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The importance of life history and population regulation for the evolution of social learning
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences Pub Date : 2020-05-31 , DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2019.0492
Dominik Deffner 1 , Richard McElreath 1
Affiliation  

Social learning and life history interact in human adaptation, but nearly all models of the evolution of social learning omit age structure and population regulation. Further progress is hindered by a poor appreciation of how life history affects selection on learning. We discuss why life history and age structure are important for social learning and present an exemplary model of the evolution of social learning in which demographic properties of the population arise endogenously from assumptions about per capita vital rates and different forms of population regulation. We find that, counterintuitively, a stronger reliance on social learning is favoured in organisms characterized by ‘fast’ life histories with high mortality and fertility rates compared to ‘slower’ life histories typical of primates. Long lifespans make early investment in learning more profitable and increase the probability that the environment switches within generations. Both effects favour more individual learning. Additionally, under fertility regulation (as opposed to mortality regulation), more juveniles are born shortly after switches in the environment when many adults are not adapted, creating selection for more individual learning. To explain the empirical association between social learning and long life spans and to appreciate the implications for human evolution, we need further modelling frameworks allowing strategic learning and cumulative culture. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Life history and learning: how childhood, caregiving and old age shape cognition and culture in humans and other animals’.

中文翻译:

生活史和人口调节对社会学习进化的重要性

社会学习和生活史在人类适应过程中相互作用,但几乎所有社会学习演化模型都忽略了年龄结构和人口调节。由于对生活史如何影响学习选择的认识不足,进一步的进步受到阻碍。我们讨论了为什么生活史和年龄结构对于社会学习很重要,并提出了社会学习演变的一个示范模型,其中人口的人口统计特征是内生于以下假设的:人均人口动态率和不同形式的人口调节。我们发现,与直觉相反,与灵长类动物典型的“慢”生命史相比,具有高死亡率和生育率的“快”生命史的生物体更倾向于对社会学习的依赖。较长的寿命使得早期学习投资更有利可图,并增加了几代人内环境转变的可能性。这两种效应都有利于更多的个人学习。此外,在生育率调节(而不是死亡率调节)下,当许多成年人不适应环境时,更多的青少年在环境转变后不久出生,从而为更多的个体学习创造了选择。为了解释社会学习和长寿之间的实证关联,并理解其对人类进化的影响,我们需要进一步的建模框架,允许战略学习和累积文化。本文是主题“生命史与学习:童年、看护和老年如何塑造人类和其他动物的认知和文化”的一部分。
更新日期:2020-05-31
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