**Abstract:**

Few cultural practices beyond language are as widespread as string figure games. Their global
distribution and potential to yield insights into cultural transmission and cognition have long been
noted. Yet, it remains unknown how or when this behavior originated and to what extent shared
motifs are signals of repeated innovations or deep cultural transmission. Here, we combined a
global cross-cultural inventory of string figures with a novel methodology based on knot theory,
which enables the unequivocal numerical coding of string figures. We performed a computational
analysis of a sample of 826 figures from 92 societies around the world. Across these societies, we
found 83 recurring string figure designs, some of which are regionally restricted while others
display a global distribution. The cognitively opaque nature of string figure designs and their clear
geographic distribution reveals processes of cultural transmission, innovation, and convergent
evolution. Most strikingly, the global distribution of some figures raises the possibility of shared
ancient origins.

**Speaker's social media:**

Twitter: @roopekaaronen, Bluesky: @roope.bsky.social

RECORDING - A global cross-cultural analysis of string figures reveals evidence of deep transmission and innovation

**Abstract:**

Cultural evolution requires appropriate transmission strategies. While previous studies have examined the cognitive demands of learning and teaching as well as social learning strategies, limited attention has been paid to the behavioural aspects involved in transmission of cultural traits emerging between 3,2 million and 10,000 years ago.  We have investigated the behavioural transmission dynamics of 103 Palaeolithic cultural traits  using the theoretical grid proposed by d’Errico and Banks (2015). We constructed a comprehensive database in which, for each cultural trait, a score (0 to 4) was assigned to each transmission behaviour in the spatial, temporal and social dimensions. Statistical analyses reveals a clear evolutionary pattern characterised by (a) an initial phase dominated by simple transmission behaviours, (b) a transitional ‘search phase’ in which simple and complex transmission behaviours coexist and interact, and (c) a final stage with complex transmission behaviours becoming widespread. Our findings also identify: 1) a gradual increase in overt communication; 2) a progressive temporal structuring of cultural transmission; 3) a slow development of division of labour. They also suggest that modern language emerged gradually as a key transmission behaviour between 600,000 to 200,000 years ago.

**Speaker's social media:**



RECORDING - An empirically-based scenario for the evolution of cultural transmission in the human lineage

**Abstract:**

Children are selective in the social models they choose to learn from, and model familiarity may impact the likelihood of children imitating their actions. Beyond familiarity, a child's emotional connection to a social model may influence the likelihood of learning from them, due to either affiliative motivations, or due to an established history of receiving pedagogical cues from the model. 
In this study, we explored the impact of both familiarity and emotional connection upon children’s overimitation of adult models by manipulating the warm-up experience children received. Children aged between 4- and 12-years-old (N=207, tested in Switzerland) received either a positive or neutral warm-up. In the positive warm-up, the experimenter engaged in conversation with the child while jointly looking at a book and responded positively to any opinions expressed by the child, while in the neutral warm-up, the experimenter left the child to read alone. Children then observed either the same adult or a novel adult demonstrate how to open a puzzle box, incorporating irrelevant actions. Data analysis is ongoing, and preliminary results suggest that neither the valence of the warm-up nor familiarity with the experimenter influenced children’s rates of overimitation, which decreased with age across all conditions. 


**Speaker's social media:**

@rachelaharrison

Does the emotional valence of prior interactions with a demonstrator influence overimitation in children?

Herbert Simon (1947) observed that human learning and decision making does not strive for optimal solutions but merely ones that are good enough (known as Satisficing). However, the absence of a theory of what precisely counts as good enough has limited the utility of Satisficing in the social and behavioral sciences. We draw insights from recent work in cognitive science that provides a precise criterion for good enough learning (termed the “Tolerance Principle” or TP) which describes how humans form generalizations based on limited or inconsistent information. To date, TP has only been defined for individual learning. Here, we show how TP provides a precise model of how social norms emerge in a paradigmatic coordination game frequently used in research on cultural evolution and collective intelligence - i.e., the Wittgensteinian name game as designed by Centola & Baronchelli (2015). We compare different agent-based models in their ability to predict norm emergence in experimental runs of the name game involving human participants. TP considerably outperforms models which assume that agents leverage optimal rather than good enough predictions for social behavior. We also show how TP provides a more accurate model of tipping point dynamics in the name game. Altogether, we show how social coordination follows the same simple formula for “good enough” solutions as individual learning, providing a novel synthesis of psychological and sociological constructs. 

