Culture 1

Question 1

dual inheritance theory

Answer 1

human evolution is the product of inheritance of genes and culture from our parents

Question 2

Mechanisms that drive cultural evolution

Answer 2

variation
selection
transmission

Question 3

variation in terms of cultural evolution

Answer 3

different ideas or methods of doing something

Question 4

selection in terms of cultural evolution

Answer 4

certain methods are passed down more than others, like ones that are more memorable or work better

Question 5

transmission in terms of cultural evolution

Answer 5

the spreading of ideas from mind to mind

Question 6

how does culture make improvements?

Answer 6

in small amount that accumulate bit by bit

overtime leads to complex adaptations

Question 7

how did genetic evolution aid in making us adaptable?

Answer 7

our environment was constantly changing, so genetic adaptations that allowed us to be flexible in new environments were favoured
genetic adaptations for the specific environment didn’t work because the environment would soon change and make it useless

Question 8

relationship between environmental variability and utility of social learning

Answer 8

Very variable env -> individual learning
moderately variable env -> social learning
low variable env -> genetic evolution

Question 9

what is cultural brain hypothesis?

Answer 9

the development of social learning is what drove the evolution of our larger brains

Question 10

what is gene-culture co-evolution?

Answer 10

genetic evolution shapes us to enable cultural evolution, and then the cultural evolution feeds back into the genetic evolutions

Question 11

what could stop the feedback loop of gene-culture co-evolution?

Answer 11

anatomical constraints

Question 12

what does social learning require?

Answer 12

intelligence
theory of mind
mechanisms of learning and imitation

Question 13

benefits of social learning

Answer 13

cumulative info that is low cost; don’t need to test if a plant is poisonous if someone else has before

Question 14

costs of social learning

Answer 14

bas ideas can spread easily

Question 15

characteristics needed for learning and imitating

Answer 15

credulous and conformist

Question 16

mechanisms of cultural transmission

Answer 16

content-based mechanisms

context-based mechanisms

Question 17

content-based mechanisms

Answer 17

there’s selective retention of some mental representations over others because of differences in content
more memorable content is passed on

Question 18

types context-bases mechanisms

Answer 18

frequency dependent cultural learning bias

model-based cultural learning bias

Question 19

context-based mechanisms

Answer 19

the circumstances under which an idea is under causes it to be passed down

Question 20

frequency-dependent cultural learning bias

Answer 20

bias that leads learners to adopt cultural trait on the basis of it’s frequency in the population
causes conformity bias

Question 21

examples of conformity bias

Answer 21

Asch line test
facing direction in the elevator study
wearing masks

Question 22

Asch line test

Answer 22

asked group (one participant, the rest confederates) which line is more similar to another line
participant conformed to the wrong answer the group picked

Question 23

model-based cultural learning bias

Answer 23

mechanism that encourages learners to attend to and learn from particular individuals (cultural models) based on cues such as skill, success, and prestige

Question 24

what is easiest to distinguish between skill, success, and prestige?

Answer 24

prestige; find who everyone is paying attention to

Question 25

what do the mechanisms of cultural transmission ensure?

Answer 25

that the most effective information spreads

mechanism for selection of cultural info

Question 26

what is prestige?

Answer 26

a new form of status within a group that is “given” to you by the group

Question 27

what determined status before prestige bias?

Answer 27

dominance over the group (strongest person)

Question 28

what is modern day example of prestige bias?

Answer 28

celebrity endorsement of products

Question 29

what kinds of learning are key to cultural evolution?

Answer 29

social and individual learning

Question 30

why is individual learning needed for proper social learning

Answer 30

• learning through imitation is not 100% accurate

- the environment may change and the old methods would no longer work

Question 31

what is a maverick?

Answer 31

an individual learner

Question 32

relationship between variability of the environment and individual learners

Answer 32

less variable env -> fewer mavericks

vice versa

Question 33

effects on environmental variability on the East and West

Answer 33

East -> less variable env -> more conformist

West -> more variable env -> more innovative

Question 34

does population relate to cultural evolution?

Answer 34

yes, larger and more integrated population sizes have more cultural innovations