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Representational exchange in social learning: Blurring the lines between the ritual and instrumental

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 November 2022

Natalia Vélez Open the ORCID record for Natalia Vélez [Opens in a new window] ,
Charley M. Wu Open the ORCID record for Charley M. Wu [Opens in a new window]  and
Fiery A. Cushman Open the ORCID record for Fiery A. Cushman [Opens in a new window]
Natalia Vélez
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA nvelez@fas.harvard.edu, cushman@fas.harvard.edu nataliavelez.org, cushmanlab.fas.harvard.edu
Charley M. Wu
Affiliation:
Human and Machine Cognition Lab, University of Tübingen, 72076 Tübingen, Germany, charley.wu@uni-tuebingen.de, hmc-lab.com
Fiery A. Cushman
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA nvelez@fas.harvard.edu, cushman@fas.harvard.edu nataliavelez.org, cushmanlab.fas.harvard.edu
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Abstract

We propose that human social learning is subject to a trade-off between the cost of performing a computation and the flexibility of its outputs. Viewing social learning through this lens sheds light on cases that seem to violate bifocal stance theory (BST) – such as high-fidelity imitation in instrumental action – and provides a mechanism by which causal insight can be bootstrapped from imitation of cultural practices.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 45 , 2022 , e271
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

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