LIVE - Social satisficing: How a simple cognitive constraint governs norm emergence

**Abstract:**

The multi-stage learning model posits that children learn from their parents in infancy and expand their knowledge by learning from peers or from skilled adults, as they reach adulthood. While extant research has focused mostly on direct teaching, children are known to learn through variable types of social interactions, and cultural learning can be seen more as a product of children’s accumulated and lived experiences in their social environment. In particular, hunter-gatherer children learn subsistence skills while joining mothers’ foraging trips from an early age. Thus, children’s social networks during women's subsistence trips may be a nexus for social learning opportunities. To investigate whether women's subsistence networks scaffold cultural learning processes, we present focal-follow data of women’s subsistence trips collected during 230 days in a BaYaka hunter-gatherer community in the Republic of the Congo. Using a stochastic block model for repeat observation data with uneven sampling, we find that, during women's subsistence trips, children co-forage with their peers at high rates, specifically with non-kin peers in middle childhood and adolescence. Our results further suggest that individuals in middle childhood bridge the interactions of those in early childhood and adolescence and, therefore, play a central role in cultural learning. 

**Speaker's social media:**

Twitter: @HaneulJang_kr

RECORDING - Social learning opportunities during women’s subsistence trips among BaYaka foragers

**Abstract:**

Children engage in reciprocal knowledge exchange, demonstrating both their adeptness in learning from others and their proactive role in teaching what they know. The developmental origins of children's teaching and selectivity in information transmission is a recent research area. Here, we present insights from two studies delving into the early manifestations of toddlers' information sharing during the second year of life, observed through video analyses of natural home interactions.
In Study-1, we explored natural interactions of 18-month-old Turkish toddlers (N=43), while the Study-2 focused on American toddlers (N=47) across three time points (13-, 18-, 23-months). Employing a novel behavioural coding scheme, the studies aimed to unravel toddler-initiated interactions and the prevalence of information sharing within these interactions. Study-2 additionally explored toddlers' responses to their parents’ genuine information-seeking attempts. Both studies showed that while toddler-initiated information sharing was observed, it was rare in both contexts. Notably, Study-2 revealed a developmental trajectory, indicating an increased frequency of information-giving events initiated by toddlers, both elicited and non-elicited, from 13 to 23 months. 
In conclusion, our research contributes to the nuanced dynamics of toddler’s early information sharing by focusing on natural observation of everyday behaviours in two different cultures. 


**Speaker's social media:**

Twitter: @GradGoodfellow

RECORDING - Developmental roots of information sharing

**Abstract:**

 A long-standing hypothesis is that children exhibit high fidelity imitative copying of a model’s actions, whereas nonhuman apes focus only on results (emulation). This study explores this hypothesis by employing eye-tracking technology to compare the attentional foci of apes and human children during observational learning of novel tool-use. Subjects are presented with video demonstrations of a conspecific solving a two-action tool-use task ('pan-pipes'), after which the fidelity of their own attempts are compared.  Video displays feature both wide and close-up views displaying different elements of the task including the conspecific's face, body, hand and tool movements, specific parts of the apparatus moved, and the reward released. This experimental setup allows for an in-depth analysis of where subjects direct their attention during learning and whether they anticipate the demonstrator's actions over repeated presentations. The study thus tests hypotheses regarding the similarity or difference in attentional patterns between apes and children and potential correlations between these patterns and task performance. We will examine species differences and the relationship between attention patterns and task success. This research contributes to our understanding of social learning processes across species, extending previous findings on imitation and emulation in apes and children.

