hc 2 Evolutionary turning point- social brain

Question 1

definition culture

Answer 1

Culture is the collective set of beliefs, values, norms, practices, symbols, and artifacts that characterize a group of people. It encompasses the ways in which individuals learn to interpret their world, interact with others, and express themselves. Culture is transmitted through socialization processes and is shaped by historical, social, and environmental contexts. It includes both tangible elements (such as tools, art and technology) and intangible elements (such as language customs and moral values). Culture is dynamic evolving over time as societies change and adapt

Question 2

what is the motor behind human culture

Answer 2

the social brain: dat bepaalde gebieden en netwerken in de hersenen specifiek betrokken zijn bij sociale interacties en het begrijpen van anderen

Question 3

Human specialties that have an added value to culture:

Answer 3

• Improvisation and inventiveness
• Social learning
• Specialization cooperation

Question 4

verschil humans en animals intelligentie

Answer 4

animals: dedicated intelligence = domain-specific learning and decision-making mechanisms that are adapted to particular environments.
humans: improvisational intelligence = a suite of uniquely flexible cognitive capacities that allow our species to acquire locally adaptive behavior in a wide range of environments.

Question 5

cognitieve niche theorie

Answer 5

mensen zich hebben aangepast aan een soort “mentale omgeving” waarin we gebruik maken van specifieke, aangeboren vaardigheden om te overleven. Volgens deze theorie is ons brein opgebouwd uit verschillende delen die elk helpen bij het oplossen van specifieke problemen, zoals het vinden van voedsel of het vermijden van gevaar.

–> nativistisch en modulair

overestimates the extent to which individual human cognitive abilities allow people to succeed in diverse environments and misunderstand the role that culture plays

Question 6

Evolutionary models of social learning rest on two assumptions, op welke?

Answer 6

1. The propensities to learn and to imitate are part of an evolved psychology shaped by natural selection
   a. The balance between learning and imitating will be governed by the relative fitness of the two modes of behavior – the average fitness of the population is irrelevant
2. The environment varies in time or space.
   a. As chains of imitation get longer (one ape imitates another, and that imitating ape gets imitated by another ape, etc.) the chance is a greater chance that the learner who root the chain learned in a different environment than the current environment, either because the environment has changed or because someone along the chain migrated from a different environment
   b. Imitators will less likely acquire the locally adaptive behavior than learners.
   c. The propensity to imitate will continue to increase until this reduction in fitness exactly balances the benefit of avoiding the costs of learning
   d. At the equilibrium the population has the same average fitness as a population without any imitation.

Question 7

Geometric model of genetic adaptation

Answer 7

even if small changes are made at random, half of them will increase the payoff. Large changes will improve things only if they are in the small cone that includes the distant optimum. Cultural learners can transmit by learning from others
–> dit nog verder uitzoeken

Question 8

CULTURAL VERSUS COGNITIVE NICHE HYPOTHESIS ?

Answer 8

Cultural niche hypothesis = the role of culture in shaping human evolution. Humans occupy a unique cultural niche that significantly influences our development.
Cognitive niche hypothesis = focuses on the evolution of human cognitive abilities. Humans evolved the advanced abilities as in problem-solving and social learning. These allow humans to create and maintain complex social structures and engage in behaviors like toolmaking.

Question 9

How can culture lead to maladaptation?

Answer 9

The cumulative cultural evolution of complex, hard-to-learn adaptation requires individuals to adopt the behavior of those around them even if it conflicts with their own inferences. This means that if there are cognitive or social processes that make maladaptive ideas common, and these are not patently false or harmful, people will adopt these ideas as well.
Examples:
- Weak cognitive biases can favor the spread of maladaptive beliefs or practices over generations - Adaptive social earning biases can lead to maladaptive outcomes

Question 10

main points origins of culture

Answer 10

1. Observational learning and imitation
2. Natural pedagogy and ostensive teaching 3. Cooperative nature –> produce cultural accumulation (ratcheting effect)

Question 11

manieren van social learning bij animals

Answer 11

• Transmission of reward information during group foraging –> LOCAL/STIMULUS ENHANCEMENT
• Food caching in presence of competitors
• Observed pecking biases towards new foods in hens –> number of pecks produces bias
  -Fear conditioning through observational learning in mice
• Instructed learning in bees – bee waggle dance

Question 12

wat is LOCAL/STIMULUS ENHANCEMENT

Answer 12

the benefit that an animal obtains from being in a flock by having multiple members scanning the environment, thus increasing the likelihood of finding food.
ii. Animals do watch and kinds imitate each other

Question 13

zijn er verschillende culturen chimpansees?

Answer 13

ja

Question 14

Toch zijn er group specific behavioural variants in wild chimpanzees. Hoe verklaar je dit?

