EITM: Cultural Evolution and Human Behavior: Linking Theory and Empirical Research

这个理论模型的实证意义（EITM）项目将检验两个旨在测试社会学习模型的实验，这是文化进化的基础。这些将检查随时间变化的环境参数的五人组的一致性。该项目将建立一个带有局域网的计算机实验室，以演示如何使用实验来测试文化进化模型的理论基础。研究对象将被分成五人一组，在计算机实验室中同时进行。每个受试者都必须在两种行为选项中做出选择，提供不同的回报，在实验结束时以真实的美元支付。这项工作的更广泛的影响涉及这样一个事实，即世界上大多数社会正在发生迅速的社会、经济、政治和技术变化，我们对这些过程的基本知识的增加对决策者和有关的受过教育的人了解当代生活是有价值的。

This Empirical Implications of Theoretical Models (EITM) project will examine two experiments designed to test models of social learning, which are the foundations of cultural evolution. These will examine conformity in five person groups with changing environmental parameters over time. The project will create a computer laboratory with local area networks to demonstrate how experiments can be used to test the theoretical underpinnings of models of cultural evolution. Subjects will be organized into five-person groups run simultaneously in the computer laboratory. Each subject will have to choose between two behavioral options, providing different payoffs, to be paid in real dollars at the end of the experiment. The broader impacts of this work pertain to the fact that rapid social, economic, political and technological changes are occurring in the majority of society in the world, and increases in our basic knowledge of these processes will be valuable to decision makers as well as to the educated person concerned to understand contemporary life.