Data from: Cultural transmission in an ever-changing world: trial-and-error copying may be more robust than precise imitation

Cultural transmission facilitates the spread of behaviours within social groups and may lead to the establishment of stable traditions in both human and non-human animals. The fidelity of transmission is frequently emphasized as a core component of cultural evolution and as a prerequisite for cumulative culture. Fidelity is often considered a synonym of precise copying of observed behaviours. However, while precise copying guarantees reliable transmission in an ideal static world, it may be vulnerable to realistic variability in the actual environment. Here, we argue that fidelity may be more naturally achieved when the social learning mechanisms incorporate trial-and-error; and that the robustness of social transmission is thereby increased. We employed a simple model to demonstrate how culture that is produced through exact copying is fragile in an (even slightly) noisy world. When incorporating a certain degree of trial-and-error, however, cultures are more readily formed in a stochastic environment and are less vulnerable to rare ecological changes. We suggest that considering trial-and-error learning as a stabilizing component of social transmission may provide insights into cultural evolution in a realistic, variable, world.

文化传播（cultural transmission）可推动行为在社会群体内扩散，并可能促使人类与非人类动物群体形成稳定的传统。传播保真度（fidelity）常被视作文化演化的核心组成部分，同时也是累积文化（cumulative culture）形成的先决条件。过往研究多将传播保真度等同于对观察行为的精准复制。然而，尽管精准复制可在理想静态环境中保障可靠的传播，但在现实环境中，其易受实际变异因素的干扰。本研究提出，当社会学习机制（social learning mechanisms）融入试错学习（trial-and-error）时，传播保真度或能更自然地实现，进而提升社会传播的鲁棒性。我们通过构建简单模型，证明了仅依靠精准复制产生的文化，即便在轻微噪声的环境中也会表现出脆弱性；而当引入一定程度的试错学习后，文化在随机环境（stochastic environment）中更易于形成，且对罕见生态变化的抵御能力也更强。我们认为，将试错学习视作社会传播的稳定要素，可为研究现实多变环境下的文化演化提供新的洞察视角。