1
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van Leeuwen EJC, DeTroy SE, Haun DBM, Call J. Chimpanzees use social information to acquire a skill they fail to innovate. Nat Hum Behav 2024; 8:891-902. [PMID: 38448718 PMCID: PMC11132989 DOI: 10.1038/s41562-024-01836-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/12/2023] [Accepted: 01/22/2024] [Indexed: 03/08/2024]
Abstract
Cumulative cultural evolution has been claimed to be a uniquely human phenomenon pivotal to the biological success of our species. One plausible condition for cumulative cultural evolution to emerge is individuals' ability to use social learning to acquire know-how that they cannot easily innovate by themselves. It has been suggested that chimpanzees may be capable of such know-how social learning, but this assertion remains largely untested. Here we show that chimpanzees use social learning to acquire a skill that they failed to independently innovate. By teaching chimpanzees how to solve a sequential task (one chimpanzee in each of the two tested groups, n = 66) and using network-based diffusion analysis, we found that 14 naive chimpanzees learned to operate a puzzle box that they failed to operate during the preceding three months of exposure to all necessary materials. In conjunction, we present evidence for the hypothesis that social learning in chimpanzees is necessary and sufficient to acquire a new, complex skill after the initial innovation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Edwin J C van Leeuwen
- Animal Behaviour and Cognition, Department of Biology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands.
- Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.
- Centre for Research and Conservation, Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium.
| | - Sarah E DeTroy
- Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Daniel B M Haun
- Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Josep Call
- School of Psychology & Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK
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2
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Nakata S, Takezawa M. Hierarchical structures emerge from the cultural transmission: an iterated learning experiment using a non-linguistic task. Front Artif Intell 2023; 6:1221329. [PMID: 38188591 PMCID: PMC10770839 DOI: 10.3389/frai.2023.1221329] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/12/2023] [Accepted: 12/04/2023] [Indexed: 01/09/2024] Open
Abstract
Human language is characterized by complex structural features, such as the hierarchical combination of words to form sentences. Although other animals use communication systems, empirical evidence of hierarchical structures is rare. Computational studies of language evolution have suggested that cultural transmission plays a key role in the emergence of structural features in human languages, including hierarchy. While the previous study demonstrated the emergence of hierarchical structures in non-linguistic systems, we argue that their laboratory study may have overestimated the role of cultural transmission because of a lack of appropriate controls and analyses. To directly test the effect of cultural transmission, we conducted an experiment with no cultural transmission as a control (individual condition) in addition to replicating the previous transmission experiment (transmission condition). Our study has added a quantitative analysis of the hierarchical depth. We found that sequences became more structured as the number of generations increased; however, those produced under the transmission condition were more structured than those under the individual condition. These findings suggest that cultural transmission plays an important role in the emergence of hierarchical structures, which cannot be explained by increased learnability alone. The emergence of complex structural properties in human culture, such as language, technology, and music, may have resulted from information transmission processes between different individuals. In conclusion, this study provides evidence of the crucial role of cultural transmission in the emergence of hierarchical structures in non-linguistic communication systems. Our results contribute to the ongoing debate on the origins of human language and the emergence of complex cultural artifacts. The results of this study have implications for the study of cultural evolution and the role of transmission in shaping the emergence of structural features across diverse domains.
