Social learning and traditions in animals: evidence, definitions, and relationship to human culture

2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (6) ◽  
pp. 581-592 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bennett G. Galef
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Human Culture

scholarly journals The evolution of high-fidelity social learning

2020 ◽  
Vol 287 (1928) ◽  
pp. 20200090
Author(s):  
Marcel Montrey ◽  
Thomas R. Shultz
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Bayesian Model ◽  
Individual Learning ◽  
High Fidelity ◽  
Human Culture ◽  
Cumulative Cultural Evolution ◽  
Over Time

A defining feature of human culture is that knowledge and technology continually improve over time. Such cumulative cultural evolution (CCE) probably depends far more heavily on how reliably information is preserved than on how efficiently it is refined. Therefore, one possible reason that CCE appears diminished or absent in other species is that it requires accurate but specialized forms of social learning at which humans are uniquely adept. Here, we develop a Bayesian model to contrast the evolution of high-fidelity social learning, which supports CCE, against low-fidelity social learning, which does not. We find that high-fidelity transmission evolves when (1) social and (2) individual learning are inexpensive, (3) traits are complex, (4) individual learning is abundant, (5) adaptive problems are difficult and (6) behaviour is flexible. Low-fidelity transmission differs in many respects. It not only evolves when (2) individual learning is costly and (4) infrequent but also proves more robust when (3) traits are simple and (5) adaptive problems are easy. If conditions favouring the evolution of high-fidelity transmission are stricter (3 and 5) or harder to meet (2 and 4), this could explain why social learning is common, but CCE is rare.

Where's the beef? Evidence of culture, imitation, and teaching, in cetaceans?

2001 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 335-335 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bennett G. Galef
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Exponential Growth ◽  
Motor Patterns ◽  
Human Culture ◽  
Vocal Imitation

Vocal imitation does not imply an ability to imitate nonvocal motor patterns. Exponential growth in frequency of a behaviour in a population does not imply diffusion by social learning. Distinguishing analogues from homologues of human culture will avoid confusion in discussion of evolution of culture. Original sources do not demonstrate social learning, imitation, or teaching of intentional beaching or lobtail feeding in cetaceans.

scholarly journals Ratcheting up the ratchet: on the evolution of cumulative culture

2009 ◽  
Vol 364 (1528) ◽  
pp. 2405-2415 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudio Tennie ◽  
Josep Call ◽  
Michael Tomasello
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Learning Mechanisms ◽  
Cumulative Culture ◽  
Ratchet Effect ◽  
Cultural Traditions ◽  
Human Culture ◽  
Active Teaching ◽  
Social Motivations ◽  
Different Populations ◽  
Cumulative Cultural Evolution

Some researchers have claimed that chimpanzee and human culture rest on homologous cognitive and learning mechanisms. While clearly there are some homologous mechanisms, we argue here that there are some different mechanisms at work as well. Chimpanzee cultural traditions represent behavioural biases of different populations, all within the species’ existing cognitive repertoire (what we call the ‘zone of latent solutions’) that are generated by founder effects, individual learning and mostly product-oriented (rather than process-oriented) copying. Human culture, in contrast, has the distinctive characteristic that it accumulates modifications over time (what we call the ‘ratchet effect’). This difference results from the facts that (i) human social learning is more oriented towards process than product and (ii) unique forms of human cooperation lead to active teaching, social motivations for conformity and normative sanctions against non-conformity. Together, these unique processes of social learning and cooperation lead to humans’ unique form of cumulative cultural evolution.

