PSYC 3350 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Neocortex
21 Oct 2015
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Chapter 2 culture and human nature. Is culture unique to humans: animals have also shown capability in learning in information as well, for example the female macaque named imo- washed her potato before she ate it. Theory of mind another feature of ways that human engage in cultural learning appears to be unique, or nearly unique, compared with other species. These 2 adaptions allow humans to learn in ways that other species cannot: allows for individuals to learn cultural information from each other . Has high advantage and profound implications: human cultural learning is cumulative, cumulative cultural evolution, culture of humans are cumulative, ratchet effect initial idea can be learned from others and improved upon by other individuals. Thus cultural info grows in complexity and often in utility over time. Cultural information can gain but not slip backward: to have cumulative cultural evolution you need creative invention, which we often can observe among many species.