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Affiliation(s)
- Seiya Nakata
- Department of Behavioral Science, Graduate School of Humanities and Human Sciences, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Tokyo, Japan
- International Research Center for Neurointelligence (WPI-IRCN), The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Masanori Takezawa
- Department of Behavioral Science, Graduate School of Humanities and Human Sciences, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan
- Center for Experimental Research in Social Sciences, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan
- Center for Human Nature, Artificial Intelligence and Neuroscience, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan
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3
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Nakata S, Takezawa M. Conditions under which faithful cultural transmission through teaching promotes cumulative cultural evolution. Sci Rep 2023; 13:20986. [PMID: 38017047 PMCID: PMC10684533 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-47018-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/22/2023] [Accepted: 11/08/2023] [Indexed: 11/30/2023] Open
Abstract
It has been argued that teaching promotes the accurate transmission of cultural traits and eventually leads to cumulative cultural evolution (CCE). However, previous studies have questioned this argument. In this study, we modified the action sequences model into a network exploring model with reinforcement learning to examine the conditions under which teaching promotes CCE. Our model incorporates a time trade-off between innovation and teaching. Simulations revealed that the positive influence of teaching on CCE depends on task difficulty. When the task was too difficult and advanced, such that it could not be accomplished through individual learning within a limited time, spending more time on teaching-even at the expense of time for innovation-contributed to CCE. On the contrary, the easier the task, the more time was spent on innovation than on teaching, which contributed to the improvement of performance. These findings suggest that teaching becomes more valuable as cultures become more complex. Therefore, humanity must have co-evolved a complex cumulative culture and teaching that supports cultural fidelity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Seiya Nakata
- Graduate School of Humanities and Human Sciences, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Masanori Takezawa
- Center for Experimental Research in Social Sciences, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan.
- Center for Human Nature, Artificial Intelligence and Neuroscience, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan.
- Faculty of Humanities and Human Sciences, Hokkaido University, N10W7, Kita-ku, Sapporo, Hokkaido, 060-0810, Japan.
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4
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Schmidt P, Koch TJ, Blessing MA, Karakostis FA, Harvati K, Dresely V, Charrié-Duhaut A. Production method of the Königsaue birch tar documents cumulative culture in Neanderthals. ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL SCIENCES 2023; 15:84. [PMID: 37228449 PMCID: PMC10202989 DOI: 10.1007/s12520-023-01789-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/30/2023] [Accepted: 05/12/2023] [Indexed: 05/27/2023]
Abstract
Birch tar is the oldest synthetic substance made by early humans. The earliest such artefacts are associated with Neanderthals. According to traditional interpretations, their study allows understanding Neanderthal tool behaviours, skills and cultural evolution. However, recent work has found that birch tar can also be produced with simple processes, or even result from fortuitous accidents. Even though these findings suggest that birch tar per se is not a proxy for cognition, they do not shed light on the process by which Neanderthals produced it, and, therefore, cannot evaluate the implications of that behaviour. Here, we address the question of how tar was made by Neanderthals. Through a comparative chemical analysis of the two exceptional birch tar pieces from Königsaue (Germany) and a large reference birch tar collection made with Stone Age techniques, we found that Neanderthals did not use the simplest method to make tar. Rather, they distilled tar in an intentionally created underground environment that restricted oxygen flow and remained invisible during the process. This degree of complexity is unlikely to have been invented spontaneously. Our results suggest that Neanderthals invented or developed this process based on previous simpler methods and constitute one of the clearest indicators of cumulative cultural evolution in the European Middle Palaeolithic. Supplementary information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12520-023-01789-2.
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Affiliation(s)
- Patrick Schmidt
- Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology, Department of Geosciences, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- Applied Mineralogy, Department of Geosciences, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Tabea J. Koch
- Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology, Department of Geosciences, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Matthias A. Blessing
- Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology, Department of Geosciences, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - F. Alexandros Karakostis
- DFG Centre for Advanced Studies “Words, Bones, Genes, Tools”, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- Paleoanthropology, Institute for Archaeological Sciences and Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment, Department of Geosciences, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Katerina Harvati
