconstruct cultural macroevolution. Since then, there have been major efforts to understand the sociocognitive mechanisms underlying cumulative cultural evolution, the consequences of demography on cultural evolution, the empirical validity of assumed social learning biases, the relative role of transformative and selective processes, and the use of quantitative phylogenetic and multilevel selection models to understand past and present dynamics of society-level change. I conclude by highlighting the interdisciplinary challenges of studying cultural evolution, including its relation to the traditional social sciences and humanities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alex Mesoudi
- Human Biological and Cultural Evolution Group, Department of Biosciences, University of Exeter, Penryn, Cornwall TR10 9FE, United Kingdom
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30
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31
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Cooperative Learning Groups and the Evolution of Human Adaptability : (Another Reason) Why Hermits Are Rare in Tonga and Elsewhere. HUMAN NATURE (HAWTHORNE, N.Y.) 2017; 28:1-15. [PMID: 27771861 DOI: 10.1007/s12110-016-9276-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
Understanding the prevalence of adaptive culture in part requires understanding the dynamics of learning. Here we explore the adaptive value of social learning in groups and how formal social groups function as effective mediums of information exchange. We discuss the education literature on Cooperative Learning Groups (CLGs), which outlines the potential of group learning for enhancing learning outcomes. Four qualities appear essential for CLGs to enhance learning: (1) extended conversations, (2) regular interactions, (3) gathering of experts, and (4) incentives for sharing knowledge. We analyze these four qualities within the context of a small-scale agricultural society using data we collected in 2010 and 2012. Through an analysis of surveys, interviews, and observations in the Tongan islands, we describe the role CLGs likely plays in facilitating individuals' learning of adaptive information. Our analysis of group affiliation, membership, and topics of conversation suggest that the first three CLG qualities reflect conditions for adaptive learning in groups. We utilize ethnographic anecdotes to suggest the fourth quality is also conducive to adaptive group learning. Using an evolutionary model, we further explore the scope for CLGs outside the Tongan socioecological context. Model analysis shows that environmental volatility and migration rates among human groups mediate the scope for CLGs. We call for wider attention to how group structure facilitates learning in informal settings, which may be key to assessing the contribution of groups to the evolution of complex, adaptive culture.
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32
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Kolodny O, Creanza N, Feldman MW. Game-Changing Innovations: How Culture Can Change the Parameters of Its Own Evolution and Induce Abrupt Cultural Shifts. PLoS Comput Biol 2016; 12:e1005302. [PMID: 28036346 PMCID: PMC5241012 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005302] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/03/2016] [Revised: 01/17/2017] [Accepted: 12/12/2016] [Indexed: 12/01/2022] Open
Abstract
One of the most puzzling features of the prehistoric record of hominid stone tools is its apparent punctuation: it consists of abrupt bursts of dramatic change that separate long periods of largely unchanging technology. Within each such period, small punctuated cultural modifications take place. Punctuation on multiple timescales and magnitudes is also found in cultural trajectories from historical times. To explain these sharp cultural bursts, researchers invoke such external factors as sudden environmental change, rapid cognitive or morphological change in the hominids that created the tools, or replacement of one species or population by another. Here we propose a dynamic model of cultural evolution that accommodates empirical observations: without invoking external factors, it gives rise to a pattern of rare, dramatic cultural bursts, interspersed by more frequent, smaller, punctuated cultural modifications. Our model includes interdependent innovation processes that occur at different rates. It also incorporates a realistic aspect of cultural evolution: cultural innovations, such as those that increase food availability or that affect cultural transmission, can change the parameters that affect cultural evolution, thereby altering the population’s cultural dynamics and steady state. This steady state can be regarded as a cultural carrying capacity. These parameter-changing cultural innovations occur very rarely, but whenever one occurs, it triggers a dramatic shift towards a new cultural steady state. The smaller and more frequent punctuated cultural changes, on the other hand, are brought about by innovations that spur the invention of further, related, technology, and which occur regardless of whether the population is near its cultural steady state. Our model suggests that common interpretations of cultural shifts as evidence of biological change, for example the appearance of behaviorally modern humans, may be unwarranted. The ability to accumulate culture is unique to hominids. Yet, understanding of the processes that drive cultural evolution is limited. We develop a computational model that incorporates characteristics of human innovation and offers an explanation for one of the puzzling observations in the archaeological record of stone tools: its extreme punctuation. The record shows long periods of little technological change, interspersed with abrupt increases in cultural complexity. Within these periods of relative stasis smaller punctuations occur, with sudden gain or loss of suites of tools. We suggest that the two types of punctuation may result from two processes: small punctuations are driven by innovations that trigger invention of related tools, and large punctuations reflect changes in the steady state of the size of the population’s tool repertoire. In our model, these changes of steady state occur when cultural processes can change the parameters of their own evolution. This occurs, for example, through innovations that change the availability of food and lead to an increased population size or innovations that increase the effectiveness of cultural transmission. Our results suggest that the common attribution of sudden cultural shifts to external processes such as cognitive or environmental change may be unwarranted.
