An experimental comparison of human social learning strategies: payoff-biased social learning is adaptive but underused

被引:101
|
作者
Mesoudi, Alex [1 ]
机构
[1] Queen Mary Univ London, Sch Biol & Chem Sci, Biol & Expt Psychol Grp, London E1 4NS, England
关键词
Conformity; Cultural evolution; Payoff-biased social learning; Random copying; Social learning; CHIMPANZEES PAN-TROGLODYTES; CULTURAL TRANSMISSION; EXPERIMENTAL SIMULATION; GREAT-BASIN; EVOLUTION; MODELS; INTELLIGENCE; TECHNOLOGY; HYPOTHESES; QUESTION;
D O I
10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2010.12.001
中图分类号
B84 [心理学];
学科分类号
04 ; 0402 ;
摘要
Analytical models have identified a set of social learning strategies that are predicted to be adaptive relative to individual (asocial) learning. In the present study, human participants engaged in an ecologically valid artifact-design task with the opportunity to engage in a range of social learning strategies: payoff bias, conformity, averaging and random copying. The artifact (an arrowhead) was composed of multiple continuous and discrete attributes which jointly generated a complex multimodal adaptive landscape that likely reflects actual cultural fitness environments. Participants exhibited a mix of individual learning and payoff-biased social learning, with negligible frequencies of the other social learning strategies. This preference for payoff-biased social learning was evident from the initial trials, suggesting that participants came into the study with an intrinsic preference for this strategy. There was also a small but significant increase in the frequency of payoff-biased social learning over sessions, suggesting that strategy choice may itself be subject to learning. Frequency of payoff-biased social learning predicted both absolute and relative success in the task, especially in a multimodal (rather than unimodal) fitness environment. This effect was driven by a minority of hardcore social learners who copied the best group member on more than half of trials. These hardcore social learners were also above-average individual learners, suggesting a link between individual and social learning ability. The lower-than-expected frequency of social learning may reflect the existence of information producer scrounger dynamics in human populations. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
引用
收藏
页码:334 / 342
页数:9
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