**Speaker's social media:**

@louiseemackie

Using eye-tracking to compare visual attention during apes’ and children’s observational learning of tool use 

**Abstract:**

"Humans’ ability to create and use tools is one of our species’ defining characteristics and has irreversibly altered our social and ecological environments. All human
societies create and use tools, and no other species does so with the complexity and diversity of humans. Yet, paradoxically, it is well-established that western children are remarkably poor at simple tool innovation challenges, such as reshaping pipecleaners to retrieve-out-of reach rewards (widely known as the hook task). Studies have further shown that children in non-western populations perform worse than western ones with some small-scale societies performing at floor. We suggest that the practice of taking western designed and validated cognitive measures and transporting them to non-western populations is flawed and can lead to erroneous and damaging conclusions.

In this ESRC funded project, we will develop, for the first time, culturally fair measures of tool innovation for 4-12-year-old children in four geographically and culturally diverse populations; urban Western children (UK), two small-scale subsistence societies (Congo) and a rural Indigenous population (Malaysia). We will do so by taking a bottom-up approach to developing culturally grounded tool innovation measures, using ethnographic data alongside cycles of feedback from community members and protocol refinement to ensure maximal validity. 

**Speaker's social media:**

@bruce_rawlings

Developing a culturally fair framework for measuring the development of tool innovation across cultures​

**Abstract:**

We proceed on anthropological theories of cultural and behavioural transmission where culture can be transmitted vertically (between local generations), horizontally between current populations and incoming groups, and by reciprocal oblique transmission through multiple modes. We compare the two transmission theories in a cognitive explanation of the general perception of cultural traits in urban area. The theory of natural selection of culture is based on the evolutionary paradigm of biased selection of the most appropriate and promising solutions for oneself and the reference community. For this theory we chose a research sample of the local population in Kaunas city. Cultural attractors are theoretical propositions that capture the way in which certain ideational variants are more likely to be the outcome of transformations than others. This way of reasoning is characteristic when a person becomes acquainted with an unfamiliar and new place. For this theory we chose a research sample of visitors, tourists in Kaunas. Both of these theories are based on different perceptions of place and different priorities from a long-term perspective. Applying such findings will improve our ability to recognize how to keep a particular place vital and sustainable in the long term.

**Speaker's social media:**

https://www.heritageresearch-hub.eu/project/herindep/
https://herindep.ff.cuni.cz/

The cognitive frames modeling as an approach to analyze a place transformation from attractors and selectionist theory: Case Kaunas

**Abstract:**

Current global emergencies like economic crises, pandemics, environmental perils, and armed conflicts have brought uncertainty to the forefront as a key concept for understanding human behavior. However, uncertainty is an inherent property of most environmental and social challenges the human species has faced in its evolution. Nevertheless, research conceptualizations of uncertainty vary greatly, and its complexity poses theoretical and methodological challenges. Several cultural-evolutionary approaches argue that the capacity of beliefs and behavioral patterns to saturate the needs arising from cognitive and emotional processing of uncertainty positively affects the social dissemination of these beliefs and behavioral patterns (e.g. religion, conspiracy theories, social conservatism). To address the inner complexity of such hypotheses, we argue that uncertainty must be theoretically and methodologically approached at various levels (as an epistemic situation, as a psychological state, and as a socio-cultural construct). Uncertainty must also be operationalized in interaction but independently from concepts of threat and costs. We will combine ethnographic research, surveys, interviews, and experiments across multiple sites to pursue these scientific goals. Finally, by mapping and analyzing coping strategies in different contexts, we seek to identify more vs. less successful coping mechanisms that may have practical applications.

