FriSem

Ben Prystawski , Ph.D Student, in the Department of Psychology

Title: Teaching and the Cultural Ratchet

Abstract: Humans are unparalleled in their ability to build cumulative culture. Unlike other species, we can build up complex bodies of knowledge that depends on the knowledge of previous generations. Our ability to do this relies on sophisticated capacities for teaching and social learning. However, there are documented downsides to learning from instruction, like its tendency to reduce exploration. In this talk, I present tasks that enable us to study cultural knowledge accumulation experimentally and understand how instruction shapes people’s behavior in a fine-grained way. We find that while some types of instructional messages can increase performance on the task, they can also reduce exploration.