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Flexible learning, rather than inveterate innovation or copying, drives cumulative knowledge gain
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dc.contributor.author | Miu, Elena | |
dc.contributor.author | Gulley, Ned | |
dc.contributor.author | Laland, Kevin N. | |
dc.contributor.author | Rendell, Luke | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2020-07-16T09:30:06Z | |
dc.date.available | 2020-07-16T09:30:06Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2020-06-05 | |
dc.identifier.citation | Miu , E , Gulley , N , Laland , K N & Rendell , L 2020 , ' Flexible learning, rather than inveterate innovation or copying, drives cumulative knowledge gain ' , Science Advances , vol. 6 , no. 23 , eaaz0286 . https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aaz0286 | en |
dc.identifier.issn | 2375-2548 | |
dc.identifier.other | PURE: 269053698 | |
dc.identifier.other | PURE UUID: d685b5be-0733-4448-a182-a93868049862 | |
dc.identifier.other | Scopus: 85086627281 | |
dc.identifier.other | PubMed: 32548255 | |
dc.identifier.other | ORCID: /0000-0002-2457-0900/work/77131138 | |
dc.identifier.other | ORCID: /0000-0002-1121-9142/work/77132442 | |
dc.identifier.other | WOS: 000540787200008 | |
dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/10023/20266 | |
dc.description | E.M. was supported by John Templeton Foundation Grant #40128 “Exploring the Evolutionary Foundations of Cultural Complexity, Creativity, and Trust” and the University of St Andrews School of Biology. L.R. was supported by the Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland (MASTs) pooling initiative funded by the Scottish Funding Council (grant reference HR09011). | en |
dc.description.abstract | Human technology is characterized by cumulative cultural knowledge gain, yet researchers have limited knowledge of the mix of copying and innovation that maximizes progress. Here, we analyze a unique large-scale dataset originating from collaborative online programming competitions to investigate, in a setting of real-world complexity, how individual differences in innovation, social-information use, and performance generate technological progress. We find that cumulative knowledge gain is primarily driven by pragmatists, willing to copy, innovate, explore, and take risks flexibly, rather than by pure innovators or habitual copiers. Our study also reveals a key role for prestige in information transfer. | |
dc.format.extent | 10 | |
dc.language.iso | eng | |
dc.relation.ispartof | Science Advances | en |
dc.rights | Copyright © 2020 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. | en |
dc.subject | H Social Sciences | en |
dc.subject | DAS | en |
dc.subject.lcc | H | en |
dc.title | Flexible learning, rather than inveterate innovation or copying, drives cumulative knowledge gain | en |
dc.type | Journal article | en |
dc.contributor.sponsor | John Templeton Foundation | en |
dc.description.version | Publisher PDF | en |
dc.contributor.institution | University of St Andrews. School of Biology | en |
dc.contributor.institution | University of St Andrews. Centre for Biological Diversity | en |
dc.contributor.institution | University of St Andrews. Scottish Oceans Institute | en |
dc.contributor.institution | University of St Andrews. Institute of Behavioural and Neural Sciences | en |
dc.contributor.institution | University of St Andrews. Centre for Social Learning & Cognitive Evolution | en |
dc.contributor.institution | University of St Andrews. Sea Mammal Research Unit | en |
dc.contributor.institution | University of St Andrews. Bioacoustics group | en |
dc.contributor.institution | University of St Andrews. Marine Alliance for Science & Technology Scotland | en |
dc.identifier.doi | https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aaz0286 | |
dc.description.status | Peer reviewed | en |
dc.identifier.grantnumber | 40128 | en |
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