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{
    "pk": 27761,
    "title": "Cumulative improvements in iterated problem solving",
    "subtitle": null,
    "abstract": "As compared to other animals, humans are particularly skilled\nat using and improving tools and other solutions to problems\nthat were first discovered by other people. Although the human\ncapacity for cumulative cultural evolution is well-known, the\neffectiveness of inheritance as a form of problem solving is\nan area in need of further research. We report an experiment\ndesigned to understand how effectively solutions to problems\naccumulate over generations of problem solving. Using a tool-\ndiscovery game, we found that participants were consistently\nable to discover more tools in a 25 minute session than their\nancestors. Participants who inherited more tools required more\ntime to recreate them, but their rate of new tool discovery was\nnot slowed. In addition, we show that participants were able\nto recreate the tools they inherited more efficiently than their\nancestors, but that inheritance did not confer any improvement\nin future problem solving. We discuss the limitations of this\nwork, and motivate future directions.",
    "language": "eng",
    "license": {
        "name": "",
        "short_name": "",
        "text": null,
        "url": ""
    },
    "keywords": [
        {
            "word": "cultural evolution"
        },
        {
            "word": "transmission chain"
        },
        {
            "word": "iterated learning"
        }
    ],
    "section": "Publication-based-Talks",
    "is_remote": true,
    "remote_url": "https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5dd5j0cc",
    "frozenauthors": [
        {
            "first_name": "Pierce",
            "middle_name": "",
            "last_name": "Edminston",
            "name_suffix": "",
            "institution": "University of Wisonsin - Madison",
            "department": ""
        },
        {
            "first_name": "Maxime",
            "middle_name": "",
            "last_name": "Derex",
            "name_suffix": "",
            "institution": "University of Exeter",
            "department": ""
        },
        {
            "first_name": "Gary",
            "middle_name": "",
            "last_name": "Lupyan",
            "name_suffix": "",
            "institution": "University of Wisonsin - Madison",
            "department": ""
        }
    ],
    "date_submitted": null,
    "date_accepted": null,
    "date_published": "2018-01-01T18:00:00Z",
    "render_galley": null,
    "galleys": [
        {
            "label": "PDF",
            "type": "pdf",
            "path": "https://journalpub.escholarship.org/cognitivesciencesociety/article/27761/galley/17401/download/"
        }
    ]
}