Human cumulative culture in the laboratory: Effects of (micro) population size.

Learning & Behavior
Christine A Caldwell, Ailsa E Millen

Abstract

Traditionally, experiments on social learning (in both humans and nonhumans) involve dyads, with an experimenter or experimenter-trained conspecific serving as the demonstrator and the participant as the observer. But social learning in nature often involves multiple potential models, and the models themselves were once learners. We discuss our studies of social learning by adult humans in interactive group settings in the absence of formal demonstrations by experimenters, which tracked transmission over multiple learner generations. In these experiments, we found evidence for cumulative learning over generations. This has allowed us to manipulate learning conditions in order to test hypotheses regarding the necessary conditions for cumulative culture. We also report results from a further experiment using similar methods, which compared conditions of varying cohort size. Participants were given the task to build a paper airplane to fly as far as possible. Contrary to expectations, there was no advantage for larger cohort sizes, in terms of the cumulative effects observed.

Citations

Nov 15, 2013·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·Michael MuthukrishnaJoseph Henrich
Feb 3, 2016·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·William GilpinKenichi Aoki
Sep 17, 2013·Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society·Lewis G DeanRachel L Kendal
May 1, 2014·Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews. Cognitive Science·Marius Kempe, Alex Mesoudi
Dec 17, 2014·Theoretical Population Biology·Kenichi Aoki
Apr 24, 2016·Trends in Ecology & Evolution·Dora BiroSteven J Portugal
Jul 26, 2017·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Alex Mesoudi
Jun 1, 2018·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·Helena Miton, Mathieu Charbonneau
Oct 25, 2017·Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences·Nicola McGuiganAndrew Whiten
Nov 20, 2019·The Behavioral and Brain Sciences·François Osiurak, Emanuelle Reynaud
Mar 16, 2019·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Nicolas FayChristine A Caldwell
Jan 1, 2017·Biology & Philosophy·Krist Vaesen, Wybo Houkes
Jun 2, 2020·Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences·Dominik Deffner, Richard McElreath
Dec 1, 2020·Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences·Sarah Saxton Strassberg, Nicole Creanza
Jan 10, 2021·Human Nature : an Interdisciplinary Biosocial Perspective·François OsiurakEmanuelle Reynaud
May 30, 2020·Trends in Cognitive Sciences·Maxime Derex, Alex Mesoudi

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