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SUMMARY:Darwin’s Unfinished Symphony. How culture made the human mind - 
 Kevin Laland (University of St. Andrews)
DTSTART:20181030T130000Z
DTEND:20181030T140000Z
UID:TALK110854@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Dr. Kiyoko Gotanda
DESCRIPTION:Both demographically and ecologically\, humans are a remarkabl
 y successful species\, and this success is generally attributed to our cap
 acity for culture. But how did our species’ extraordinary cultural capab
 ilities evolve? In this talk I will provide a provisional answer\, drawing
  on my recent book of the same title (1). After a brief overview of innova
 tion and social learning in animals\, I will describe the findings of an i
 nternational competition (the ‘social learning strategies tournament’)
  which sheds light on why copying is widespread in nature\, and why humans
  happen to be so good at it. I will go on to describe some other theoretic
 al and experimental projects suggesting feedback mechanisms that may have 
 been instrumental to the evolution of cognition. These include comparative
  statistical analyses across primates that revealed that innovation and so
 cial learning frequencies co-vary positively with relative brain size\, to
 ol use\, longevity and cognitive performance measures\; a theoretical anal
 ysis of the evolution of teaching\; experimental archaeological investigat
 ions of the transmission of lithic technology\; and a comparative experime
 ntal study of the cognitive underpinnings of cumulative culture\, in child
 ren\, chimpanzees and capuchin monkeys. Collectively\, these studies imply
  that the truly unique characteristics of our species—such as our intell
 igence\, language\, teaching\, and cooperation—are not adaptive response
 s to external conditions such as climate\, predators or disease. Rather\, 
 the learned and socially transmitted activities of our ancestors shaped ou
 r intellects through accelerating cycles of evolutionary feedback.\n\n1. D
 arwin's Unfinished Symphony: How Culture Made the Human Mind \nhttps://dar
 winsunfinishedsymphony.com/\n
LOCATION:Part II Lecture Theatre\, Department of Zoology \, Downing Street
 \, CB2 3EJ
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