Introduction. Cultural transmission and the evolution of human behaviour

Smith, Kenny; Kalish, Michael L.; Griffiths, Thomas L.; Lewandowsky, Stephan

doi:10.1098/rstb.2008.0147

Cited by 28 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…An advantage of this approach is that it is closely aligned with empirical research in psychology: Bayesian learning is one of the paradigms that have been used to understand the behaviour of human subjects in a number of laboratory-based experiments (see e.g., the special issue beginning with Ref. [42]).…”

Section: A More Concrete Basis In Cognitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neutral Evolution: A Null Model for Language Dynamics

Blythe

2012

Advs. Complex Syst.

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We review the task of aligning simple models for language dynamics with relevant empirical data, motivated by the fact that this is rarely attempted in practice despite an abundance of abstract models. We propose that one way to meet this challenge is through the careful construction of null models. We argue in particular that rejection of a null model must have important consequences for theories about language dynamics if modelling is truly to be worthwhile. Our main claim is that the stochastic process of neutral evolution (also known as genetic drift or random copying) is a viable null model for language dynamics. We survey empirical evidence in favour and against neutral evolution as a mechanism behind historical language changes, highlighting the theoretical implications in each case.

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Section: A More Concrete Basis In Cognitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neutral Evolution: A Null Model for Language Dynamics

Blythe

2012

Advs. Complex Syst.

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“…Instead, this scenario involves learning an abstract cognitive strategy that could be applied across a very broad set of situations and used when faced with a new problem. Rule imitation adds an important component to investigations of how cultural knowledge is transmitted and influences individual behavior (e.g., Smith, Kalish, Griffiths, & Lewandowsky, 2008). …”

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Learning the rules: Observation and imitation of a sorting strategy by 36-month-old children.

Williamson

Jaswal

Meltzoff

2010

Developmental Psychology

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Two experiments were used to investigate the scope of imitation by testing whether 36-month-olds can learn to produce a categorization strategy through observation. After witnessing an adult sort a set of objects by a visible property (their color; Experiment 1) or a nonvisible property (the particular sounds produced when the objects were shaken; Experiment 2), children showed significantly more sorting by those dimensions relative to children in control groups, including a control in which children saw the sorted endstate but not the intentional sorting demonstration. The results show that 36-month-olds can do more than imitate the literal behaviors they see; they also abstract and imitate rules that they see another person use.

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“…So, here, “cultural transmission” or “cultural evolution” are collective mechanisms of information-based exchange and learning. See, e.g., (Smith, Kalish, Griffiths, & Lewandowsky, 2008). Clearly, broader issues of cultural evolution such as the emergence of toolmaking or religious practices or the relation of language to these, or the “evolution of culture” are not part of our analysis here, and shouldn’t be inferred from our use of the terms above.…”

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The Iterated Classification Game: A New Model of the Cultural Transmission of Language

Swarup

Gasser

2009

Adaptive Behavior

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The Iterated Classification Game (ICG) combines the Classification Game with the Iterated Learning Model (ILM) to create a more realistic model of the cultural transmission of language through generations. It includes both learning from parents and learning from peers. Further, it eliminates some of the chief criticisms of the ILM: that it does not study grounded languages, that it does not include peer learning, and that it builds in a bias for compositional languages. We show that, over the span of a few generations, a stable linguistic system emerges that can be acquired very quickly by each generation, is compositional, and helps the agents to solve the classification problem with which they are faced. The ICG also leads to a different interpretation of the language acquisition process. It suggests that the role of parents is to initialize the linguistic system of the child in such a way that subsequent interaction with peers results in rapid convergence to the correct language.

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Introduction. Cultural transmission and the evolution of human behaviour

Cited by 28 publications

References 38 publications

Neutral Evolution: A Null Model for Language Dynamics

Neutral Evolution: A Null Model for Language Dynamics

Learning the rules: Observation and imitation of a sorting strategy by 36-month-old children.

The Iterated Classification Game: A New Model of the Cultural Transmission of Language

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