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Affiliation(s)
- Oren Kolodny
- Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States of America
- * E-mail: (OK); (NC)
| | - Nicole Creanza
- Department of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America
- * E-mail: (OK); (NC)
| | - Marcus W. Feldman
- Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States of America
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34
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Muthukrishna M, Henrich J. Innovation in the collective brain. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2016; 371:rstb.2015.0192. [PMID: 26926282 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2015.0192] [Citation(s) in RCA: 90] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Innovation is often assumed to be the work of a talented few, whose products are passed on to the masses. Here, we argue that innovations are instead an emergent property of our species' cultural learning abilities, applied within our societies and social networks. Our societies and social networks act as collective brains. We outline how many human brains, which evolved primarily for the acquisition of culture, together beget a collective brain. Within these collective brains, the three main sources of innovation are serendipity, recombination and incremental improvement. We argue that rates of innovation are heavily influenced by (i) sociality, (ii) transmission fidelity, and (iii) cultural variance. We discuss some of the forces that affect these factors. These factors can also shape each other. For example, we provide preliminary evidence that transmission efficiency is affected by sociality--languages with more speakers are more efficient. We argue that collective brains can make each of their constituent cultural brains more innovative. This perspective sheds light on traits, such as IQ, that have been implicated in innovation. A collective brain perspective can help us understand otherwise puzzling findings in the IQ literature, including group differences, heritability differences and the dramatic increase in IQ test scores over time.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael Muthukrishna
- Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA Department of Social Psychology, London School of Economics, London WC2A 3LJ, UK
| | - Joseph Henrich
- Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
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35
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Can Simple Transmission Chains Foster Collective Intelligence in Binary-Choice Tasks? PLoS One 2016; 11:e0167223. [PMID: 27880825 PMCID: PMC5120860 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0167223] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/09/2016] [Accepted: 11/10/2016] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
In many social systems, groups of individuals can find remarkably efficient solutions to complex cognitive problems, sometimes even outperforming a single expert. The success of the group, however, crucially depends on how the judgments of the group members are aggregated to produce the collective answer. A large variety of such aggregation methods have been described in the literature, such as averaging the independent judgments, relying on the majority or setting up a group discussion. In the present work, we introduce a novel approach for aggregating judgments—the transmission chain—which has not yet been consistently evaluated in the context of collective intelligence. In a transmission chain, all group members have access to a unique collective solution and can improve it sequentially. Over repeated improvements, the collective solution that emerges reflects the judgments of every group members. We address the question of whether such a transmission chain can foster collective intelligence for binary-choice problems. In a series of numerical simulations, we explore the impact of various factors on the performance of the transmission chain, such as the group size, the model parameters, and the structure of the population. The performance of this method is compared to those of the majority rule and the confidence-weighted majority. Finally, we rely on two existing datasets of individuals performing a series of binary decisions to evaluate the expected performances of the three methods empirically. We find that the parameter space where the transmission chain has the best performance rarely appears in real datasets. We conclude that the transmission chain is best suited for other types of problems, such as those that have cumulative properties.
