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Evolutionarily stable learning schedules and cumulative culture in discrete generation models

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  • Aoki, Kenichi
  • Wakano, Joe Yuichiro
  • Lehmann, Laurent

Abstract

Individual learning (e.g., trial-and-error) and social learning (e.g., imitation) are alternative ways of acquiring and expressing the appropriate phenotype in an environment. The optimal choice between using individual learning and/or social learning may be dictated by the life-stage or age of an organism. Of special interest is a learning schedule in which social learning precedes individual learning, because such a schedule is apparently a necessary condition for cumulative culture. Assuming two obligatory learning stages per discrete generation, we obtain the evolutionarily stable learning schedules for the three situations where the environment is constant, fluctuates between generations, or fluctuates within generations. During each learning stage, we assume that an organism may target the optimal phenotype in the current environment by individual learning, and/or the mature phenotype of the previous generation by oblique social learning. In the absence of exogenous costs to learning, the evolutionarily stable learning schedules are predicted to be either pure social learning followed by pure individual learning (“bang–bang†control) or pure individual learning at both stages (“flat†control). Moreover, we find for each situation that the evolutionarily stable learning schedule is also the one that optimizes the learned phenotype at equilibrium.

Suggested Citation

  • Aoki, Kenichi & Wakano, Joe Yuichiro & Lehmann, Laurent, 2012. "Evolutionarily stable learning schedules and cumulative culture in discrete generation models," Theoretical Population Biology, Elsevier, vol. 81(4), pages 300-309.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:thpobi:v:81:y:2012:i:4:p:300-309
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tpb.2012.01.006
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Marcus W. Feldman & Kenichi Aoki & Jochen Kumm, 1996. "Individual Versus Social Learning: Evolutionary Analysis in a Fluctuating Environment," Working Papers 96-05-030, Santa Fe Institute.
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    Cited by:

    1. Kobayashi, Yutaka & Ohtsuki, Hisashi & Wakano, Joe Y., 2016. "Population size vs. social connectedness — A gene-culture coevolutionary approach to cumulative cultural evolution," Theoretical Population Biology, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 87-95.
    2. Wakano, Joe Yuichiro & Miura, Chiaki, 2014. "Trade-off between learning and exploitation: The Pareto-optimal versus evolutionarily stable learning schedule in cumulative cultural evolution," Theoretical Population Biology, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 37-43.
    3. González-Forero, Mauricio, 2024. "A mathematical framework for evo-devo dynamics," Theoretical Population Biology, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 24-50.
    4. Nakahashi, Wataru, 2013. "Evolution of improvement and cumulative culture," Theoretical Population Biology, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 30-38.
    5. Pieter Berg & TuongVan Vu & Lucas Molleman, 2024. "Unpredictable benefits of social information can lead to the evolution of individual differences in social learning," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.
    6. Aoki, Kenichi & Feldman, Marcus W., 2014. "Evolution of learning strategies in temporally and spatially variable environments: A review of theory," Theoretical Population Biology, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 3-19.
    7. Susan E. Perry & Alecia Carter & Jacob Foster & Sabine Noebel & Marco Smolla, 2022. "What makes inventions become traditions?," Post-Print hal-03947000, HAL.
    8. Mullon, Charles & Lehmann, Laurent, 2017. "Invasion fitness for gene–culture co-evolution in family-structured populations and an application to cumulative culture under vertical transmission," Theoretical Population Biology, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 33-46.
    9. Ohtsuki, Hisashi & Wakano, Joe Yuichiro & Kobayashi, Yutaka, 2017. "Inclusive fitness analysis of cumulative cultural evolution in an island-structured population," Theoretical Population Biology, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 13-23.
    10. Ram, Yoav & Liberman, Uri & Feldman, Marcus W., 2019. "Vertical and oblique cultural transmission fluctuating in time and in space," Theoretical Population Biology, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 11-19.

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