Objective Humans exhibit a rich and complex material culture with no equivalent in other animals. The unique human capability to accumulate cultural innovations across time allows us to develop powerful technology and drives technological progress. Despite a growing literature investigating cumulative culture, the underlying processes at play in the accumulation of cultural knowledge remain puzzling. The overarching aims of this proposal are to identify the requirements of human cumulative culture both at the individual and population levels and improve our understanding of factors that affect the pace of cultural accumulation. During the course of this action, we will develop innovative experimental methods to investigate three important and timely lines of research and shed new light on the complex processes that underlie cultural accumulation: 1) Identify the cognitive requirements of innovation production and transmission, 2) Evaluate the interplay between population structure and cultural accumulation, 3) Evaluate the effects of ecological factors on the rate of innovation. This action will use lab experiments from psychology and economics and will bring knowledge from anthropology and biology to help explain why only humans are able to accumulate cultural information across time and why rates of cultural accumulation have varied in our evolutionary past. Fields of science social sciencessociologydemographysocial sciencespsychologysocial sciencessociologyanthropologysocial anthropologynatural sciencescomputer and information sciencessoftwaresoftware applicationsvideo gamesnatural sciencesmathematicsapplied mathematicsmathematical model Programme(s) H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Main Programme H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility Topic(s) MSCA-IF-2016 - Individual Fellowships Call for proposal H2020-MSCA-IF-2016 See other projects for this call Funding Scheme MSCA-IF-EF-ST - Standard EF Coordinator THE UNIVERSITY OF EXETER Net EU contribution € 195 454,80 Address The queen's drive northcote house EX4 4QJ Exeter United Kingdom See on map Region South West (England) Devon Devon CC Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Other funding € 0,00
