Podcast appearances and mentions of andrew whiten

Episode 277 Chimps are an intelligent species, capable of using tools and developing culture - so why have humans surpassed them to such a huge extent? How is it that we are busy exploring space while chimps remain stuck in the Stone Age? It's long been thought it's because their culture doesn't evolve cumulatively, but that assumption has just been challenged. Hear from Cassandra Gunasekaram, the lead author of a paper that shows chimp culture develops in a more complex way than we realised. We also hear from primatologists Andrew Whiten from the University of St Andrews and Andrea Migliano of the University of Zurich. How often do you check the calories of your meal, before ordering at a restaurant? In 2020 in the UK it became mandatory for many restaurants to print calories on their menus, as part of an anti-obesity campaign - the question is, has it been effective or a complete waste of time? We dig into new research and the results may surprise you. We also explore why 85 per cent of overweight or obese people who lose a significant amount of weight end up putting it all back on again within a year. In a Black Mirror-like development, computer scientists have managed to create simulated replicas of 1000 real people. These digital twins were created using the model behind ChatGPT and can accurately simulate their personalities. The method is surprisingly simple to recreate - so should we be worried? To read more about these stories, visit https://www.newscientist.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Language is the ultimate Lego. With it, we can take simple elements and construct them into an edifice of meaning. Its power is not only in mapping signs to concepts but in that individual words can be composed into larger structures. How did this systematicity arise in language?Simon Kirby is the head of Linguistics and English Language at The University of Edinburgh and one of the founders of the Centre for Langauge Evolution and Change. Over several decades he and his collaborators have run many elegant experiments that show that this property of language emerges inexorably as a system of communication is passed from generation to generation. Experiments with computer simulations, humans, and even baboons demonstrate that as a language is learned mistakes are made - much like the mutations in genes. Crucially, the mistakes that better match the language to the structure of the world (as conceived by the learner) are the ones that are most likely to be passed on.Links Simon's website with art, music, and talks on language evolution Simon's academic homepage Simon on X Multiverses Podcast homeOutline(00:00) Introduction(2:45) What makes language special?(5:30) Language extends our biological bounds(7:55) Language makes culture, culture makes language(9:30) John Searle: world to word and word to world(13:30) Compositionality: the expressivity of language is based on its Lego-like combinations(16:30) Could unique genes explain the fact of language compositionality?(17:20) … Not fully, though they might make our brains able to support compositional language(18:20) Using simulations to model language learning and search for the emergence of structure(19:35) Compositionality emerges from the transmission of representations across generations(20:18) The learners need to make mistakes, but not random mistakes(21:35) Just like biological evolution, we need variation(27:00) When, by chance, linguistic features echo the structure of the world these are more memorable(33:45) Language experiments with humans (Hannah Cornish)(36:32) Sign language experiments in the lab (Yasamin Motamedi)(38:45) Spontaneous emergence of sign language in populations(41:18) Communication is key to making language efficient, while transmission gives structure(47:10) Without intentional design these processes produce optimized systems(50:39) We need to perceive similarity in states of the world for linguistic structure to emerge(57:05) Why isn't language ubiquitous in nature …(58:00) … why do only humans have cultural transmissions(59:56) Over-imitation: Victoria Horner & Andrew Whiten, humans love to copy each other(1:06:00) Is language a spandrel?(1:07:10) How much of language is about information transfer? Partner-swapping conversations (Gareth Roberts)(1:08:49) Language learning = play?(1:12:25) Iterated learning experiments with baboons (& Tetris!)(1:17:50) Endogenous rewards for copying(1:20:30) Art as another angle on the same problems

Robert Goldstone of the Percepts and Concepts Laboratory at Indiana University and editor of the APS journal Current Directions in Psychological Science interviews Andrew Whiten, Professor of Evolutionary and Developmental Psychology at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, Interviewed on August 2, 2021

Animals: Watching Us Watching Them Watching Each Other. Rana Mitter talks to the primatologist, Andrew Whiten, Professor of Evolutionary and Development Psychology at St Andrews, to Dr Katie Slocombe of York University and to the social anthropologist, Professor Alex Bentley of Bristol University, about chimps and imitation, culture and evolution - from the deep past to our digital present. This event was recorded in front of an audience at the Free Thinking Festival at Sage, Gateshead on 02.11.14.

In this presentation from CARTA’s Human and Non-Human Culture Symposium, Andrew Whiten (University of St. Andrews Scotland) discusses “The Cultural Worlds of Child and Chimpanzee.” Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Humanities] [Science] [Show ID: 17827]

In this presentation from CARTA’s Human and Non-Human Culture Symposium, Andrew Whiten (University of St. Andrews Scotland) discusses “The Cultural Worlds of Child and Chimpanzee.” Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Humanities] [Science] [Show ID: 17827]

Tooby and deVore argued that hominin evolution hinged on the exploitation of a unique 'cognitive niche'. We propose that a diversity of evidence indicates this was fundamentally a socio-cognitive niche. Analysis of hunter-gatherer ethnologies confirms unprecedented levels of egalitarian behaviour, cooperation and culture, in comparison to other primates and inferred ancestral stages. In conjunction with recent archaeological findings on the evolution of hunting, we use these data to reconstruct socio-cognitive changes in the course of hominin evolution, including joint planning and the impact of language. Precursors to these characteristics are inferred on the basis of recent observational and experimental studies of non-human primates' socio-cognitive abilities including cultural transmission, psychological attributions and understanding the requirements of cooperation. Presented by Andrew Whiten and David Erdal (Psychology, University of St. Andrews, UK).

Tooby and deVore argued that hominin evolution hinged on the exploitation of a unique 'cognitive niche'. We propose that a diversity of evidence indicates this was fundamentally a socio-cognitive niche. Analysis of hunter-gatherer ethnologies confirms unprecedented levels of egalitarian behaviour, cooperation and culture, in comparison to other primates and inferred ancestral stages. In conjunction with recent archaeological findings on the evolution of hunting, we use these data to reconstruct socio-cognitive changes in the course of hominin evolution, including joint planning and the impact of language. Precursors to these characteristics are inferred on the basis of recent observational and experimental studies of non-human primates' socio-cognitive abilities including cultural transmission, psychological attributions and understanding the requirements of cooperation. Presented by Andrew Whiten and David Erdal (Psychology, University of St. Andrews, UK).

In this edition of CARTA’s Human and Non-Human Culture Series, three renowned researchers, Hal Whitehead, Andrew Whiten and UCLA’s Susan Perry discuss the fascinating world of traditions, learning, social structures and culture in primates and whales. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Science] [Show ID: 17799]

In this edition of CARTA’s Human and Non-Human Culture Series, three renowned researchers, Hal Whitehead, Andrew Whiten and UCLA’s Susan Perry discuss the fascinating world of traditions, learning, social structures and culture in primates and whales. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Science] [Show ID: 17799]