Chapter 2 Culture and Human Nature Flashcards
Why are humans so much weaker than our nearest primate relatives?
For our brain, if we would keep such muscles, we need more calories, but famine was common in the past
Large brains require an enormous amount of energy. (we have large brain)
Having smaller muscles allowed humans to evolve larger more resource-intensive brains
What is another way that human differ from other primates?
Their intestines are shorter - about 60% shorter.
Humans’ shorter digestive tract free up more energy to allow for large brains.
人类较短的消化道可以释放更多的能量，以容纳更大的大脑
faster digest and extract nutrition for our brain
How can humans extract enough energy from their foods if their digestive tracts are shorter?
Through cooking. Cooked food requires less energy to extract the nutrients.
The cultural invention (solution) of cooking allowed humans to evolve shorter intestines.
Gene cultural co-evolution
Does having larger brains mean that humans are smarter at everything?
No, no advantages of working memory and intelligence (compared to chimpanzees)
What species are humans exactly? What are humans interested in doing?
Humans are an ultrasocial species; we evolved to benefit from social living
人类是一种超社会性的物种；我们的进化是为了从社交生活中受益 form alliances, keep number of friends and social networks
Evidences:
Humans live in larger groups than other primates. 人类比其他灵长类动物生活在更大的群体中 (keep track of 150 relationships in average)
Humans appear more interested in each other’s activities than other primates.
与其他灵长类动物相比，人类似乎对彼此的活动更感兴趣
most common type of conversation is gossip
Humans engage in more cultural learning than other primates.
人类比其他灵长类动物进行更多的文化学习
good at learning from others
What are the differences between humans and chimps or orangutans in terms learning abilities?
- Some tasks involved general problem-solving skills about the physical world.
有些任务涉及解决物理世界问题的一般技能
2.5岁的孩子和猩猩差不多 - Some tasks involved social learning. (mimic the model)
人类可以模仿
Humans are distinctive in that they engage in so much social learning. Being able to learn skills from observing others is a key reason behind the evolution of our big brains.
In what ways do humans learn that are different from other primates?
Human social learning appears to be more imitative. They internalize the model’s goals and behavioural strategies. 人类的社会学习似乎更具模仿性。他们将模型的目标和行为策略内化
Chimpanzee social learning appears to be more emulative. They focus on the environmental events that are involved and not the model’s goals and behavioural strategies. 黑猩猩的社会学习似乎更具竞争性。他们关注所涉及的环境事件，而不是模型的目标和行为策略
Not focusing on the model is pushing the food with the stick, only focusing on the food in the can
How does Nagel et al (1993)’s study show that humans use imitative learning whereas chimps use emulative learning?
Contrasting how chimps and 2-year-olds learned from a model.用耙子扫玩具 Teeth-Down Position, Teeth-Up Position
Children used the rake in the same way that the target did. (which is not effective，有空隙)
Chimpanzees used the rake in the more effective “teeth up” position– regardless of the way the target used it.
How do human select who they imitate?
- Prestige Bias: people are more likely to imitate prestigious people, those who are of higher status and more successful
- Similarity Bias: people are more likely to imitate those who are similar to them
- Conformist transmission: people are more likely to imitate the most common behaviours
e.g., copy what most people are doing (taking shoes off if seen other people all took their shoes off)
What are some benefits or imitative learning?
Imitative learning allows for a faithful and high-fidelity reproduction of the target behaviour.
New cultural information cannot only be accurately reproduced - it can also be improved.
can based on past experiences to improve
This allows for cultural accumulation
- grow and build more complex over time
- only human have this ability
Does cultural knowledge accumulate at the same rate everywhere?
No, it does vary across context
The speed of cultural accumulation has been increasing over time.
随着时间的推移，文化积累的速度在不断加快
One possibility is that cultural accumulation rates are tied to population size.
一种可能是，文化积累速度与种群数量有关
Key factor: With larger populations, one should be more likely to find a successful model to imitate. 人口越多，就越有可能找到成功的模仿模式
small people move to a new area, there is limited cultural knowledge, European vs Tesania
Places with severe population loss often have a loss of technologies.
人口流失严重的地方往往会出现技术流失
Large cities and industrial hubs tend to have more cultural innovations.