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The Driving Forces of Cultural Complexity. HUMAN NATURE-AN INTERDISCIPLINARY BIOSOCIAL PERSPECTIVE 2016; 28:39-52. [DOI: 10.1007/s12110-016-9275-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
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Davis SJ, Vale GL, Schapiro SJ, Lambeth SP, Whiten A. Foundations of cumulative culture in apes: improved foraging efficiency through relinquishing and combining witnessed behaviours in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Sci Rep 2016; 6:35953. [PMID: 27775061 PMCID: PMC5075880 DOI: 10.1038/srep35953] [Citation(s) in RCA: 50] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/01/2016] [Accepted: 10/05/2016] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
A vital prerequisite for cumulative culture, a phenomenon often asserted to be unique to humans, is the ability to modify behaviour and flexibly switch to more productive or efficient alternatives. Here, we first established an inefficient solution to a foraging task in five captive chimpanzee groups (N = 19). Three groups subsequently witnessed a conspecific using an alternative, more efficient, solution. When participants could successfully forage with their established behaviours, most individuals did not switch to this more efficient technique; however, when their foraging method became substantially less efficient, nine chimpanzees with socially-acquired information (four of whom witnessed additional human demonstrations) relinquished their old behaviour in favour of the more efficient one. Only a single chimpanzee in control groups, who had not witnessed a knowledgeable model, discovered this. Individuals who switched were later able to combine components of their two learned techniques to produce a more efficient solution than their extensively used, original foraging method. These results suggest that, although chimpanzees show a considerable degree of conservatism, they also have an ability to combine independent behaviours to produce efficient compound action sequences; one of the foundational abilities (or candidate mechanisms) for human cumulative culture.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah J Davis
- Centre for Social learning and Cognitive Evolution, School of Psychology &Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, KY16 9JP, Scotland.,National Center for Chimpanzee Care, Department of Veterinary Sciences, Michale E. Keeling Center for Comparative Medicine and Research, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Bastrop, TX 78602, USA
| | - Gillian L Vale
- Centre for Social learning and Cognitive Evolution, School of Psychology &Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, KY16 9JP, Scotland.,National Center for Chimpanzee Care, Department of Veterinary Sciences, Michale E. Keeling Center for Comparative Medicine and Research, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Bastrop, TX 78602, USA
| | - Steven J Schapiro
- National Center for Chimpanzee Care, Department of Veterinary Sciences, Michale E. Keeling Center for Comparative Medicine and Research, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Bastrop, TX 78602, USA
| | - Susan P Lambeth
- National Center for Chimpanzee Care, Department of Veterinary Sciences, Michale E. Keeling Center for Comparative Medicine and Research, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Bastrop, TX 78602, USA
| | - Andrew Whiten
- Centre for Social learning and Cognitive Evolution, School of Psychology &Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, KY16 9JP, Scotland
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Population size vs. social connectedness - A gene-culture coevolutionary approach to cumulative cultural evolution. Theor Popul Biol 2016; 111:87-95. [PMID: 27402203 DOI: 10.1016/j.tpb.2016.07.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/06/2016] [Revised: 06/17/2016] [Accepted: 07/01/2016] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
It has long been debated if population size is a crucial determinant of the level of culture. While empirical results are mixed, recent theoretical studies suggest that social connectedness between people may be a more important factor than the size of the entire population. These models, however, do not take into account evolutionary responses of learning strategies determining the mode of transmission and innovation and are hence not suitable for predicting the long-term implications of parameters of interest. In the present paper, to address this issue, we provide a gene-culture coevolution model, in which the microscopic learning process of each individual is explicitly described as a continuous-time stochastic process and time allocation to social and individual learning is allowed to evolve. We have found that social connectedness has a larger impact on the equilibrium level of culture than population size especially when connectedness is weak and population size is large. This result, combined with those of previous culture-only models, points to the importance of studying separate effects of population size and internal social structure to better understand spatiotemporal variation in the level of culture.