- DFG Centre for Advanced Studies “Words, Bones, Genes, Tools”, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- Paleoanthropology, Institute for Archaeological Sciences and Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment, Department of Geosciences, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Veit Dresely
- State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology Saxony-Anhalt – State Museum of Prehistory, Halle, Germany
| | - Armelle Charrié-Duhaut
- Laboratoire de Spectrométrie de Masse Des Interactions Et Des Systèmes (LSMIS), Strasbourg University, CNRS, UMR 7140, Strasbourg, CMC France
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5
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What animal cultures may beget: Comment on "Blind alleys and fruitful pathways in the comparative study of cultural cognition" by Andrew Whiten. Phys Life Rev 2023; 44:99-101. [PMID: 36586308 DOI: 10.1016/j.plrev.2022.12.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/08/2022] [Accepted: 12/12/2022] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
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6
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Zentall TR. Mechanisms of copying, social learning, and imitation in animals. LEARNING AND MOTIVATION 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.lmot.2022.101844] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/31/2022]
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7
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Falandays JB, Smaldino PE. The Emergence of Cultural Attractors: How Dynamic Populations of Learners Achieve Collective Cognitive Alignment. Cogn Sci 2022; 46:e13183. [PMID: 35972893 DOI: 10.1111/cogs.13183] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/03/2021] [Revised: 06/24/2022] [Accepted: 07/18/2022] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
When a population exhibits collective cognitive alignment, such that group members tend to perceive, remember, and reproduce information in similar ways, the features of socially transmitted variants (i.e., artifacts, behaviors) may converge over time towards culture-specific equilibria points, often called cultural attractors. Because cognition may be plastic, shaped through experience with the cultural products of others, collective cognitive alignment and stable cultural attractors cannot always be taken for granted, but little is known about how these patterns first emerge and stabilize in initially uncoordinated populations. We propose that stable cultural attractors can emerge from general principles of human categorization and communication. We present a model of cultural attractor dynamics, which extends a model of unsupervised category learning in individuals to a multiagent setting wherein learners provide the training input to each other. Agents in our populations spontaneously align their cognitive category structures, producing emergent cultural attractor points. We highlight three interesting behaviors exhibited by our model: (1) noise enhances the stability of cultural category structures; (2) short 'critical' periods of learning early in life enhance stability; and (3) larger populations produce more stable but less complex attractor landscapes, and cliquish network structure can mitigate the latter effect. These results may shed light on how collective cognitive alignment is achieved in the absence of shared, innate cognitive attractors, which we suggest is important to the capacity for cumulative cultural evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- J Benjamin Falandays
- Department of Cognitive and Information Sciences, University of California, Merced, United States.,Department of Cognitive Linguistic and Psychological Sciences, Brown University
| | - Paul E Smaldino
- Department of Cognitive and Information Sciences, University of California, Merced, United States
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8
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Gruber T, Chimento M, Aplin LM, Biro D. Efficiency fosters cumulative culture across species. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2022; 377:20200308. [PMID: 34894729 PMCID: PMC8666915 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0308] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/07/2021] [Accepted: 09/17/2021] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Recent studies in several taxa have demonstrated that animal culture can evolve to become more efficient in various contexts ranging from tool use to route learning and migration. Under recent definitions, such increases in efficiency might satisfy the core criteria of cumulative cultural evolution (CCE). However, there is not yet a satisfying consensus on the precise definition of efficiency, CCE or the link between efficiency and more complex, extended forms of CCE considered uniquely human. To bring clarity to this wider discussion of CCE, we develop the concept of efficiency by (i) reviewing recent potential evidence for CCE in animals, and (ii) clarifying a useful definition of efficiency by synthesizing perspectives found within the literature, including animal studies and the wider iterated learning literature. Finally, (iii) we discuss what factors might impinge on the informational bottleneck of social transmission, and argue that this provides pressure for learnable behaviours across species. We conclude that framing CCE in terms of efficiency casts complexity in a new light, as learnable behaviours are a requirement for the evolution of complexity. Understanding how efficiency greases the ratchet of cumulative culture provides a better appreciation of how similar cultural evolution can be between taxonomically diverse species-a case for continuity across the animal kingdom. 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)
- T. Gruber
- Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences and Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - M. Chimento
- Cognitive and Cultural Ecology Research Group, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Radolfzell, Germany
- Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany
- Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany
| | - L. M. Aplin
- Cognitive and Cultural Ecology Research Group, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Radolfzell, Germany
- Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany
| | - D. Biro
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA
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9
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Wild S, Chimento M, McMahon K, Farine DR, Sheldon BC, Aplin LM. Complex foraging behaviours in wild birds emerge from social learning and recombination of components. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2022; 377:20200307. [PMID: 34894740 PMCID: PMC8666913 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0307] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/15/2021] [Accepted: 09/13/2021] [Indexed: 01/26/2023] Open
Abstract
Recent well-documented cases of cultural evolution towards increasing efficiency in non-human animals have led some authors to propose that other animals are also capable of cumulative cultural evolution, where traits become more refined and/or complex over time. Yet few comparative examples exist of traits increasing in complexity, and experimental tests remain scarce. In a previous study, we introduced a foraging innovation into replicate subpopulations of great tits, the 'sliding-door puzzle'. Here, we track diffusion of a second 'dial puzzle', before introducing a two-step puzzle that combines both actions. We mapped social networks across two generations to ask if individuals could: (1) recombine socially-learned traits and (2) socially transmit a two-step trait. Our results show birds could recombine skills into more complex foraging behaviours, and naïve birds across both generations could learn the two-step trait. However, closer interrogation revealed that acquisition was not achieved entirely through social learning-rather, birds socially learned components before reconstructing full solutions asocially. As a consequence, singular cultural traditions failed to emerge, although subpopulations of birds shared preferences for a subset of behavioural variants. Our results show that while tits can socially learn complex foraging behaviours, these may need to be scaffolded by rewarding each component. 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)
- S. Wild
- Cognitive and Cultural Ecology Research Group, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Am Obstberg 1, 78315, Radolfzell, Germany
- Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany
| | - M. Chimento
- Cognitive and Cultural Ecology Research Group, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Am Obstberg 1, 78315, Radolfzell, Germany
- Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany
| | - K. McMahon
- Edward Grey Institute, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, OX1 3SZ Oxford, UK
| | - D. R. Farine
- Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Science, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Department of Collective Behavior, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Universitätstrasse 10, 78464 Konstanz, Germany
| | - B. C. Sheldon
- Edward Grey Institute, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, OX1 3SZ Oxford, UK
| | - L. M. Aplin
- Cognitive and Cultural Ecology Research Group, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Am Obstberg 1, 78315, Radolfzell, Germany
- Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany
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10
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Nakawake Y, Kobayashi Y. Negative observational learning might play a limited role in the cultural evolution of technology. Sci Rep 2022; 12:970. [PMID: 35046491 PMCID: PMC8770688 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-05031-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/06/2021] [Accepted: 01/03/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Theoretical and empirical studies of the cultural evolution in technology have often focused on positive observational learning, i.e., copying a successful individual. However, negative observational learning, i.e., avoiding negative or bad exemplar behavior, is ubiquitous in humans and other animals. In this paper, we experimentally investigate whether observing negative examples can assist in tool making in the virtual arrowhead task, which has been widely applied to test the theory of cultural evolution in the technological domain. We set three conditions that differ in the kinds of social learning available to participants: (1) positive observational learning, (2) negative observational learning, and (3) pure asocial learning. The results of the positive observational and pure asocial learning conditions replicated previous studies; i.e., participants in the positive observational learning condition outperformed those in the asocial learning condition. In contrast, opportunities to observe negative examples did not increase the performance compared to pure asocial learning. Computer simulations in the same setting showed that the presence of negative exemplars is in theory beneficial to participants, providing additional pieces of information on the relationship between arrowhead designs and their performance scores. These findings together suggest that negative observational learning might play only a limited role in the cultural evolution of technologies possibly due to a cognitive bias in humans toward copying.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yo Nakawake
- School of Economics and Management, Kochi University of Technology, Kochi, 780-8515, Japan.