大城市和工业中心往往拥有更多的文化创新
More people and concentration of people to copy from
What is one study done on group size predicting better cultural learning?
complicated fishing net on the computer. Participants were put either in groups of 2, 4,8, or 16 members. They were first shown the net and then they had 15 trials to try to recreate it themselves. 这项研究调查了大学生小组在计算机上学习制作复杂渔网的能力。参与者被分为 2 人、4 人、8 人或 16 人一组。首先向他们展示渔网，然后让他们进行 15 次试验，尝试自己重新制作渔网
After each trial, they received a score for the quality of their net, and they could see the scores of their teammates. After each trial, they could select to see one of the nets of their teammates. 每次试验后，他们都会收到自己的球网质量得分，同时还能看到队友的得分。每次试验后，他们可以选择查看队友的其中一个球网
Those run in groups of 2 were able to recreate the net less than half the time.
In contrast, more than 90% of participants in the largest group could accurately recreate the net. 相比之下，在最大的一组中，90% 以上的参与者都能准确地重新创建网络
In a larger group, you are more likely to have access to a successful model to copy from. The whole world is becoming interconnected with the Internet, so rates of innovation should continue to grow在一个较大的小组中，你更有可能获得一个成功的模型来进行复制。 整个世界正与互联网相互连接，因此创新率应继续增长
What is said about gene-cultural coevolution?
Our genes and our cultures evolve together. This is probably unique to humans.
我们的基因和我们的文化共同进化。 这可能是人类独有的现象
Our genes change (e.g., developing shorter guts and larger brains) in response to culturally acquired information (e.g., learning how to cook). Our brains evolved to excel at learning cultural information and to depend on this information.我们的基因会随着文化信息（如学习如何烹饪）的变化而变化（如发育出更短的内脏和更大的大脑）。我们的大脑进化得擅长学习文化信息，并依赖于这些信息
cooking helps a lot of digesting
Likewise, our cultures continue to change over time. Larger and more interconnected groups enhance the speed of this cultural evolution.同样，随着时间的推移，我们的文化也在不断变化。规模更大、联系更紧密的群体会加快文化进化的速度
Unlike other species, our genes don’t need to evolve new responses to new challenges. We can develop cultural solutions to new challenges.
与其他物种不同，我们的基因不需要进化出新的对策来应对新的挑战。我们可以发展出文化解决方案来应对新的挑战
vaccine is a cultural solution
Is culture unique to human? Or is it observed in animal kingdoms as well?
Social Learning Definition of Culture
being able to learn information from other members of their species through social transmission
Example
Japanese macaque猕猴通过模仿其他人洗土豆从而使得族群中很多人都养成了洗土豆的习惯
Different chimpanzees group 用不同的方式捕获白蚁
Humans are not unique in cultural learning
in primate species and also in dolphins and whales, pigeons
However, although many species can learn cultural information, the nonhuman species are not very good at it.
eg. Dialects 方言 and cultural practices are better learnt in humans
What are some advantages and disadvantages to prestige bias?
Advantage
Imitating prestigious others is a very efficient form of cultural learning
Disadvantage
Because the critical behaviours for success are unclear, a general imitating mechanism attracts us to prestigious individuals, whom we observe and try to imitate, regardless of what they are doing
e.g. 广告商利用名人向人们推销与他们声望来源无关的产品
Humans tend to be fascinated with famous people and want to know everything about them
People sometimes imitate a celebrity’s destructive habits
明星自杀他们也自杀
Is there a side effect to similarity bias?
Copying another’s actions serves to demonstrate your group identity and affiliation
e.g. 孩子会惩罚群体内做不同事的人即使他们做的事情对于他们没有任何影响
When is conformist transmission most likely to happen?
the task is difficult
people lack confidence in their own abilities
there are many different options to choose from
What are three key cognitive capacities to help facilitate humans’ cultural learning?
- the ability to consider the perspective of others
- the ability to communicate using language
- the motivation to share their experiences
What is mentalizing?
When people learn from others, they can take on the perspectives of others by considering their intentions, goals, preferences, and strategies.
了解他人举动背后的目的是什么
Many nonhuman primate species are capable of mentalizing, but their abilities fall far short of human capacities
- Imitative learning (function of mentalizing)
the learner internalizes something of the model’s goals and behavioural strategies - Emulative learning (does not involve mentalizing)
The learner focuses on the environmental events involved
Does not require imitating a model’s behavioural strategies
so it is creative way of thinking, how to make this work
Only focusing on the events that happen around the model, rather than what the model intends to accomplish
In what ways do humans and chimps differ in terms of sharing experiences and goals?
