Abstract
Although evidence of teaching behaviour has been identified in some nonhuman species, human teaching appears to be unique in terms of both the breadth of contexts within which it is observed, and in its responsiveness to needs of the learner. Similarly, cultural evolution is observable in other species, but human cultural evolution appears strikingly distinct. This has led to speculation that the evolutionary origins of these capacities may be causally linked. Here we provide an overview of contrasting perspectives on the relationship between teaching and cultural evolution in humans, and briefly review previous research which suggests that cumulative culture (here meaning cultural evolution featuring a trend towards improving functionality) can occur without teaching. We then report the results of a novel experimental study in which we investigated how the benefits of teaching may depend on the complexity of the skill to be acquired. Participants were asked to tie knots of varying complexity. In our Teaching condition, opportunities to interact with an experienced partner aided transmission of the most complex knots, but not simpler equivalents, relative to exposure to completed products alone (End State Only condition), and also relative to information about the process of completion (Intermediate States condition). We conclude by considering the plausibility of various accounts of the evolutionary relationship between teaching and cultural evolution in humans.
Highlights
The role of culture in human behaviour has no parallel in any other species, and it is responsible for many of the characteristics which distinguish us from even our closest evolutionary relatives (Hill et al 2009; Tomasello 1999)
Complex knots in the End State Only condition were taken as the baseline, and p-values were estimated from the resultant t-statistics with degrees of freedom being the number of observations minus the number of fixed parameters in the model (Baayen et al 2008)
A Tukey multiple comparison of means indicated a significant difference between the Teaching and End State Only conditions (β = 1.799, SE = 0.240, z = 7.486, p < .001), and the Teaching and Intermediate States conditions
Summary
The role of culture in human behaviour has no parallel in any other species, and it is responsible for many of the characteristics which distinguish us from even our closest evolutionary relatives (Hill et al 2009; Tomasello 1999). Culture involves the social transmission of information from one individual to another. There is widespread interest from behavioural scientists in the specific role that teaching may play in this process, and the extent to which it may account for the apparently unique features of human culture. Cultural evolution refers to situations in which the behaviours or behavioural artefacts of a population exhibit changes over time as a consequence of social transmission. This can be due to either contributions from individual learning processes, errors in transmission, or both. Cultural evolution has been convincingly demonstrated in nonhumans (e.g. birdsong: Slater 1986; vocal dialects in cetaceans: Ford 1991) as well as humans
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