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SUMMARY:Social Learning Strategies &amp\; Cumulative Culture - Dr Rachel K
 endal\, University of Durham
DTSTART:20150303T160000Z
DTEND:20150303T170000Z
UID:TALK55203@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Dr Hannah Rowland
DESCRIPTION:Cumulative culture requires individuals to build upon the know
 ledge of previous generations such that trait complexity/efficiency evolve
 s across generations.  Such cumulative cultural evolution is arguably uniq
 ue to humans and is widely held to be responsible for our outstanding succ
 ess in colonising virtually every terrestrial habitat on the planet and so
 lving countless ecological\, social and technological challenges.  In cont
 rast\, social learning (learning from others) underlies the wide-spread oc
 currence of traditions or culture in all animals.  Although social learnin
 g is a cheap and efficient form of learning\, it is not adaptive to use so
 cial information indiscriminately due to its potential unreliability. Thus
  it is predicted that social learning strategies (heuristics / transmissio
 n biases) should evolve enabling individuals to avoid the costs associated
  with asocial learning and determine when they should use social informati
 on and from whom they should acquire it.   I shall review several of my re
 cent empirical studies\, with young children and non-human primates\, high
 lighting the role of socio-cognition\, and in particular the potential rol
 e of social learning strategies\, in humanity’s striking capacity for cu
 mulative culture.  
LOCATION:Part II Lecture Theatre\, Department of Zoology
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