A moderate role for cognitive models in agent-based modeling of cultural change

Abstract

Purpose: Agent-based models are typically "simple-agent" models, in which agents behave according to simple rules, or "complex-agent" models which incorporate complex models of cognitive processes. I argue that there is also an important role for agent-based computer models in which agents incorporate cognitive models of moderate complexity. In particular, I argue that such models have the potential to bring insights from the humanistic study of culture into population-level modeling of cultural change. Methods: I motivate my proposal in part by describing an agent-based modeling framework, POPCO, in which agents' communication of their simulated beliefs depends on a model of analogy processing implemented by artificial neural networks within each agent. I use POPCO to model a hypothesis about causal relations between cultural patterns proposed by Peggy Sanday. Results: In model 1, empirical patterns like those reported by Sanday emerge from the influence of analogies on agents' communication with each other. Model 2 extends model 1 by allowing the components of a new analogy to diffuse through the population for reasons unrelated to later effects of the analogy. This illustrates a process by which novel cultural features might arise. Conclusions: The inclusion of relatively simple cognitive models in agents allows modeling population-level effects of inferential and cultural coherence relations, including symbolic cultural relationships. I argue that such models of moderate complexity can illuminate various causal relationships involving cultural patterns and cognitive processes.

The parental brain: A neural framework for study of teaching in humans and other animals

“…Sperber & Wilson 1995). For example, in a previous paper (Abrams 2013), I suggest that cultural transmission might sometimes be biased by analogical relations between transmitted variants and existing beliefs (cf. Gentner et al 2001;Hofstadter & Sander 2013;Holyoak & Thagard 1995;Thibodeau & Boroditsky 2013).…”

Group-level expression encoded in the individual

“…Some patterns of cultural transmission tend to reduce cultural diversity. These patterns include copying of random individuals (Alexander 2007;Abrams 2013), bias toward copying successful or high-status individuals, and bias toward copying high-frequency cultural variants (Boyd & Richerson 1985). Models in which individuals' beliefs are weighted averages of others' generally produce consensus, as long as no individuals are isolated from others and degrees of trust are stable (DeGroot 1974;Grim et al 2011;Lehrer & Wagner 1981;Zollman, personal communication, cf.…”

Cultural variant interaction in teaching and transmission

“…The explicit use of TPIs in modeling is illustrated in a forthcoming article entitled, "Coherence, Muller's ratchet, and the maintenance of culture" (Abrams 2015), which extends one of Enquist et al's (2010) models. Enquist et al's results imply that cultural variants that are taught only by parents to same-sex children (e.g., Tehrani & Collard 2009) would eventually disappear from a population.…”

“…Sperber & Wilson 1995). For example, in an article entitled "A moderate role for cognitive models in agent-based modeling of cultural change" (Abrams 2013), I suggest that cultural transmission might sometimes be biased by analogical relations between transmitted variants and existing beliefs (cf. Gentner et al 2001;Hofstadter & Sander 2013;Holyoak & Thagard 1995;Thibodeau & Boroditsky 2013).…”