- School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX2 6PE, UK.
| | - Yutaka Kobayashi
- School of Economics and Management, Kochi University of Technology, Kochi, 780-8515, Japan
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11
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Thompson B, Griffiths TL. Human biases limit cumulative innovation. Proc Biol Sci 2021; 288:20202752. [PMID: 33715436 PMCID: PMC7944091 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2020.2752] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/03/2020] [Accepted: 02/08/2021] [Indexed: 01/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Is technological advancement constrained by biases in human cognition? People in all societies build on discoveries inherited from previous generations, leading to cumulative innovation. However, biases in human learning and memory may influence the process of knowledge transmission, potentially limiting this process. Here, we show that cumulative innovation in a continuous optimization problem is systematically constrained by human biases. In a large (n = 1250) behavioural study using a transmission chain design, participants searched for virtual technologies in one of four environments after inheriting a solution from previous generations. Participants converged on worse solutions in environments misaligned with their biases. These results substantiate a mathematical model of cumulative innovation in Bayesian agents, highlighting formal relationships between cultural evolution and distributed stochastic optimization. Our findings provide experimental evidence that human biases can limit the advancement of knowledge in a controlled laboratory setting, reinforcing concerns about bias in creative, scientific and educational contexts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bill Thompson
- Departments of Psychology and Computer Science, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
| | - Thomas L. Griffiths
- Departments of Psychology and Computer Science, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
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12
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The use of individual, social, and animated cue information by capuchin monkeys and children in a touchscreen task. Sci Rep 2021; 11:1043. [PMID: 33441782 PMCID: PMC7806602 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-80221-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/28/2020] [Accepted: 12/15/2020] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
The distinctiveness of human cumulative culture raises the question of whether humans respond differently to information originating from social sources, compared with information from other sources. Further, does any such differential responding set humans apart from other species? We studied how capuchin monkeys and 2- to 5-year-old children used information originating from their own actions, those of a human demonstrator, or an animated cue. This information, presented via a touchscreen, always revealed in the first trial (T1) the reward value (rewarded or unrewarded) of one stimulus from a 2- or 3-item array, and could be used in a follow-up trial (T2) involving the same stimulus array. Two monkeys achieved a level of proficiency indicating their appreciation of the T1–T2 relationship, i.e., reliably repeating rewarded (“win”) selections and actively avoiding repetition of unrewarded (“lose”) selections well above chance levels. Neither the two task-proficient monkeys nor the children showed overall performance differences between the three source conditions. Non-task-proficient monkeys, by contrast, did show effects of source, performing best with individually-acquired information. The overall pattern of results hints at an alternative perspective on evidence typically interpreted as showing a human advantage for social information use.
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13
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Lucas AJ, Kings M, Whittle D, Davey E, Happé F, Caldwell CA, Thornton A. The value of teaching increases with tool complexity in cumulative cultural evolution. Proc Biol Sci 2020. [PMID: 33203332 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2020.1885rspb20201885] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/15/2023] Open
Abstract
Human cumulative cultural evolution (CCE) is recognized as a powerful ecological and evolutionary force, but its origins are poorly understood. The long-standing view that CCE requires specialized social learning processes such as teaching has recently come under question, and cannot explain why such processes evolved in the first place. An alternative, but largely untested, hypothesis is that these processes gradually coevolved with an increasing reliance on complex tools. To address this, we used large-scale transmission chain experiments (624 participants), to examine the role of different learning processes in generating cumulative improvements in two tool types of differing complexity. Both tool types increased in efficacy across experimental generations, but teaching only provided an advantage for the more complex tools. Moreover, while the simple tools tended to converge on a common design, the more complex tools maintained a diversity of designs. These findings indicate that the emergence of cumulative culture is not strictly dependent on, but may generate selection for, teaching. As reliance on increasingly complex tools grew, so too would selection for teaching, facilitating the increasingly open-ended evolution of cultural artefacts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amanda J Lucas
- Centre for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus TR10 9FE, UK
| | - Michael Kings
- Centre for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus TR10 9FE, UK
| | - Devi Whittle
- Centre for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus TR10 9FE, UK
| | - Emma Davey
- Centre for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus TR10 9FE, UK
| | - Francesca Happé
- Social, Genetic, and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London, London SE5 8AF, UK