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Andersson C, Read D. The Evolution of Cultural Complexity: Not by the Treadmill Alone. CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY 2016. [DOI: 10.1086/686317] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
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Derex M, Feron R, Godelle B, Raymond M. Social learning and the replication process: an experimental investigation. Proc Biol Sci 2016; 282:20150719. [PMID: 25994679 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2015.0719] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Human cultural traits typically result from a gradual process that has been described as analogous to biological evolution. This observation has led pioneering scholars to draw inspiration from population genetics to develop a rigorous and successful theoretical framework of cultural evolution. Social learning, the mechanism allowing information to be transmitted between individuals, has thus been described as a simple replication mechanism. Although useful, the extent to which this idealization appropriately describes the actual social learning events has not been carefully assessed. Here, we used a specifically developed computer task to evaluate (i) the extent to which social learning leads to the replication of an observed behaviour and (ii) the consequences it has for fitness landscape exploration. Our results show that social learning does not lead to a dichotomous choice between disregarding and replicating social information. Rather, it appeared that individuals combine and transform information coming from multiple sources to produce new solutions. As a consequence, landscape exploration was promoted by the use of social information. These results invite us to rethink the way social learning is commonly modelled and could question the validity of predictions coming from models considering this process as replicative.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maxime Derex
- Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA
| | - Romain Feron
- CNRS, Institut des Sciences de l'Évolution (UMR 5554), Université de Montpellier, CC 065, Place Eugène Bataillon, Montpellier cedex 05 34095, France
| | - Bernard Godelle
- CNRS, Institut des Sciences de l'Évolution (UMR 5554), Université de Montpellier, CC 065, Place Eugène Bataillon, Montpellier cedex 05 34095, France
| | - Michel Raymond
- CNRS, Institut des Sciences de l'Évolution (UMR 5554), Université de Montpellier, CC 065, Place Eugène Bataillon, Montpellier cedex 05 34095, France
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Abstract
Complex technologies used in most human societies are beyond the inventive capacities of individuals. Instead, they result from a cumulative process in which innovations are gradually added to existing cultural traits across many generations. Recent work suggests that a population's ability to develop complex technologies is positively affected by its size and connectedness. Here, we present a simple computer-based experiment that compares the accumulation of innovations by fully and partially connected groups of the same size in a complex fitness landscape. We find that the propensity to learn from successful individuals drastically reduces cultural diversity within fully connected groups. In comparison, partially connected groups produce more diverse solutions, and this diversity allows them to develop complex solutions that are never produced in fully connected groups. These results suggest that explanations of ancestral patterns of cultural complexity may need to consider levels of population fragmentation and interaction patterns between partially isolated groups.
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Derex M, Boyd R. The foundations of the human cultural niche. Nat Commun 2015; 6:8398. [PMID: 26400015 PMCID: PMC4598620 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms9398] [Citation(s) in RCA: 53] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/27/2015] [Accepted: 08/18/2015] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Technological innovations have allowed humans to settle in habitats for which they are poorly suited biologically. However, our understanding of how humans produce complex technologies is limited. We used a computer-based experiment, involving humans and learning bots, to investigate how reasoning abilities, social learning mechanisms and population structure affect the production of virtual artefacts. We found that humans' reasoning abilities play an important role in the production of innovations, but that groups of individuals are able to produce artefacts that are more complex than any isolated individual can produce during the same amount of time. We show that this group-level ability to produce complex innovations is maximized when social information is easy to acquire and when individuals are organized into large and partially connected populations. These results suggest that the transition to behavioural modernity could have been triggered by a change in ancestral between-group interaction patterns. Our understanding of how humans produce complex technologies is limited. Here, the authors use a computer-based experiment to show that the production of complex innovations results from a population process that relies on efficient social learning mechanisms and specific population structures.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maxime Derex
- Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA
| | - Robert Boyd
- Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA.,School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA
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Whiten A, Caldwell CA, Mesoudi A. Cultural diffusion in humans and other animals. Curr Opin Psychol 2015; 8:15-21. [PMID: 29506791 DOI: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2015.09.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 55] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/22/2015] [Revised: 08/14/2015] [Accepted: 09/06/2015] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Recent years have seen an enormous expansion and progress in studies of the cultural diffusion processes through which behaviour patterns, ideas and artifacts are transmitted within and between generations of humans and other animals. The first of two main approaches focuses on identifying, tracing and understanding cultural diffusion as it naturally occurs, an essential foundation to any science of culture. This endeavor has been enriched in recent years by sophisticated statistical methods and surprising new discoveries particularly in humans, other primates and cetaceans. This work has been complemented by a growing corpus of powerful, purpose-designed cultural diffusion experiments with captive and natural populations that have facilitated the rigorous identification and analysis of cultural diffusion in species from insects to humans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrew Whiten
- Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, School of Psychology & Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St Andrews KY16 9JP, UK.
