Culture's building blocks: Investigating cultural evolution in a LEGO construction task

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

One of the most essential but theoretically vexing issues regarding the notion of culture is that of cultural evolution and transmission: how a group's accumulated solutions to invariant challenges develop and persevere over time. But at the moment, the notion of applying evolutionary theory to culture remains little more than a suggestive trope. Whereas the modern synthesis of evolutionary theory has provided an encompassing scientific framework for the selection and transmission of biological adaptations, a convincing theory of cultural evolution has yet to emerge. One of the greatest challenges for theorists is identifying the appropriate time scales and units of analysis in order to reduce the intractably large and complex phenomenon of "culture" into its component "building blocks." In this paper, we present a model for scientifically investigating cultural processes by analyzing the ways people develop conventions in a series of LEGO construction tasks. The data revealed a surprising pattern in the selection of building bricks as well as features of car design across consecutive building sessions. Our findings support a novel methodology for studying the development and transmission of culture through the microcosm of interactive LEGO design and assembly.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1017
JournalFrontiers in Psychology
Volume5
Issue numberSEP
Number of pages12
ISSN1664-1078
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 12.09.2014
Externally publishedYes

    Research areas

  • Psychology - Cultural evolution, Cultural transmission, Joint action, Joint attention, Materiality, Path dependence, Schema theory, Shared intentionality

DOI

Recently viewed

Publications

  1. The effects of psychological treatment of maternal depression on children and parental functioning
  2. Private Hochschulen mit Eliteanspruch.
  3. Length measurement and estimation in primary school
  4. Der unversicherte Sprachschaden
  5. Umsatzsteigerung durch Nachhaltigkeit
  6. Dialogorientierte Nachhaltigkeitsberichterstattung im Internet
  7. Unter Horizont
  8. Wir müssen reden. Interaktive Anwendungen zum fremdsprachlichen Sprechtraining
  9. In search of simplification
  10. Erforschung multidiskursiver Organisationen
  11. Legitimation strategies of corporate elites in the field of labor regulation
  12. Kunst kann Krisen visualisieren – muss sie aber nicht
  13. Kinetic Damping in the Spectrum of the Spherical Impedance Probe
  14. Effect of Alloying with Rare-Earth Metals on the Degradation of Magnesium Alloys Studied Using a Combination of Isothermal Calorimetry and Pressure Measurements
  15. Biogeographical patterns in the diet of the wildcat, Felis silvestris Schreber, in Eurasia: Factors affecting the trophic diversity
  16. Geistessterben
  17. Pollinator shortage and global crop yield
  18. Motivations, Barriers, and Incentives for Adopting Environmental Management (Cost) Accounting and Related Guidelines
  19. Beobachtungshefte (10 Ex.)
  20. High performance liquid chromatographic determination of etofibrate and its hydrolysis products.
  21. Ecopreneurship - Konzept und Typologie
  22. Manufactured familarity
  23. Schriftliches Begründen im Mathematikunterricht.
  24. Markteintritte, Marktaustritte und Produktivität
  25. The organizational a priori
  26. Oscar Wilde, "Der glückliche Prinz und andere Märchen"
  27. Correction to