Human Cumulative Cultural Evolution as a Form of Distributed Computation

Smaldino, Paul E.; Richerson, Peter J.

doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-8806-4_76

Cited by 26 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…Phase 3 allowed an assessment of whether chimpanzees would be motivated to learn the unscrew and suck behaviors when other task solutions were unavailable to them. This is of interest given that one driver of behavioral modification is environmental fluctuation or risk, which may encourage behavioral change when past behaviors become inefficient or redundant (Buchanan, O’Brien, & Collard, 2015; Collard, Buchanan, & O’Brien, 2013; Collard, Kemery, & Banks, 2005; Smaldino & Richerson, 2013). Behavioral change in nonhuman primates who otherwise show conservative behavior (Marshall-Pescini & Whiten, 2008) has been found to be facilitated as past behaviors become obsolete (Lehner et al, 2011; Manrique, Volter, & Call, 2013) or difficult to perform (Davis, Vale, Schapiro, Lambeth, & Whiten, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Acquisition of a socially learned tool use sequence in chimpanzees: Implications for cumulative culture

Vale

Davis

Lambeth

et al. 2017

Evolution and Human Behavior

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Cumulative culture underpins humanity’s enormous success as a species. Claims that other animals are incapable of cultural ratcheting are prevalent, but are founded on just a handful of empirical studies. Whether cumulative culture is unique to humans thus remains a controversial and understudied question that has far-reaching implications for our understanding of the evolution of this phenomenon. We investigated whether one of human’s two closest living primate relatives, chimpanzees, are capable of a degree of cultural ratcheting by exposing captive populations to a novel juice extraction task. We found that groups (N = 3) seeded with a model trained to perform a tool modification that built upon simpler, unmodified tool use developed the seeded tool method that allowed greater juice returns than achieved by groups not exposed to a trained model (non-seeded controls; N = 3). One non-seeded group also discovered the behavioral sequence, either by coupling asocial and social learning or by repeated invention. This behavioral sequence was found to be beyond what an additional control sample of chimpanzees (N = 1 group) could discover for themselves without a competent model and lacking experience with simpler, unmodified tool behaviors. Five chimpanzees tested individually with no social information, but with experience of simple unmodified tool use, invented part, but not all, of the behavioral sequence. Our findings indicate that (i) social learning facilitated the propagation of the model-demonstrated tool modification technique, (ii) experience with simple tool behaviors may facilitate individual discovery of more complex tool manipulations, and (iii) a subset of individuals were capable of learning relatively complex behaviors either by learning asocially and socially or by repeated invention over time. That chimpanzees learn increasingly complex behaviors through social and asocial learning suggests that humans’ extraordinary ability to do so was built on such prior foundations.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Acquisition of a socially learned tool use sequence in chimpanzees: Implications for cumulative culture

Vale

Davis

Lambeth

et al. 2017

Evolution and Human Behavior

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“…Cumulative cultural transmission accelerates innovation because each generation can build upon the technologies passed down by previous generations (34). Much of human technology is too complex and sophisticated to be recreated within individual lifetimes (35).…”

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confidence: 99%

Cumulative cultural learning: Development and diversity

Legare

2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

138

101

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The complexity and variability of human culture is unmatched by any other species. Humans live in culturally constructed niches filled with artifacts, skills, beliefs, and practices that have been inherited, accumulated, and modified over generations. A causal account of the complexity of human culture must explain its distinguishing characteristics: It is cumulative and highly variable within and across populations. I propose that the psychological adaptations supporting cumulative cultural transmission are universal but are sufficiently flexible to support the acquisition of highly variable behavioral repertoires. This paper describes variation in the transmission practices (teaching) and acquisition strategies (imitation) that support cumulative cultural learning in childhood. Examining flexibility and variation in caregiver socialization and children's learning extends our understanding of evolution in living systems by providing insight into the psychological foundations of cumulative cultural transmissionthe cornerstone of human cultural diversity.cumulative culture | cultural evolution | cross-cultural comparison | teaching | imitation

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“…Rocket science, the discovery of DNA or the invention of cell phones are not success stories of individuals only, they are the accumulated results of social and distributed successes (Smaldino and Richerson 2013). Social memory and cultural inheritance enable social evolution that has extended gene-centered, organism-centered, or anthropo-centric mechanisms of evolution.…”

Section: Dual Inheritance Extended Inheritancementioning

confidence: 99%

Why Language Evolution Needs Memory: Systems and Ecological Approaches

Sukhoverkhov

Fowler

2014

Biosemiotics

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The main purpose of this article is to consider the significance of different types of memory and non-genetic ('inclusive', 'extended', 'soft') inheritance and different biosemiotic systems for the origin and evolution of language. It presents language and memory as distributed (objectified, external), heteronomous and system-determined processes implemented in biological and social domains. The article emphasises that language and other sign systems are both (1) ecological and inductive systems that were caused by and always correlate with the environment and (2) deductive systems that are inherited by and depend on the internal development of organisms, individuals, and societies. The article also claims that the origin, reoccurrence and evolution of naturally-emerging sign systems presuppose (1) their retention and accumulation in physical, biological, individual, and social types of memory and (2) reinforcement and maintenance by conventional and deliberate social regulation and accumulation. All of this allows language and other sign systems to be situation-relevant and to be transmitted through generations without their constant reinvention. The novelty of the proposed theory of language origin and evolution is in interdisciplinary integration of biosemiotic studies, systems (ecological, holistic, integrative) approaches to language and studies of inheritance systems presented by 'Extended evolutionary synthesis'.

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Human Cumulative Cultural Evolution as a Form of Distributed Computation

Cited by 26 publications

References 38 publications

Acquisition of a socially learned tool use sequence in chimpanzees: Implications for cumulative culture

Acquisition of a socially learned tool use sequence in chimpanzees: Implications for cumulative culture

Cumulative cultural learning: Development and diversity

Why Language Evolution Needs Memory: Systems and Ecological Approaches

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