An experimental simulation of the "copy-successful-individuals" cultural learning strategy: adaptive landscapes, producer-scrounger dynamics, and informational access costs
An experimental simulation of the "copy-successful-individuals" cultural learning strategy: adaptive landscapes, producer-scrounger dynamics, and informational access costs
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DOI：
10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2008.04.005
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发表时间：
2008-09-01
影响因子：
5.1
通讯作者：
Mesoudi, Alex
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Mesoudi, Alex
使用虚拟箭头任务进行了文化进化的实验模拟。参与者设计了“虚拟箭头”，并在“虚拟狩猎环境”中进行测试，通过个人试错学习或复制另一名参与者的设计来改进他们的设计。使用该任务的先前研究[Mesoudi，A.，&奥布莱恩，M. J.（2008年）。大盆地射点技术的文化传播1：实验模拟。American Antiquity，73，3-28.]发现“复制成功个体”的文化学习策略比个体学习策略具有更强的适应性。本研究探讨了使用相同的任务，但在不同的条件下，这一发现的鲁棒性。研究发现：（a）在单峰适应性景观中，个体学习的适应性显著高于多峰适应性景观，表明文化学习的适应性优势在单峰环境中消失;（B）当文化学习被允许以固定的间隔进行时，复制成功个体的适应性优势得以保持。尽管信息收集者有更多机会抑制对环境的探索，因为参与者可以根据情况灵活地在个人学习和文化学习之间转换;（c）允许参与者设定其他参与者必须支付的访问费用，以便查看他们的设计，但严重限制了文化学习的使用，特别是复制成功的个人战略。(C)2008年爱思唯尔公司All rights reserved.
An experimental simulation of Cultural evolution was conducted using the virtual arrowhead task. Participants designed "virtual arrowheads" and tested them in "virtual hunting environments", improving their designs through either individual trial-and-error learning or by copying the design of another participant. A previous study using this task [Mesoudi, A., & O'Brien, M. J. (2008). The cultural transmission of Great Basin projectile point technology 1: An experimental simulation. American Antiquity, 73, 3-28.] found that a cultural learning strategy Of "copy-successful-individuals" was significantly more adaptive than individual learning. The present study explored the robustness of this finding using the same task but under different conditions. It was found that (a) individual learning was significantly more adaptive in a unimodal adaptive landscape than in a multimodal adaptive landscape, suggesting that the adaptive advantage of cultural learning would disappear in unimodal environments; (b) the adaptive advantage of copy-successful-individuals was maintained when cultural learning was permitted at regular intervals. despite the increased opportunity for information scroungers to inhibit exploration of the environment, because participants flexibly switched between individual and cultural learning depending on circumstances; (c) allowing participants to set access costs that other participants must pay in order to view their designs severely curtailed the use of cultural learning and especially the copy-successful-individuals strategy. (C) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.