The dynamics of updating and transmitting individual and collective memories

更新和传递个人和集体记忆的动态

• 批准号: 1408652
• 负责人: Thomas Griffiths
• 金额: $ 17.24万
• 依托单位: University of California-Berkeley
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-07-01 至 2016-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1408652&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: dynamics; updating; transmitting; individual; collective

Memory and culture form the foundation of human knowledge. The accumulation of knowledge across generations drives scientific progress, technological advancement, and the maintenance of societies through shared social norms. Understanding the fundamental cognitive processes that shape memory and cultural transmission has traditionally fallen within the purview of psychologists and anthropologists. However, advances in fields beyond the social sciences, including statistics, machine learning, evolutionary dynamics, and network science offer a rich set of computational techniques for describing information transfer in individuals and groups that can be fruitfully applied to understand memory maintenance and cultural transmission. The proposed project, if successul, will create a software platform for running experiments on personal and cultural memory online, thereby enabling others to conduct their own experiments using these paradigms. Additionally, the public looks toward memory research with the hope that it will one day provide techniques to help them remember more. Better understanding the processes that affect maintenance of personal and collective memories will reveal the conditions under which memories and cultural innovations are best maintained and possible techniques for improving them. Any progress towards this goal would provide a major benefit to society. Planned dissemination of the results of the proposed project are aimed at increasing public understanding of science through visualization of cultural memory dynamics. The Fellow has a history of public engagement and activities supporting inclusion and broadening participation, and continues to be engaged in these activities.The goal of the proposed project is to construct computational models that capture the cognitive dynamics of memory and culture, with the ultimate goal of understanding (and eventually controlling and improving) the processes that shape them. The proposed project uses behavioral experiments, simulations, and analytic calculations to determine the cognitive dynamics of personal and cultural memory in three settings. Objective 1 considers the dynamics of updating in short-term memory. Objective 2 considers the dynamics of updating culturally-transmitted knowledge when individuals have varying amounts of information about the social context in which they are placed. Objective 3 considers the dynamics of learning in cultural memory, exploring whether individuals can adjust their own behavior to better sustain memories in a group. Each objective makes connections between cognitive processes and formal tools from machine learning, evolutionary dynamics, and network science.

记忆和文化构成了人类知识的基础。跨代知识的积累推动了科学进步、技术进步，并通过共同的社会规范来维护社会。了解形状记忆和文化传播的基本认知过程传统上属于心理学家和人类学家的范围。然而，社会科学以外领域的进步，包括统计学，机器学习，进化动力学和网络科学，提供了一套丰富的计算技术来描述个人和群体中的信息传递，这些技术可以有效地应用于理解记忆维护和文化传播。拟议的项目如果成功，将创建一个软件平台，用于在线进行个人和文化记忆实验，从而使其他人能够使用这些范例进行自己的实验。此外，公众期待着记忆研究，希望有一天它能提供帮助他们记住更多的技术。更好地理解影响个人和集体记忆维持的过程，将揭示记忆和文化创新最佳维持的条件以及改善它们的可能技术。在实现这一目标方面取得的任何进展都将给社会带来重大利益。计划传播拟议项目的成果，目的是通过文化记忆动态的可视化来提高公众对科学的理解。该研究员有一个支持包容和扩大参与的公众参与和活动的历史，并继续参与这些活动。拟议项目的目标是构建计算模型，捕捉记忆和文化的认知动力学，最终目标是理解（并最终控制和改善）塑造它们的过程。该项目使用行为实验，模拟和分析计算来确定三种设置中的个人和文化记忆的认知动态。目标1考虑了短期记忆中更新的动态。目标2考虑了更新文化传播的知识时，个人有不同数量的信息，他们所处的社会背景的动态。目标3考虑文化记忆中学习的动力，探索个体是否可以调整自己的行为以更好地维持群体中的记忆。每个目标都将认知过程与机器学习、进化动力学和网络科学的正式工具联系起来。