Experimental assessment of capacities for cumulative culture: Review and evaluation of methods

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 CognitionCognitive Biology > Cognitive DevelopmentPsychology > Comparative Psychology

A theory limited in scope and evidence

“…To date, this hypothesis has received support from neuropsychological and neuroimaging research. It has recently been applied to the study of CTC by means of micro-society paradigms, which are useful for investigating the role of individuals' cognitive skills in CTC or comparing the quality of social transmission in different social-learning conditions (for a discussion of the strengths and limitations of micro-society paradigms, see Caldwell et al 2019). These paradigms also allow us to collect empirical data that can be compared to theoretical data generated by modeling approaches to test their predictions.…”

Flexible social learning strategies are harder than the sum of their parts

“…Capturing individual learner behaviour in this way contrasts with experimental tasks which aim to capture CCE as a population-level process, over multiple learner generations. Methods such as the one used here can however be extended in ways that permit assessment of the potential for cumulative cultural evolution in contexts where experimentally examining generational turnover may be problematic (Caldwell et al, 2020).…”

Inferring Behavior From Partial Social Information Plays Little or No Role in the Cultural Transmission of Adaptive Traits

“…By contrast, there is little evidence of this occurring in cases of social transmission in other animals, including species recognized to be capable of imitative learning, and those exhibiting population‐specific behavioral traditions in natural environments (e.g., Dean, Vale, Laland, Flynn, & Kendal, 2014; Tennie et al, 2009; though see, e.g., Caldwell et al, 2020; Laland & Hoppitt, 2003; Mesoudi & Thornton, 2018; Schofield, McGrew, Takahashi, & Hirata, 2018, for further discussion regarding the lack of evidence for cumulative culture in non‐humans). However, in many respects, it is the human anomaly of accumulating benefits that requires explanation, more so than its apparent absence in other species.…”

“…Here, we investigated the role of inferring previous behaviors in the cultural transmission of search tasks, in line with established methodologies used to study the evolution of cultural traits in controlled conditions (see Caldwell et al, 2020; Caldwell, Atkinson, & Renner, 2016, for a review). We used a variant of a search task paradigm we have employed previously in the study of the mechanisms of cumulative cultural evolution in adults (Atkinson et al, submitted; Mackintosh et al, in prep.), children (Wilks et al, in prep.; Wilks et al, submitted), and non‐human primates.…”