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Cited by 38Language and cultural evolutionChild and Animal Learning DevelopmentPleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology

The value of teaching increases with tool complexity in cumulative cultural evolution

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Lucas, Amanda J., Kings, Michael, Whittle, Devi, Davey, Emma, Happé, Francesca, Caldwell, Christine A., Thornton, Alex·2020·Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
DOI 10.1098/rspb.2020.1885PMC PMC7739508
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Abstract

Human cumulative cultural evolution (CCE) is recognized as a powerful ecological and evolutionary force, but its origins are poorly understood. The long-standing view that CCE requires specialized social learning processes such as teaching has recently come under question, and cannot explain why such processes evolved in the first place. An alternative, but largely untested, hypothesis is that these processes gradually coevolved with an increasing reliance on complex tools. To address this, we used large-scale transmission chain experiments (624 participants), to examine the role of different learning processes in generating cumulative improvements in two tool types of differing complexity. Both tool types increased in efficacy across experimental generations, but teaching only provided an advantage for the more complex tools. Moreover, while the simple tools tended to converge on a common design, the more complex tools maintained a diversity of designs. These findings indicate that the emergence of cumulative culture is not strictly dependent on, but may generate selection for, teaching. As reliance on increasingly complex tools grew, so too would selection for teaching, facilitating the increasingly open-ended evolution of cultural artefacts.

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  • The stability of cultural information strongly depends on both the size of the population that shares information and the type of social learning mechanisms involved.

    “Theoretical and empirical studies of cultural evolution have shown that the stability of cultural information strongly depends on both the size of the population that shares information 73 and the type of social learning mechanisms involved (with lower fidelity when transmission relies on mere observation than when it relies on verbal teaching, for instance) 80 .”

    From Machine culture (2023) · cites this paper as [80]

  • In humans, social learning tends to be imperfect, meaning transmission events are associated with a risk of losing cultural information.

    “In humans, social learning tends to be imperfect, which means that transmission events are associated with a risk of losing cultural information.”

    From Machine culture (2023) · cites this paper as [80]

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Authors
Lucas, A. J., Kings, M., Whittle, D., Davey, E., Happé, F., Caldwell, C. A., & Thornton, A.
Affiliations
  • University of Exeter (GB)
  • Social, Genetic, and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London, London SE5 8AF, UK
  • University of Stirling (GB)
Corresponding author
Thornton, Alex
ORCID
Venue
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Publisher
The Royal Society
Published
2020-11-18
Volume
287
Issue
1939
Pages
20201885
ISSN
  • 0080-4649 (ISSN-L)
  • 0962-8452
  • 1471-2954
DOI
10.1098/rspb.2020.1885
PMC
PMC7739508
OpenAlex
W3101300565
Cited by
38
References
49
Citations by year
2026: 5 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 4
FWCI
32.54
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Open Research Exeter (University of Exeter) (acceptedVersion)
  • Stirling Online Research Repository (University of Stirling) (submittedVersion, public-domain)
  • Figshare (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • ESRC (ES/M006042/1)
  • European Research Council (648841, ERC-2014-CoG)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Cultural Studies › Language and cultural evolution
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
  • Social Sciences › Anthropology › Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology
Keywords
cumulative cultural evolution, teaching, social learning, cultural artifacts, tool design, cultural diversity
MeSH terms
Social Learning, Cultural Evolution, Culture, Biological Evolution, Humans, Social Behavior, Tool Use Behavior

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