Experimental studies of animal social learning in the wild: Trying to untangle the mystery of human culture
Open accessAbstract
Here I discuss how studies on animal social learning may help us understand human culture. It is an evolutionary truism that complex biological adaptations always evolve from less complex but related adaptations, but occasionally evolutionary transitions lead to major biological changes whose end products are difficult to anticipate. Language-based cumulative adaptive culture in humans may represent an evolutionary transition of this type. Most of the social learning observed in animals (and even plants) may be due to mechanisms that cannot produce cumulative cultural adaptations. Likewise, much of the critical content of socially transmitted human culture seems to show no parallel in nonhuman species. Thus, with regard to the uniquely human extent and quality of culture, we are forced to ask: Are other species only a few small steps away from this transition, or do they lack multiple critical features that make us the only truly cultural species? Only future research into animal social learning can answer these questions.
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Cultural transmission exists in many species.
“The capacity for cultural transmission also exists in many species – more than one might imagine, as it is a relatively new topic in animal behavior research (Hill 2010; Laland & Galef 2009; Laland & Hoppitt 2003; Page & Ryan 2006).”
From Evolving the future: Toward a science of intentional change (2014) · cites this paper as Hill 2010
The Conclusion says that some animals pass behavioral traditions between generations, but “they do not transmit cultural content.” In “Experimental and Statistical Techniques to Detect Social Learning” (page unavailable), Hill argues that animal traditions are building blocks of culture rather than culture itself. This contrasts with the claim that cultural transmission exists in many species. (LLM, conf=0.88)
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Cites
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Wilson, D. S., Hayes, S. C., Biglan, A., & Embry, D. D. (2014) · Behavioral and Brain Sciences · doi:10.1017/s0140525x13001593 · Cited by 255 · see citing works
Evolving the future: Toward a science of intentional change
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“…work suggests that humans have unique social cognitive skills that allow for flexible cooperation and cultural behaviors that are qualitatively different from those seen in other primates (Tomasello 1999, Tomasello et al. 2005, Herrmann et al. 2007, Hill et al. 2009, Hill 2010, Hare & Tan 2012).”
BackgroundSocial learning research outside the laboratory: How and why?
Kendal, R., Galef, B. G., & van Schaik, C. (2010) · Learning & Behavior · doi:10.3758/lb.38.3.187 · Cited by 48 · see citing works
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Human children rely more on social information than chimpanzees do
van Leeuwen, E. V., Call, J., & Haun, D. (2014) · Biology Letters · doi:10.1098/rsbl.2014.0487 · Cited by 28 · see citing works
“Others have asserted that humans, but not chimpanzees, are able to imitate each other and that this capacity may be the driving force behind human’s relatively vast cultural proliferation ([11,12]; also see [13,14]).”
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Reindl, E., & Tennie, C. (2018) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0197828 · Cited by 22
“Similarly, Hill [35] argued that most innovations are made by adults and children mainly copy and do not innovate themselves as much.”
Background
- Authors
- Hill, K.
- Affiliations
- Arizona State University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Hill, K.
- ORCID
- Hill, K.
- Venue
- Learning & Behavior
- Published
- 2010-07-13
- Volume
- 38
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 319-328
- ISSN
- 1543-4494 (ISSN-L)
- 1543-4508
- OpenAlex
- W2051696259
- Cited by
- 7
- References
- 68
- Citations by year
- 2018: 1 · 2017: 1 · 2014: 2
- FWCI
- 30.72
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Learning & Behavior (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Cultural Studies › Language and cultural evolution
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Primate Behavior and Ecology
- Keywords
- human culture, cumulative culture, evolutionary transitions, language evolution, social transmission, cultural evolution, comparative cognition
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Culture, Biological Evolution, Humans, Language, Learning, Social Environment, Species Specificity
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