Experimental Approaches to Studying Cumulative Cultural Evolution

Abstract

In humans, cultural traditions often change in ways which increase efficiency and functionality. This process, widely referred to as cumulative cultural evolution, sees beneficial traits preferentially retained, and it is so pervasive that we may be inclined to take it for granted. However, directional change of this kind appears to distinguish human cultural traditions from behavioural traditions that have been documented in other animals. Cumulative culture is therefore attracting an increasing amount of attention within psychology, and researchers have begun to develop methods of studying this phenomenon under controlled conditions. These studies have now addressed a number of different questions, including which learning mechanisms may be implicated, and how the resulting behaviours may be influenced by factors such as population structure. The current article provides a synopsis of some of these studies, and highlights some of the unresolved issues in this field.

Storytelling as Adaptive Collective Sensemaking

“…More recently, experimental studies have begun to use the method of serial reproduction (Wagoner, ) to simulate cumulative cultural evolution, or the continuous improvement of cultural artifacts (e.g., woven baskets, knots, paper airplanes, and stone stools) from one generation to the next (Bietti, Bangerter, & Mayor, ; Caldwell, Atkinson, & Renner, ; Mesoudi & Whiten, ; Morgan et al., ; Zwirner & Thornton, ). This research has typically compared the emergence of cumulative culture as a function of various modes of information transmission (Caldwell & Millen, , ), including imitation (new generations observed what previous generations did), emulation (new generations observed cultural products and their performance), and teaching (new and old generations interacted about the completed task).…”

Storytelling as adaptive collective sensemaking

“…More recently, experimental studies have begun to use the method of serial reproduction (Wagoner, 2017) to simulate cumulative cultural evolution, or the continuous improvement of cultural artifacts (e.g., woven baskets, knots, paper airplanes, and stone stools) from one generation to the next (Bietti, Bangerter, & Mayor, 2017;Caldwell, Atkinson, & Renner, 2016;Mesoudi & Whiten, 2008;Morgan et al, 2015;Zwirner & Thornton, 2015). This research has typically compared the emergence of cumulative culture as a function of various modes of information transmission (Caldwell & Millen, 2008, including imitation (new generations observed what previous generations did), emulation (new generations observed cultural products and their performance), and teaching (new and old generations interacted about the completed task).…”

Toward a Psychology of Social Change: A Typology of Social Change

“…At the very least in a laboratory, researchers can expose participants to imagined changes through a scenario or a video that would include, in the experimental condition, one or more of the four characteristics of DSC (Pelletier-Dumas et al, submitted). If the scientific community accepts that experimental studies will not exactly mirror DSC, but instead test some of the characteristics in a large number of experiments, there is potential for laboratory experiments to bring an important contribution that would eventually allow a generalization to the real world (for examples see Betsch et al, 2015; Caldwell et al, 2016; Pelletier-Dumas et al, submitted).…”