Week 2: Cultural evolution and development Flashcards
What is the evidence of culture in different species?
Bottlenose dolphins use sponges as foraging tools.
Different populations of killer whales speak different dialects.
Even guppies and octopus show cultural learning.
Why does the way that humans learn culture stand out?
- we are faster
- the imitation is targeted as we only imitate the best available prototype, while animals would not distinguish between these-> saves the cost of individual learning and increases frequency and intimacy
What is important to remember about imitation and prestige?
Very similar to natural selection, there exist cultural selection processes that favor certain types of cultural transmission over others.
Cultural selection favors improved learning efficiencies, like coping the best protoype
Cultural selection favors behaviors in the learner that lead to better learning environments, such as better intimacy
What is imitative learning?
A type of social learning in which the learner internalizes aspects of the model’s goals and behavioral strategies. Learners copy precisely what they think the model is trying to do. So it is less effective and more precise
What is emulative learning?
a type of social learning focused on the environmental events involved with a model’s behavior, such as how the use of one object could potentially affect changes in the state of the environment. It is more effective and less precise
What is the difference between the two?
Emulative learning does not care about the model’s intentions, and they will try to figure things out for themselves. The different types of social learning have implications for the accumulation of cultural information.
How did cultural learning become possible?
Theory of Mind (ToM): allows for imitative learning because we can understand others’ intentions
Language: allows for more sophisticated ways of communicating our ideas and intentions, but also to coordinate with others
What is the Ratchet effect?
Once an initial idea has been learned from others, it can then be modified and improved by other individuals. The cultural information thus grows in complexity and utility over time. So we need very precise imitation and innovation otherwise cultural knowledge would disappear
What facilitates cultural learning?
Our Our encephalization quotient (the ratio of our brain size to our body size) is bigger than any other mammal. Our brain is so big that we need 16% of our metabolism (our general energy) for its functioning. It provided an evolutionary advantage so that we could function in our communications and in social groups
What are the implications of having a large brain?
- weaker muscles
- shorter guts as we cook our food so most of digestion happens outside of our body
What is the social brain hypothesis?
Most of the primate brain expansion happens in the neocortex (high neocortex ratio linked to social variables like group size and complexity of social mating). This is where social computational processes take place (voluntary inhibitory control resulting in social harmony). Sub-cortical structures are where more ecological processing takes place like cognitive mapping
Where does culture come form?
Cultural norms are adaptive responses to features of the ecology. Proximal causes are those that have direct and immediate relations with their effects like technology. Distal causes are initial differences that lead to effects over long periods through indirect relations like geography/climate.
How did geography and climate permit for innovation?
- greater exchange of ideas permitted by the denser population in Europe so more inventions
- greater expansion and growth through food producers, diseases led to immunity
- certain crops cannot be transported due to climate obstacles
What is evoked culture?
Agues that cultural norms are a direct response to ecological factors (everyone has biologically encoded behavioural repertoires that are accessible to them, these can be engaged in the appropriate conditions.
What is transmitted culture?
Cultural norms are learned from other individuals, so learn through social learning or modelling others who live near them
Why can more culture be explained by transmission?
Transmitted culture can travel with people when they move to new environments
Transmitted culture is always involved in maintaining and spreading cultural norms, even when evoked cultural responses are also present.
But why is a distinction between them not that straightforward?
A behavioural script may be triggered by ecology, then passed on via social interaction, to become a cultural norm.
How do cultural ideas spread?
Information is shared and retained, and when picked up can become norms. Characteristics of successful ideas:
Usefulness: sharing useful information -> show cooperation -> valuable as relationship partner & increased chance to be helped in the future
Communicability: easy to summarize & socially desirable; norms in regular communicators; p more likely to communicate personally relevant info
Minimally counterintuitive: violating expectations -> more memorable; but ideas should be intuitive/ plausible
Emotionality: sharing (strong) emotional reaction connect with others
How do cultures change?
- globalization as cultures more interconnected through internet, transport, social media leading to cultural homogeneity globally. Glocalization is the adaptation of international products for particularities of a local culture
- more individualistic than in older generations, more socially isolating and work commitments
- increase in IQ (Flynn effect) but cannot be explained by nuitrition as these differences do not map onto IQ decreases
How do cultures persist?
- cultural innovations are constrained by pre-existing structures so early ecological factors have disproportionate influence on cultural evolution such as slave trade resulted in low economic development
- pluralistic ignorance: a situation in which a majority of group members privately rejects a norm, but incorrectly assumes that most others accept it, and therefore goes along with it like alcohol prohibition in the US
How are we hard-wired to learn culture?
Humans are prepared the adjust and seize meaning from the environment, so the human brain is preprogrammed to learn cultural meaning systems. Other species have instinctual knowledge that can help them survive. Evidence for preprogrammed: there is a sensitive period for acquiring culture (enculturation).
What is the sensitive period?
a developmental window that allows for the relatively easy and fast acquisition of a set of skills (acquisition – specialization – exploitation of skills as three developmental transitions that indicate the existence of sensitive periods). Cultural psychologists look at language (easier to operationalize)
What was found about the categorization of phonemes?
From birth there is a universal predisposition to attend to human speech, universal ability to discriminate phonemes. Within 1 year, there is increased ability to discriminate phonemes from our own language and decreased ability to discriminate phonemes in other languages. It becomes whittled down during the critical window of language development
What are Shibboleths?
Accent: for immigrant children the older ones keep the accent and younger ones don’t. Shibboleths: sound or custom that a person is unable to pronounce or perform correctly. It is used to identify foreigners or those who do not belong to a particular class or group of people
How does learning another language change which areas are used?
When learning a 2nd language later, then different brain regions were activated when hearing that language but were both Broca. The same region is activated when the languages are learned at the same time which is before the sensitive window has closed. When it closes, then brain regions are structured, cannot be remodelled and so a new area is occupied instead.
What was found about cases of neglect?
Genie: learned some words, but never learned grammar, syntax); Victor (the wild boy of Aveyron found at age 12) learned “milk” and “ohmygod”. But these are single cases, no experimental control. Romanian orphans are also another example, leading to child abandonment as well.
What did Minoura find about the acculturation of Japanese immigrant children in US?
The age of entry is important for acquisition of new culture, there is a sensitive period before 9-10 years. Alternative explanation: the longer you are exposed to culture, the more you adopt and identify with the host culture, and a longitudinal design should have been used.
What is acculturation and what are the levels?
refers to the process of cultural change when you interact with another culture (second-culture learning). Involves:
1. cognitive: knowledge of cultural norms & practices (recognizing differences in interpersonal behaviour)
2. behavioral: mastering behaviour & practising the cultural norm
3. affective: showing appropriate emotional reaction when cultural norm is violated.
Enculturation
describes the process of first-culture learning
What was found about acculturation of Chinese immigrant children in Canada?
Found that it wasn’t the amount of exposure, but the age of entry before the end of the sensitive period predicts identification with the 2nd culture. Sensitive period around 15, but later experiments did not replicate this finding when using a larger sample
What is developmental niche theory?
The composite of 2 interacting sub-systems:
1) Physical and social settings – who is there, what affordances are provided by the physical space
2) Customs and practices of child rearing – inherited and adapted ways of nurturing, entertaining, educating, and protecting the child
3) The psychology of the caretakers, particularly parental ethnotheories of child development and parenting, which play a directive role in actual practices.
Shows that context is important when comparing cultures
What is the cultural variation in Early Developmental Experiences?
Personal space
Co-sleeping
Parenting style
Attachment style
Noun bias
All these differences in early developmental experiences lead to profound differences later in life
