Work

Social learning and evolution in a structured environment

Year: 2011

Type: conference-paper

Abstract: We survey the relationships between evolution, individual learning and social transmission within well-mixed and structured environments.With a novel individual-based simulation, we determine the regimes under which each mode of learning dominates, in terms of the environment's relative complexity and its rate of change.We show that social learning can give rise to a particularly potent form of the "Baldwin effect", wherein an organism develops an innate trait having first acquired it socially.We demonstrate that social learning is of increased significance in a structured environment.

Source: European Conference on Artificial Life

DOI: 10.7551/978-0-262-29714-1-ch058

Authors: Jones, Daniel, Blackwell, Tim

Institution: Goldsmiths University of London

Language: English

Topic: Language and cultural evolution

Subfield: Cultural Studies

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Funder: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

Award: DTA - Goldsmiths College