| | - Christine A Caldwell
- Psychology, School of Natural Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA, UK
| | - Alex Mesoudi
- Human Biological and Cultural Evolution Group, Department of Biosciences, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter Cornwall Campus, Penryn, Cornwall TR10 9FE, UK
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Baldini R. Revisiting the Effect of Population Size on Cumulative Cultural Evolution. JOURNAL OF COGNITION AND CULTURE 2015. [DOI: 10.1163/15685373-12342153] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
Previous models of cultural evolution found that larger populations can better maintain complex technologies because they contain more highly skilled people whom others can imitate. These models, however, do not distinguish the effects of population size from population density or network size; a learner’s social network includes the entire population. Does population size remain important when populations are subdivided and networks are realistically small? I use a mathematical model to show that population size has little effect on equilibrium levels of mean skill under a wide range of conditions. The effects of network size and transmission error rate usually overshadow that of population size. Population size can, however, affect the rate at which a population approaches equilibrium, by increasing the rate at which innovations arise. This effect is small unless innovation is very rare. Population size should predict technological complexity in the real world, then, only if technological evolution is a slow, innovation-limited process. Population density and “connectedness” have similar affects to population size, though density can also affect equilibrium skill. I discuss the results of this analysis in light of the current empirical debate.
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Kobayashi Y, Wakano JY, Ohtsuki H. A paradox of cumulative culture. J Theor Biol 2015; 379:79-88. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jtbi.2015.05.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/16/2014] [Revised: 03/24/2015] [Accepted: 05/02/2015] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
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Shipton C, Nielsen M. Before Cumulative Culture. HUMAN NATURE-AN INTERDISCIPLINARY BIOSOCIAL PERSPECTIVE 2015; 26:331-45. [DOI: 10.1007/s12110-015-9233-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
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Dyble M, Salali GD, Chaudhary N, Page A, Smith D, Thompson J, Vinicius L, Mace R, Migliano AB. Human behavior. Sex equality can explain the unique social structure of hunter-gatherer bands. Science 2015; 348:796-8. [PMID: 25977551 DOI: 10.1126/science.aaa5139] [Citation(s) in RCA: 90] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/06/2023]
Abstract
The social organization of mobile hunter-gatherers has several derived features, including low within-camp relatedness and fluid meta-groups. Although these features have been proposed to have provided the selective context for the evolution of human hypercooperation and cumulative culture, how such a distinctive social system may have emerged remains unclear. We present an agent-based model suggesting that, even if all individuals in a community seek to live with as many kin as possible, within-camp relatedness is reduced if men and women have equal influence in selecting camp members. Our model closely approximates observed patterns of co-residence among Agta and Mbendjele BaYaka hunter-gatherers. Our results suggest that pair-bonding and increased sex egalitarianism in human evolutionary history may have had a transformative effect on human social organization.
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Affiliation(s)
- M Dyble
- University College London (UCL) Anthropology, 14 Taviton Street, London WC1H 0BW, UK.
| | - G D Salali
- University College London (UCL) Anthropology, 14 Taviton Street, London WC1H 0BW, UK
| | - N Chaudhary
- University College London (UCL) Anthropology, 14 Taviton Street, London WC1H 0BW, UK
| | - A Page
- University College London (UCL) Anthropology, 14 Taviton Street, London WC1H 0BW, UK
| | - D Smith
- University College London (UCL) Anthropology, 14 Taviton Street, London WC1H 0BW, UK
| | - J Thompson
- University College London (UCL) Anthropology, 14 Taviton Street, London WC1H 0BW, UK
| | - L Vinicius
- University College London (UCL) Anthropology, 14 Taviton Street, London WC1H 0BW, UK
| | - R Mace
- University College London (UCL) Anthropology, 14 Taviton Street, London WC1H 0BW, UK
| | - A B Migliano
- University College London (UCL) Anthropology, 14 Taviton Street, London WC1H 0BW, UK
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50
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Bell AV. Linking Observed Learning Patterns to the Evolution of Cultural Complexity. CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY 2015. [DOI: 10.1086/680438] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
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