Humans engage in collaborative learning, instructed learning, and scaffolding. But chimps don’t really do those things.
What is a ratchet effect 棘轮效应?
After an initial idea is learned from others, it can then be modified and improved upon by other individuals and time.
cultural information can continue to build without losing the earlier information
Requires Creative Invention, Transmission这个技能，和repeated accurately enough with a solid foundation.
How does interconnection facilitate cultural accumulation?
Interconnection
The groups that had more interactions were more likely to reproduce the complicated knot
Most innovations tend to come from cities or places where like-minded people are clustered
because one is more likely to encounter successful models to imitate and build on
Ideas beget other ideas, and culture accumulates.
Why do cultures sometimes lose ideas?
Due to the lack of available models to imitate
When smaller groups of people were cut off from a larger population (physical or cultural adopting reclusive habits （隐居）
Complex cultural knowledge can deteriorate if the size of a population of interconnected minds shrinks, leaving learners with a shortage of skilled models to copy from
small groups are more likely to lose the ability to make complex objects than larger and more connected groups are
What do cultural worlds mean?
Worlds that contain cultural ideas that have accumulated over time
We are all born into rich cultural worlds
We are constantly learning, and being influenced by the shared ideas that make up our cultures.
Psychological mechanisms can undergo cumulative cultural evolution as well
e.g. mathematical reasoning
same order and principle when math was discovered (cannot evolute)
Read the following information about our human brain:
Encephalization quotient 脑化商
the ratio of the brain weight of an animal to the brain weight predicted for a comparable animal of the same body size is approximately 4.6
our brain is four to five times larger than that of other mammals of similar size
consumes about 16% of your total metabolic energy
The size of our brain is surely relevant for understanding our skills for cultural learning.
The cost of a huge brain require an enormous amount of energy to function
you can’t even give your brain a rest by
because your brain requires almost as much energy when it’s focused on something as it does when it’s daydreaming
average mammal‘s brain
only 3% of their total metabolism
What is the social brain hypothesis? Explain
Also, what is one disadvantage associated with that?
The cognitive demands inherited in social living led to the evolution of large primate brain
To function well in a highly social community, one must be able to outmaneuver others within it, which requires attending to a highly complex series of relationships.为了在高度社交的社区中发挥良好作用，一个人必须能够在其中战胜其他人，这需要处理一系列高度复杂的关系
It was the great cognitive demands inherent in social living that led to the evolution of large primate brains 正是社会生活中固有的巨大认知需求导致了灵长类动物大脑的进化
Primates that were most successful at navigating the intricate and elaborate webs of social relationships would have been more likely to survive 在错综复杂的社会关系网络中最成功的灵长类动物更有可能生存下来
Cognitive skills that enabled individual primates to successfully navigate their social worlds evolved because of the complexities of social living. 由于社会生活的复杂性，灵长类动物能够成功驾驭其社会世界的认知技能不断进化
One Disadvantage, but:
Doesn’t explain why group living would be so beneficial to primates
One possible reason is that living with many others may have allowed more opportunities for social learning.
The larger the brain size of a primate, the more it engages in social learning.
What is a neocortex ratio and what is important about it?
The volume of the neocortex is relative to the volume of the rest of the brain. (ratio)
used to measure intelligence (the larger the better the group size)
Neocortex
the outermost layer of the brain that governs higher functions, such as sensory perception, motor control, and conscious thought
The most notable way primate brains differ from those of other mammals is that the primate neocortex is larger.
Problem-solving tends to be focused in the neocortex.
Those living in larger social groups tended to have larger neocortex ratios
What does the puzzle box experiment done on capuchins, chimps, and human children show about cultural learning?
The main difference between humans and primates are the ability to learn from others
this lead to cultural accumulation (key advantage of the human big brain)
In evolutionary perspective
associated with the ability to understand other’s intentions and activities in a large group
find talented models and develop skills
The human capacity to understand the large group of individuals they regularly interacted → more likely to find talented models to learn from + ultimately develop new skills that would be beneficial → developing the cognitive abilities associated with cultural learning → adapt to diverse challenges from the environment
the ability to engage in cultural learning itself was a selective force
shaped human evolution
