"We've always considered culture as a uniquely human attribute, something to be celebrated as an integral part of civilisations through the ages. However, scientific research is now questioning this perceived wisdom and identifying in other species some fascinating examples of social customs and other practices associated with culture. That science may show that culture is an attribute shared by species other than our own would result in some challenging moral dilemmas for us to navigate, as well as potentially challenging our own understanding of what it means to be human."Lord Melvyn Bragg FRS FBA - Science Sees Further
Cultural change is the result of many many individual episodes of people learning from each other and we expect natural selection to favour those individuals that are 'smart' in the way they learn from each other. But what are the 'smart' ways that we expect to do well in the evolutionary crucible?
We organized the social learning strategies tournament, a competition designed to work out the best way to learn in a complex, changing world. This competition has generating some predictions about how people should behave when presented the same challenge. Now you can take part in this research by playing the game on this page, which recreates the challenge set in our tournament.
With the game you can explore when it is best to learn a new behaviour, when you should stick with what you know, and whether it is best to learn through innovation or copying. You have to learn how to survive, building up a repertoire of foraging behaviours, either through innovating or copying. But to be successful and take over the island, you have to rack up more points than the computer, by exploiting highly profitable behaviours. See how many points you can accrue.
What strategies do you find do best? In the game, you are pitted against agents controlled by the computer. The three difficulty levels pit you against three different strategies, all based on actual entries to the tournament. As the difficulty increases, you play against strategies that rely more and more on social learning (copying). Why do you think this makes the game more difficult? What does this tell you about the drawbacks and benefits of social learning?
Social Learning Tournament: Case Study
Talking Culture: Talking Science
video background from Dr Luke Rendell