When Extremists Win: Cultural Transmission Via Iterated Learning When Populations Are Heterogeneous.

We present four simulation studies and one experiment demonstrating that when the population of learners is heterogeneous, the behavior of an iterated learning chain can be unpredictable and is often systematically distorted by the learners with the most extreme biases. This results in group-level outcomes that reflect neither the behavior of any individuals within the population nor the overall population average. We discuss implications for the use of iterated learning as a methodological tool as well as for the processes that might have shaped cultural and linguistic evolution in the real world. PMID: 30062733 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Cognitive Science - Category: Neuroscience Authors: Tags: Cogn Sci Source Type: research