| | | | - Alex Thornton
- Centre for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus TR10 9FE, UK
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14
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Lucas AJ, Kings M, Whittle D, Davey E, Happé F, Caldwell CA, Thornton A. The value of teaching increases with tool complexity in cumulative cultural evolution. Proc Biol Sci 2020; 287:20201885. [PMID: 33203332 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2020.1885] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Human cumulative cultural evolution (CCE) is recognized as a powerful ecological and evolutionary force, but its origins are poorly understood. The long-standing view that CCE requires specialized social learning processes such as teaching has recently come under question, and cannot explain why such processes evolved in the first place. An alternative, but largely untested, hypothesis is that these processes gradually coevolved with an increasing reliance on complex tools. To address this, we used large-scale transmission chain experiments (624 participants), to examine the role of different learning processes in generating cumulative improvements in two tool types of differing complexity. Both tool types increased in efficacy across experimental generations, but teaching only provided an advantage for the more complex tools. Moreover, while the simple tools tended to converge on a common design, the more complex tools maintained a diversity of designs. These findings indicate that the emergence of cumulative culture is not strictly dependent on, but may generate selection for, teaching. As reliance on increasingly complex tools grew, so too would selection for teaching, facilitating the increasingly open-ended evolution of cultural artefacts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amanda J Lucas
- Centre for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus TR10 9FE, UK
| | - Michael Kings
- Centre for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus TR10 9FE, UK
| | - Devi Whittle
- Centre for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus TR10 9FE, UK
| | - Emma Davey
- Centre for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus TR10 9FE, UK
| | - Francesca Happé
- Social, Genetic, and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London, London SE5 8AF, UK
| | | | - Alex Thornton
- Centre for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus TR10 9FE, UK
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15
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Supporting the weight of the elephant in the room: Technical intelligence propped up by social cognition and language. Behav Brain Sci 2020; 43:e179. [PMID: 32772996 DOI: 10.1017/s0140525x20000114] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
We consider the evolutionary plausibility of Osiurak and Reynaud's (O&R) arguments. We argue that technical reasoning is not quite the magic bullet that O&R assume, and instead propose a co-evolutionary account of the interplay between technical reasoning and social learning, with language emerging as a vital issue neglected in O&R's account.
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16
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ManyPrimates, Aguenounon GS, Ballesta S, Beaud A, Bustamante L, Canteloup C, Joly M, Loyant L, Meunier H, Roig A, Troisi CA, Zablocki-Thomas P. ManyPrimates : une infrastructure de collaboration internationale dans la recherche en cognition des primates. REVUE DE PRIMATOLOGIE 2020. [DOI: 10.4000/primatologie.8808] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
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Thierry B, Deneubourg JL, Poulin N. Modelling persistence over generations in biological and cultural evolution based on differential paces of change. Biosystems 2020; 196:104189. [PMID: 32599013 DOI: 10.1016/j.biosystems.2020.104189] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/07/2020] [Revised: 06/17/2020] [Accepted: 06/18/2020] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
Abstract
Paces of change are faster in cultural evolution than in biological evolution due to different levels of stability in information storage. This study develops mathematical models to investigate the consequences of differential mutation rates on the ability of groups of information units to survive over many generations. We examined the ability of groups composed of connected units to live on despite the occurrence of deleterious mutations that occur at probabilities ranging from 10-1 to 10-6. It appears that the degree of connection between units should be high enough for groups to persist across generations, but this alone did not ensure their survival; when groups of units were limited in size and subjected to high mutation rates, they did not survive for very long. By contrast, a significant proportion of groups were able to survive numerous generations if mutation rates were low and/or group size was large. The results revealed that the mean number of surviving generations was minimized for certain sizes of groups. When allowing information units to duplicate at each generation, simulation showed that a great number of groups avoided extinction even when mutating at the rate of cultural change if the initial group size was large and the duplication rate was high enough to counteract the consequences of environmental perturbations. The modelling described in this study sets out the conditions under which groups of units can survive along generations. It should serve as a basis for further investigations about the links between processes of biological and cultural changes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bernard Thierry
- Physiologie de la Reproduction et des Comportements, CNRS, INRAE, Université de Tours, Nouzilly, France.
| | - Jean-Louis Deneubourg
- Center for Nonlinear Phenomena and Complex Systems (CENOLI), Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium.
| | - Nicolas Poulin
- CeStatS, Institut de Recherche Mathématique Avancée, Université de Strasbourg, CNRS, Strasbourg, France.
