de Boer Bart
Vrije Universiteit Brussel, AI-lab.
Top Cogn Sci. 2016 Apr;8(2):459-68. doi: 10.1111/tops.12191. Epub 2016 Mar 3.
Two computer simulations are investigated that model interaction of cultural evolution of language and biological evolution of adaptations to language. Both are agent-based models in which a population of agents imitates each other using realistic vowels. The agents evolve under selective pressure for good imitation. In one model, the evolution of the vocal tract is modeled; in the other, a cognitive mechanism for perceiving speech accurately is modeled. In both cases, biological adaptations to using and learning speech evolve, even though the system of speech sounds itself changes at a more rapid time scale than biological evolution. However, the fact that the available acoustic space is used maximally (a self-organized result of cultural evolution) is constant, and therefore biological evolution does have a stable target. This work shows that when cultural and biological traits are continuous, their co-evolution may lead to cognitive adaptations that are strong enough to detect empirically.
我们研究了两个计算机模拟，它们对语言文化进化与语言适应的生物进化之间的相互作用进行建模。两者都是基于主体的模型，其中一群主体使用逼真的元音相互模仿。这些主体在良好模仿的选择压力下进化。在一个模型中，对声道的进化进行建模；在另一个模型中，对准确感知语音的认知机制进行建模。在这两种情况下，即使语音系统本身的变化时间尺度比生物进化更快，使用和学习语音的生物适应性也会进化。然而，可用声学空间被最大程度利用这一事实（文化进化的自组织结果）是恒定的，因此生物进化确实有一个稳定的目标。这项工作表明，当文化和生物特征是连续的时候，它们的共同进化可能会导致强大到足以通过实证检测到的认知适应。