Answer 14

• We conclude that group-specific behavioral variants in wild chimpanzees can be socially learned, adding to the evidence that this prerequisite for culture originated in a common ancestor of great apes and humans, long before the advent of modern humans

Question 15

Joint or shared cooperative activities are mainly characterized by three features

Answer 15

1. The participants in the cooperative activity share a joint goal, to which they are jointly committed
2. The participants take reciprocal or commentary roles in order to achieve this joint goal
3. The participants are generally motivated and willing to help one another accomplish their role if needed

(bijv. hunting)

Question 16

Verschil Chimpanzees en humans wat betreft social conventions

Answer 16

• Chimps do not have the ‘we-intentionality’–> They do not form a joint commitment to a shared goal, and they do not perform reciprocal roles in that rules seen as they do not generally understand both roles from
• pointing: apes had learned that the human will help them if they point (only manual gesture), Children do point to things that are important to them (goes beyond ape’s social cognitive skills

Question 17

wat is The Social Intellect Hypothesis
(Humphrey, 1976)

Answer 17

• major engine of primate cognitive evolution was social competition.
• intelligence of non-human primates reflects their
  grappling with the complexity of primates’ social
  lives

Intelligentie bij niet-menselijke primaten is geëvolueerd vanwege de complexiteit van hun sociale interacties.

Sociale uitdagingen (zoals samenwerken, hiërarchie begrijpen, en conflicten oplossen) vereisten cognitieve vaardigheden.

Question 18

wat is Machiavellian Intelligence Hypothesis

Answer 18

• primates’ brains and cognition have been
  specifically adapted for the tactical complexities of
  the social realm
• pecifiekere nadruk op manipulatie, bedrog en strategisch sociaal gedrag.

Primaten hebben volgens deze hypothese geavanceerde cognitieve vaardigheden ontwikkeld niet alleen om samen te werken, maar ook om anderen te slim af te zijn in de sociale hiërarchie.

Question 19

wat is Social Brain Hypothesis

Answer 19

verband tussen relatieve hersengrootte (gemeten via de encefalisatiequotiënt of EQ) en de gemiddelde groepsgrootte van primaten.

Stelt dat grotere sociale groepen meer cognitieve vaardigheden vereisen, omdat individuen meer relaties moeten onderhouden en sociale complexiteit moeten begrijpen.

Question 20

Welke factoren dragen bij aan het sociale brein?

Answer 20

• Complexity of social life
  o Size of social cliques
  o Frequency of ‘tactical deception’
• Pair bonding
  o Monogamy
  o Bi-parental investments
• Observational learning
  o Social brain hypothesis does not explain the relative brain sizes of great apes who do not live in complex social groups
  o Prevalence of social learning in animal species

Question 21

Verschil tussen Vygotskian vs Machiavellistic explanation of social intelligence

Answer 21

Machiavelli –> Competitive intelligence:
* Social strategies exploiting others.
Social intelligence consists in using
others as ‘social tools’ in pursuit of
one’s own interest, often to their
disadvantage.
* In this approach intelligence mainly
serves competitive purposes

Vygotsky –> Cooperative Intelligence:
* Focus on cooperation as the main
hallmark of social intelligence
* Social intelligence reflects
internalised interactions and serves
to transmit cultural knowledge

Question 22

wat is natural pedagogy

Answer 22

theorie die stelt dat menselijke baby’s van nature gevoelig zijn voor bepaalde signalen – zogenaamde ostensive cues – die hen vertellen dat ze in een onderwijssituatie verkeren

infants are sensitive to ostensive cues,
and expect to be taught
– Direct gaze, gaze following
– Pointing, showing
– Motherese
* ‘Natural pedagogy’, enables fast and
efficient social learning of cognitively
opaque cultural knowledge that would
be hard to acquire relying on purely
observational learning mechanisms
alone
* Most likely human specific / very little
evidence of ostensive communication in
other species
* Facilitates rapid cultural learning

Question 24

verschil natural pedagogy bij apen

Answer 24

Apen leren meer door observatie

Question 25

Goal-directed Imitation

Answer 25

Allows selection of comfortable actions that suit the own action repertoire * Allows translation of action information between bodies with different physical makeup – E.g. children and adults – E.g. robots and human instructors * Orientation and effector independent * Perfect for Observational learning and Cooperation vorm van imitatie waarbij een individu niet alleen het geobserveerde gedrag kopieert, maar zich richt op het doel of de intentie achter het gedrag. Dit betekent dat de observator probeert te begrijpen waarom een actie wordt uitgevoerd en deze aanpast aan de situatie, in plaats van simpelweg alle bewegingen exact na te bootsen.