Centre for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter, Penryn TR10 9FE, UK.
Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4SB, UK.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2021 Jul 5;376(1828):20200048. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0048. Epub 2021 May 17.
Most analyses of the origins of cultural evolution focus on when and where social learning prevails over individual learning, overlooking the fact that there are other developmental inputs that influence phenotypic fit to the selective environment. This raises the question of how the presence of other cue 'channels' affects the scope for social learning. Here, we present a model that considers the simultaneous evolution of (i) multiple forms of social learning (involving vertical or horizontal learning based on either prestige or conformity biases) within the broader context of other evolving inputs on phenotype determination, including (ii) heritable epigenetic factors, (iii) individual learning, (iv) environmental and cascading maternal effects, (v) conservative bet-hedging, and (vi) genetic cues. In fluctuating environments that are autocorrelated (and hence predictable), we find that social learning from members of the same generation (horizontal social learning) explains the large majority of phenotypic variation, whereas other cues are much less important. Moreover, social learning based on prestige biases typically prevails in positively autocorrelated environments, whereas conformity biases prevail in negatively autocorrelated environments. Only when environments are unpredictable or horizontal social learning is characterized by an intrinsically low information content, other cues such as conservative bet-hedging or vertical prestige biases prevail. This article is part of the theme issue 'Foundations of cultural evolution'.
大多数关于文化进化起源的分析都集中在社会学习何时何地胜过个体学习，而忽略了一个事实，即还有其他发育输入会影响表型对选择环境的适应性。这就提出了一个问题，即其他线索“渠道”的存在如何影响社会学习的范围。在这里，我们提出了一个模型，该模型考虑了（i）多种形式的社会学习（包括基于威望或从众偏差的垂直或水平学习）在其他对表型决定有影响的进化输入的更广泛背景下的同时进化，包括（ii）可遗传的表观遗传因素，（iii）个体学习，（iv）环境和级联母体效应，（v）保守的风险分担，以及（vi）遗传线索。在具有自相关性（因此可预测）的波动环境中，我们发现来自同一代成员的社会学习（水平社会学习）解释了绝大多数表型变异，而其他线索则不那么重要。此外，基于威望偏差的社会学习通常在正自相关环境中占主导地位，而从众偏差在负自相关环境中占主导地位。只有当环境不可预测或水平社会学习具有内在的低信息量时，保守的风险分担或垂直威望偏差等其他线索才会占主导地位。本文是主题为“文化进化基础”的特刊的一部分。
