Chapter 2: Culture and Human Nature — Vocabulary Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms and concepts from the notes on cultural learning, brain evolution, and human uniqueness.

Culture

Information acquired through social learning from members of one’s own species; it accumulates over generations via high‑fidelity transmission.

Mentalizing

The ability to infer others’ intentions, goals, beliefs, and perspectives; a foundational capacity for cultural learning.

Language

A human‑specific system of communication that enables conveying complex ideas, beliefs, and plans, facilitating cultural transmission.

Imitative learning

Learning by copying a model’s actions and goals with high fidelity, often supporting cultural accumulation.

Emulative learning

Learning by focusing on environmental events and outcomes rather than copying the model’s exact actions; can lead to innovative solutions.

Prestige bias

A tendency to imitate individuals who are perceived as prestigious or highly skilled.

Similarity bias

A tendency to imitate individuals who are similar to oneself in aspects like gender, ethnicity, or language.

Conformist transmission

A tendency to adopt behaviors that are most common within a group.

Scaffolding

Guided instruction or support that helps a learner perform a task before they can do it independently.

Collaborative learning

Learning that occurs through shared activities and coordinated efforts with others.

Instructed learning

Learning guided by explicit instructions or demonstrations from a model.

Cumulative cultural evolution

The buildup of cultural knowledge over generations, becoming more complex through faithful transmission and innovation.

Ratchet effect

The process by which cultural ideas accumulate and are not easily lost, allowing progressive improvement.

High‑fidelity social transmission

Accurate copying and faithful transmission of cultural information between individuals.

Encephalization quotient (EQ)

The brain size relative to body size; a higher EQ indicates a larger brain for a given body size.

Neocortex ratio

The proportion of the brain that is neocortex; used as a proxy for cognitive capacity and often linked to social group size.

Social brain hypothesis

The idea that large brains evolved primarily to navigate complex social networks.

Gene‑culture coevolution

The reciprocal evolution of genetic and cultural traits, such as cooking practices that influence brain size and energy use.

Dunbar’s number

An estimated cognitive limit to the number of stable social relationships (~150).

WEIRD samples

Populations from Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic societies; often not representative of humanity as a whole.

Cultural universal

Traits or practices that are found across many or most human cultures.

Cooking

A cultural practice that increases energy availability from food, reduces gut size, and supports brain growth; a key example of gene‑culture coevolution.

Smaller digestive tract

Evolutionary reduction in gut size, freeing energy for the brain and enabling larger brain size.

Imo potato washing

A macaque (Imo) learned to wash potatoes before eating them, illustrating cultural learning in nonhuman primates.

Twig‑fishers and bark‑fishers

Chimpanzee cultures that use different termite‑fishing methods (twigs with bark) in different populations, showing cultural diversity among chimps.