**Speaker's social media:**

@Peter_Mano_
@BahnaVladimir
@Danija_Jerot

Dealing with uncertainty: strategies and contexts

**Abstract:**

Enquist et al. (2023) suggested that human cumulative cultural evolution was enabled by enhanced abilities to process and remember sequential information, leading to cultural and cognitive achievements unprecedented in other animals. This hypothesis mainly rests on results of sequence discrimination learning tasks, showing that unlike for humans, learning to discriminate between sequences is difficult for non-human animals, requiring them hundreds, often thousands of trials. It is unclear whether animals’ difficulty in these tasks reflect difficulties with remembering sequences per se or is mainly due to the arbitrary ordering of the sequence items, thus underestimating their sequencing abilities. To disentangle these effects, we investigate sequence discrimination learning with a physical task in which we contrast an “arbitrary” condition with one in which we use causal relations between stimuli to indicate which sequence yields a reward, aiming to facilitate encoding of sequential information. We present results from zoo-housed primates (23 squirrel and 24 capuchin monkeys, 13 chimpanzees), 77 human adults and 239 children (3-11 years) in an “AB vs BA, BB, AA” task, providing the first sequence discrimination study with chimpanzees and children, demonstrating that a lack of meaningful relations between sequence stimuli impedes learning in humans and potentially also great apes. 

**Speaker's social media:**



Sequence discrimination learning is facilitated by causal-logical framing in humans and chimpanzees 


**Abstract:**

 Cultural evolution has been tremendously productive in understanding the evolution of human adaptation, but the role of children learning has been underexplored. Evidence from psychology suggests that children are more exploratory and innovative than adults, which can have profound implications for population-level cultural adaptation. Here we investigate in silico how a life history of innovation and social learning contributes to cultural adaptation, and its implications for the evolution of childhood. We present an agent-based model to answer (1) under what conditions childhood is adaptive and (2) whether childhood can provide a buffer against environmental change, in the context of cumulative cultural evolution and collective problem solving. Using a multi-armed bandit task that allows for incremental improvement in behaviours, we implemented a two-stage strategy for exploring this space – children explore broadly, more likely to learn new behaviours, while adults specialise in behaviours already known, incrementally improving. We found that this two-stage strategy leads to higher payoffs, both individually and collectively. Our model identifies a childhood ‘Goldilocks Zone’ – it allows individuals time to explore before specialising and improving. We implement a variety of environmental change regimes and demographic shifts and find that childhood has differential benefits depending on regime characteristics. 

**Speaker's social media:**

Twitter: @DrElenaMiu

Underline digital video library

RECORDING - A global cross-cultural analysis of string figures reveals evidence of deep transmission and innovation

RECORDING - An empirically-based scenario for the evolution of cultural transmission in the human lineage

Does the emotional valence of prior interactions with a demonstrator influence overimitation in children?

LIVE - Social satisficing: How a simple cognitive constraint governs norm emergence

RECORDING - Social learning opportunities during women’s subsistence trips among BaYaka foragers

RECORDING - Developmental roots of information sharing

Using eye-tracking to compare visual attention during apes’ and children’s observational learning of tool use

Developing a culturally fair framework for measuring the development of tool innovation across cultures

The cognitive frames modeling as an approach to analyze a place transformation from attractors and selectionist theory: Case Kaunas

Dealing with uncertainty: strategies and contexts

Sequence discrimination learning is facilitated by causal-logical framing in humans and chimpanzees

RECORDING - Modelling the role of childhood play as a driver of innovation in cultural evolution

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Underline digital video library

RECORDING - A global cross-cultural analysis of string figures reveals evidence of deep transmission and innovation

RECORDING - An empirically-based scenario for the evolution of cultural transmission in the human lineage

Does the emotional valence of prior interactions with a demonstrator influence overimitation in children?

LIVE - Social satisficing: How a simple cognitive constraint governs norm emergence

RECORDING - Social learning opportunities during women’s subsistence trips among BaYaka foragers

RECORDING - Developmental roots of information sharing

Using eye-tracking to compare visual attention during apes’ and children’s observational learning of tool use

Developing a culturally fair framework for measuring the development of tool innovation across cultures​

The cognitive frames modeling as an approach to analyze a place transformation from attractors and selectionist theory: Case Kaunas

Dealing with uncertainty: strategies and contexts

Sequence discrimination learning is facilitated by causal-logical framing in humans and chimpanzees

RECORDING - Modelling the role of childhood play as a driver of innovation in cultural evolution

Stay up to date with the latest Underline news!

PRESENTATIONS

CONFERENCES

COMPANY

RESOURCES

Developing a culturally fair framework for measuring the development of tool innovation across cultures