Representations underlying social learning and cultural evolution

2009 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna J. Bryson
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Sufficient Information ◽  
Social Conformity ◽  
Human Culture ◽  
Ecological Fragility ◽  
Scientific Questions ◽  
Computational Properties

Social learning is a source of behaviour for many species, but few use it as extensively as they seemingly could. In this article, I attempt to clarify our understanding of why this might be. I discuss the potential computational properties of social learning, then examine the phenomenon in nature through creating a taxonomy of the representations that might underly it. This is achieved by first producing a simplified taxonomy of the established forms of social learning, then describing the primitive capacities necessary to support them, and finally considering which of these capacities we actually have evidence for. I then discuss theoretical limits on cultural evolution, which include having sufficient information transmitted to support robust representations capable of supporting variation for evolution, and the need for limiting the extent of social conformity to avoid ecological fragility. Finally, I show how these arguments can inform several key scientific questions, including the uniqueness of human culture, the long lifespans of cultural species, and the propensity of animals to seemingly have knowledge about a phenomenon well before they will act upon it.

scholarly journals Interplay between culture and biology in human

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fatik Baran Mandal
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Biological Evolution ◽  
Ecological Factors ◽  
Cultural Norms ◽  
Human Culture ◽  
Cultural Behavior ◽  
Generational Transmission ◽  
Neuronal Mechanisms

Neurobiology, hormone, behavior, environment and epigenetics bring out modifications in human culture. People are genetically different from their sensitivity to cultural behavior or cultural norms. Genetic variation interacts with social- and ecological -factors and influences psycho- cultural differences. The environment via hormonal and neuronal mechanisms influences the genes. At least 129 genes are subject to recent rapid selection and their inferred cultural selection pressures. Social, - cultural¬, and environmental factors are placed with genetic factors on an equal footing as carriers of information in human development. Social learning behaviors, culture, and language are media for trans-generational transmission of information. Brain organizations after maturation are partially yet remarkably re-modeled due to cultural practices. The high social competition caused evolution of large brains and distinct cognitive abilities in our species. Social learning influences the acquisition of norms of culture and behavioral patterns. Culture determines our behavior. We have changed our culture in many ways. Although a number of theories exist on biology -culture interplay, but the complex interaction between culture and biology is yet to be fully understood for addressing issues like sustainability.This communication presents the interplay between human culture, environment and biology in light of modern understanding and shows that biological evolution and cultural evolution are intertwined in our species.

scholarly journals A Guttman-Based Approach to Identifying Cumulativeness Applied to Chimpanzee Culture

2012 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 295-314
Author(s):  
Robert Bates Graber ◽  
Dean R. De Cock ◽  
Michael L. Burton
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Learning Mechanisms ◽  
Traditional Methods ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Quantitative Evidence ◽  
Human Culture ◽  
Type Statistic ◽  
The Common ◽  
Common Chimpanzee

Human culture appears to build on itself—that is, to be to some extent cumulative. Whether this property is shared by culture in the common chimpanzee is controversial. The question previously has been approached, qualitatively (and inconclusively), by debating whether any chimpanzee culture traits have resulted from individuals building on one another’s work (“ratcheting”). The fact that the chimpanzees at different sites have distinctive repertoires of traits affords a different avenue of approach: determining whether the traits accumulate, site to site, in a structure more orderly than would be expected by chance. Here we use Guttman scalograms and a gamma-type statistic to bring the first quantitative evidence to bear on the question. We show that while traditional methods provide apparent support for a cumulative tendency, our more rigorous methods do not. This may be because cumulativeness requires human-like social-learning mechanisms, or because culture generally is not sufficiently unidimensional to scale well. A cumulative tendency would be expected, however, under rather weak assumptions; therefore it seems more likely that chimpanzee culture is cumulative, but this data set is simply too small to evidence it.

A cognitive approach to cumulative technological culture is useful and necessary but only if it also applies to other species

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thibaud Gruber
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Learning Processes ◽  
Cognitive Approach ◽  
Technological Culture ◽  
Social Learning Processes

Abstract The debate on cumulative technological culture (CTC) is dominated by social-learning discussions, at the expense of other cognitive processes, leading to flawed circular arguments. I welcome the authors' approach to decouple CTC from social-learning processes without minimizing their impact. Yet, this model will only be informative to understand the evolution of CTC if tested in other cultural species.

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