Selective copying of the majority suggests children are broadly "optimal-" rather than "over-" imitators.

Autor: Evans CL; School of Biology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK.; Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany., Laland KN; School of Biology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK., Carpenter M; School of Psychology & Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK.; Department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany., Kendal RL; Centre for Coevolution of Biology & Culture, Anthropology Department, Durham University, UK.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Developmental science [Dev Sci] 2018 Sep; Vol. 21 (5), pp. e12637. Date of Electronic Publication: 2017 Dec 17.
DOI: 10.1111/desc.12637
Abstrakt: Human children, in contrast to other species, are frequently cast as prolific "over-imitators". However, previous studies of "over-imitation" have overlooked many important real-world social dynamics, and may thus provide an inaccurate account of this seemingly puzzling and potentially maladaptive phenomenon. Here we investigate this topic using a cultural evolutionary approach, focusing particularly on the key adaptive learning strategy of majority-biased copying. Most "over-imitation" research has been conducted using consistent demonstrations to the observer, but we systematically varied the frequency of demonstrators that 4- to 6-year-old children observed performing a causally irrelevant action. Children who "over-imitate" inflexibly should copy the majority regardless of whether the majority solution omits or includes a causally irrelevant action. However, we found that children calibrated their tendency to acquire the majority behavior, such that copying did not extend to majorities that performed irrelevant actions. These results are consistent with a highly functional, adaptive integration of social and causal information, rather than explanations implying unselective copying or causal misunderstanding. This suggests that our species might be better characterized as broadly "optimal-" rather than "over-" imitators.
(© 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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