Joint evolution of traits for social learning

Turner, Catherine; Mann, Stephen Francis; Spike, Matthew; Magrath, Robert D.; Sterelny, Kim

doi:10.1007/s00265-023-03314-w

Cited by 2 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 93 publications

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“…Because both strategies and cultural traits are inherited together, this favours Kin-directed Innovator lineages due to their accumulating beneficial knowledge. This mechanism is similar to that present in models of the evolution of teaching [21,22], which is similarly argued to have evolved due to kin selection. However, Kin-directed Innovation suffers from having fewer demonstrators, which severely slows CCE relative to horizontal cultural transmission in Model 1, especially in the uniparental case where cultural traits are transmitted from only one parent.…”

Section: Summary Of Modelsupporting

confidence: 70%

“…This occurs because strategies and traits are inherited together: individuals who share knowledge with their kin produce offspring who inherit a propensity to share with kin and also inherit their parent's accumulated cultural traits. This resembles models of the evolution of teaching, where costly teaching is inherited together with cultural traits whose acquisition is facilitated by that teaching [21,22]. However, Model 2 also showed that the downside of kin-directed innovation is a notable decrease in the rate of CCE due to the reduction in effective sample size of demonstrators from potentially the entire population down to one or two parents, reflecting general findings related to population size and CCE [8,9].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 63%

“…Closed Innovators innovate but do not pass on that knowledge to their offspring, while Non-Innovators do not innovate so have nothing to pass on. This is the same mechanism that explains the evolution of teaching in other models [21,22], where both genes for teaching and the superior taught knowledge that results from teaching are passed on together from parents to offspring. Figure 3c illustrates the downside of Kin-directed Innovation.…”

Section: Model 2: Kin Selectionmentioning

confidence: 78%

“…improve the chances of social learning, or mask, i.e. decrease the chances of social learning, equivalent to information hoarding [21]. This and other models of the evolution of teaching [22] find that teaching evolves due to kin selection, as both genes for teaching and adaptive information are transmitted together from parent to offspring.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 84%

See 3 more Smart Citations

From information free-riding to information sharing: how have humans solved the cooperative dilemma at the heart of cumulative cultural evolution?

Mesoudi,

Jimenez,

Jensen

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Cumulative cultural evolution, where populations accumulate ever-improving knowledge, technologies and social customs, is arguably a unique feature of human sociality and responsible for our species’ ecological dominance of the planet. However, at the heart of cumulative cultural evolution is a cooperative dilemma. Assuming asocial learning is more costly than social learning, social learners can act as ‘information free-riders’ by copying innovations from asocial learners without paying the cost. This cost asymmetry will reduce innovation, inhibiting cumulative culture. Innovators might respond by protecting their knowledge and keeping the benefits to themselves – ‘information hoarding’ - but then others cannot build on their discoveries and again cumulative culture is inhibited. Here we formally model information free-riding and information hoarding within a cumulative cultural evolution framework using both analytical and agent-based models. Model 1 identifies the restrictive conditions under which information sharing can evolve in the face of information free-riding and hoarding. Models 2-4 then show how three mechanisms known to favour cooperation in non-informational contexts - kin selection, reputation-based partner choice and cultural group selection – can also solve the informational cooperative dilemma and facilitate cumulative cultural evolution, each with distinct signatures potentially detectable in historical, ethnographic and other empirical data.

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Section: Summary Of Modelsupporting

confidence: 70%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 63%

Section: Model 2: Kin Selectionmentioning

confidence: 78%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 84%

See 2 more Smart Citations

From information free-riding to information sharing: how have humans solved the cooperative dilemma at the heart of cumulative cultural evolution?

Mesoudi,

Jimenez,

Jensen

et al. 2024

Preprint

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The coevolution of learning schedules and teaching enhances cumulative knowledge and drives a teacher-innovator syndrome

Maisonneuve,

Lehmann,

Mullon

2024

Preprint

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Natural selection shapes how individuals learn and acquire knowledge from their environment. Under the right conditions, this can lead to the evolution of learning schedules—how individuals allocate resources to acquire knowledge throughout their lifespan—that promote the accumulation of knowledge across generations (“cumulative knowledge” or “cumulative culture”). In spite of having been observed across multiple taxa, the role of parental teaching in this evolutionary process remains understudied. Using mathematical modelling, we show that learning schedules and parental teaching coevolve, resulting in greater time spent learning individually and innovating, as well as greater inter-generational transfer of knowledge from parent to offspring. These outcomes together enhance cumulative knowledge. Our analyses further reveal that within populations, selection typically favours an association between teaching and individual learning, leading to a syndrome whereby some individuals innovate and teach within the family (“knowledge producers” with extensive knowledge), while others teach less and learn socially outside of the family (“knowledge scroungers” with less knowledge). Overall, our findings indicate that the coevolution of learning schedules and teaching promotes knowledge accumulation within and between generations, and favors diversity within and between populations in knowledge acquisition, possession and transmission.

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Joint evolution of traits for social learning

Cited by 2 publications

References 93 publications

From information free-riding to information sharing: how have humans solved the cooperative dilemma at the heart of cumulative cultural evolution?

From information free-riding to information sharing: how have humans solved the cooperative dilemma at the heart of cumulative cultural evolution?

The coevolution of learning schedules and teaching enhances cumulative knowledge and drives a teacher-innovator syndrome

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