Santa Fe Institute, 1399 Hyde Park Road, Santa Fe, NM 87501, USA.
Department of Cognitive Science, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary.
Proc Biol Sci. 2020 Oct 28;287(1937):20202001. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2020.2001.
While widely acknowledged in the cultural evolution literature, ecological factors-aspects of the physical environment that affect the way in which cultural productions evolve-have not been investigated experimentally. Here, we present an experimental investigation of this type of factor by using a transmission chain (iterated learning) experiment. We predicted that differences in the distance between identical tools (drums) and in the order in which they are to be used would cause the evolution of different rhythms. The evidence confirms our predictions and thus provides a proof of concept that ecological factors-here a motor constraint-can influence cultural productions and that their effects can be experimentally isolated and measured. One noteworthy finding is that ecological factors can on their own lead to more complex rhythms.
虽然在文化进化文献中得到广泛认可，但生态因素——影响文化产物进化方式的物理环境方面——尚未经过实验研究。在这里，我们通过使用传递链（迭代学习）实验来对此类因素进行实验研究。我们预测，相同工具（鼓）之间的距离差异以及它们的使用顺序差异将导致不同节奏的进化。证据证实了我们的预测，从而证明了一个概念，即生态因素——这里是运动约束——可以影响文化产物，并且可以通过实验来分离和测量它们的影响。一个值得注意的发现是，生态因素本身可以导致更复杂的节奏。
