*** NOTE UNUSUAL DAY AND TIME ***

Mon 9th June, 14.00-15.30, 1.17 Dugald Stewart Building

Bart de Boer (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)

Cognitive adaptations to rapidly changing culture can evolve

This talk contributes to the study of what kind of cognitive adaptations to rapidly changing cultural traits can evolve. It introduces a mathematical approach (mean field approximation) and applies this to a very simple (evolutionary dynamics) model of co-evolution between biologically determined cognitive biases and cultural traits. Although the model is inspired by Christiansen, Reali and Chater’s model, it finds (in contrast to their results) that under a range of realistic assumptions about fitness and the interaction between biology and culture, cognitive adaptations to culturally changing traits can evolve. From the mathematical analysis, precise conditions under which this happens can be derived.
Although the material in the talk is mathematical in nature, I will make an attempt to present it so that it can be understood with only basic secondary school mathematics.

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