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Nettle D. Selection, adaptation, inheritance and design in human culture: the view from the Price equation. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2020; 375:20190358. [PMID: 32146878 PMCID: PMC7133501 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2019.0358] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 10/24/2019] [Indexed: 01/20/2023] Open
Abstract
For decades, parts of the literature on human culture have been gripped by an analogy: culture changes in a way that is substantially isomorphic to genetic evolution. This leads to a number of sub-claims: that design-like properties in cultural traditions should be explained in a parallel way to the design-like features of organisms, namely with reference to selection; that culture is a system of inheritance; and that cultural evolutionary processes can produce adaptation in the genetic sense. The Price equation provides a minimal description of any evolutionary system, and a method for identifying the action of selection. As such, it helps clarify some of these claims about culture conceptually. Looking closely through the lens of the Price equation, the differences between genes and culture come into sharp relief. Culture is only a system of inheritance metaphorically, or as an idealization, and the idealization may lead us to overlook causally important features of how cultural influence works. Design-like properties in cultural systems may owe more to transmission biases than to cultural selection. Where culture enhances genetic fitness, it is ambiguous whether what is doing the work is cultural transmission, or just the genetically evolved properties of the mind. I conclude that there are costs to trying to press culture into a template based on Darwinian evolution, even if one broadens the definition of 'Darwinian'. This article is part of the theme issue 'Fifty years of the Price equation'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel Nettle
- Institute of Population Health Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 4HH, UK
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Canteloup C, Hoppitt W, van de Waal E. Wild primates copy higher-ranked individuals in a social transmission experiment. Nat Commun 2020; 11:459. [PMID: 31974385 PMCID: PMC6978360 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-14209-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/23/2019] [Accepted: 12/16/2019] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Little is known about how multiple social learning strategies interact and how organisms integrate both individual and social information. Here we combine, in a wild primate, an open diffusion experiment with a modeling approach: Network-Based Diffusion Analysis using a dynamic observation network. The vervet monkeys we study were not provided with a trained model; instead they had access to eight foraging boxes that could be opened in either of two ways. We report that individuals socially learn the techniques they observe in others. After having learnt one option, individuals are 31x more likely to subsequently asocially learn the other option than individuals naïve to both options. We discover evidence of a rank transmission bias favoring learning from higher-ranked individuals, with no evidence for age, sex or kin bias. This fine-grained analysis highlights a rank transmission bias in a field experiment mimicking the diffusion of a behavioral innovation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Charlotte Canteloup
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland. .,Inkawu Vervet Project, Mawana Game Reserve, KwaZulu Natal, 3115, South Africa. .,Anthropological Institute and Museum, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057, Zurich, Switzerland.
| | - William Hoppitt
- Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK.,School of Biological Sciences, Royal Holloway, University of London, London, UK
| | - Erica van de Waal
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland.,Inkawu Vervet Project, Mawana Game Reserve, KwaZulu Natal, 3115, South Africa.,Anthropological Institute and Museum, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057, Zurich, Switzerland
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20
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Boë LJ, Sawallis TR, Fagot J, Badin P, Barbier G, Captier G, Ménard L, Heim JL, Schwartz JL. Which way to the dawn of speech?: Reanalyzing half a century of debates and data in light of speech science. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2019; 5:eaaw3916. [PMID: 32076631 PMCID: PMC7000245 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aaw3916] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/16/2018] [Accepted: 10/10/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Recent articles on primate articulatory abilities are revolutionary regarding speech emergence, a crucial aspect of language evolution, by revealing a human-like system of proto-vowels in nonhuman primates and implicitly throughout our hominid ancestry. This article presents both a schematic history and the state of the art in primate vocalization research and its importance for speech emergence. Recent speech research advances allow more incisive comparison of phylogeny and ontogeny and also an illuminating reinterpretation of vintage primate vocalization data. This review produces three major findings. First, even among primates, laryngeal descent is not uniquely human. Second, laryngeal descent is not required to produce contrasting formant patterns in vocalizations. Third, living nonhuman primates produce vocalizations with contrasting formant patterns. Thus, evidence now overwhelmingly refutes the long-standing laryngeal descent theory, which pushes back "the dawn of speech" beyond ~200 ka ago to over ~20 Ma ago, a difference of two orders of magnitude.
