Culture Enhances the Evolvability of Cognition
Lee C. Spector, Sean Luke · 2001
This paper discusses the role of culture in the evolution of cognitive systems. We define "culture" as any information transmitted between individuals and between generations by non-genetic means. Experiments are presented that use genetic programming systems that include special mechanisms for cultural transmission of information. These systems evolve computer programs that perform cognitive tasks including mathematical function mapping and action selection in a virtual world. The data show that the presenceof culturesupporting mechanismscan havea clear beneficial impact on the evolvability of correct programs. The implications that these results may have for cognitive science are briefly discussed. Introduction Interactions between cultural and evolutionary processes are discussed in the literatures of several fields, including cognitive science (Donald, 1991), ethology (Bonner, 1980), sociobiology (Lumsden and Wilson, 1981), and primatology (Quiatt and Itani, 1994). This paper rep...