lecture 12 - cultural transmission Flashcards
what is cultural transmission
transfer of info from individual to individual through social learning or teaching - both btwn and within generations of animals
how did imo, the japanese macaque, get the rest of the population to wash their food through cultural transmission
she would would wash her potatoes in the water and then the other animals in population would imitate it. Then she would toss her wheat into ocean so it would float and sand would sink → this went through population but took longer because monkeys didn’t want to let go of the food once they had it (reluctant ass monkeys)
how does cultural transmission differ from individual trial and error learning
cultural transmission is spreading of info (so learned info doesn’t die with organism) and the information can be passed down through generatiosn
what ae the roles in cultural transmission
model individual and observer
what situations involve observers-models interaction but aren’t cultural transmission
local enhancement and social facilitation
what is local enhancement
individual learn from others not by doing what the other is doing but because they were drawn to an area since the other individual was in that location (think of it with feeding, both fish know how to feed, the first first just knew where to find better food)
what is social facilitation
the mere presence of the model (regardless of what it does) is thought to facilitate learning on part of observer (ex. Lone bird drawn to group not because of the location or what they are doing just because there is safety in numbers)
what is imitation
Must be a new behavior learned from others that involved some new spatial (topographic) manipulation and needs to lead to achievement of goal
what are examples of imitation
imo potato behavior
chimp fishes for termites with twig and younger child observes this and does it
what is copying
When animals copy one another, an observer repeats what it sees the model do. Individual can copy action of another even if it already knows how to do what model is doing and even if it does not involve learning some new spatial orientation to do what the model does
whats an example of copying
mate choice copying in females or copying defensive response
how are teachers different than models
more active role. they provide benefit to student but not themselves. info is giver faster to student than through other modes
what is vertical cultural transmission
trasmitted from parents to offspring across generations
what is oblique cultural transmission
transfer of info across generations but not via parent/offspring interactions (other adults here)
what is horizontal cultural transmission
information comes from peers. info transfer within generation