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Affiliation(s)
- Louis-Jean Boë
- Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, Grenoble INP, Institute of Engineering Univ. Grenoble Alpes, GIPSA-lab, Grenoble, France
| | | | - Joël Fagot
- Brain and Language Research Institute, Aix-Marseille University, Aix-en-Provence, France
- Cognitive Psychology Laboratory, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and Aix-Marseille University, Marseille, France
| | - Pierre Badin
- Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, Grenoble INP, Institute of Engineering Univ. Grenoble Alpes, GIPSA-lab, Grenoble, France
| | - Guillaume Barbier
- Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, Grenoble INP, Institute of Engineering Univ. Grenoble Alpes, GIPSA-lab, Grenoble, France
- School of Speech Pathology and Audiology, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada
| | | | - Lucie Ménard
- Laboratoire de Phonétique, Université du Québec à Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada
- Center for Research on Brain, Language, and Music, Montréal, Québec, Canada
| | - Jean-Louis Heim
- Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France
- Institut de Paléontologie Humaine, Paris, France
| | - Jean-Luc Schwartz
- Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, Grenoble INP, Institute of Engineering Univ. Grenoble Alpes, GIPSA-lab, Grenoble, France
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21
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Caldwell CA, Atkinson M, Blakey KH, Dunstone J, Kean D, Mackintosh G, Renner E, Wilks CEH. Experimental assessment of capacities for cumulative culture: Review and evaluation of methods. WILEY INTERDISCIPLINARY REVIEWS. COGNITIVE SCIENCE 2019; 11:e1516. [PMID: 31441239 PMCID: PMC6916575 DOI: 10.1002/wcs.1516] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/24/2019] [Revised: 07/17/2019] [Accepted: 07/19/2019] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
Abstract
In the current literature, there are few experimental tests of capacities for cumulative cultural evolution in nonhuman species. There are even fewer examples of such tests in young children. This limited evidence is noteworthy given widespread interest in the apparent distinctiveness of human cumulative culture, and the potentially significant theoretical implications of identifying related capacities in nonhumans or very young children. We evaluate experimental methods upon which claims of capacities for cumulative culture, or lack thereof, have been based. Although some of the established methods (those simulating generational succession) have the potential to identify positive evidence that fulfills widely accepted definitions of cumulative culture, the implementation of these methods entails significant logistical challenges. This is particularly true for testing populations that are difficult to access in large numbers, or those not amenable to experimental control. This presents problems for generating evidence that would be sufficient to support claims of capacities for cumulative culture, and these problems are magnified for establishing convincing negative evidence. We discuss alternative approaches to assessing capacities for cumulative culture, which circumvent logistical problems associated with experimental designs involving chains of learners. By inferring the outcome of repeated transmission from the input–output response patterns of individual subjects, sample size requirements can be massively reduced. Such methods could facilitate comparisons between populations, for example, different species, or children of a range of ages. We also detail limitations and challenges of this alternative approach, and discuss potential avenues for future research. This article is categorized under:Cognitive Biology > Evolutionary Roots of Cognition Cognitive Biology > Cognitive Development Psychology > Comparative Psychology
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Mark Atkinson
- Division of Psychology, University of Stirling, Stirling, Scotland
| | - Kirsten H Blakey
- Division of Psychology, University of Stirling, Stirling, Scotland
| | - Juliet Dunstone
- Division of Psychology, University of Stirling, Stirling, Scotland
| | - Donna Kean
- Division of Psychology, University of Stirling, Stirling, Scotland
| | - Gemma Mackintosh
- Division of Psychology, University of Stirling, Stirling, Scotland
| | - Elizabeth Renner
- Division of Psychology, University of Stirling, Stirling, Scotland
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