Hierarchical structures emerge from the cultural transmission: an iterated learning experiment using a non-linguistic task.

ABSTRACT: Human language is characterized by complex structural features, such as the hierarchical combination of words to form sentences. Although other animals use communication systems, empirical evidence of hierarchical structures is rare. Computational studies of language evolution have suggested that cultural transmission plays a key role in the emergence of structural features in human languages, including hierarchy. While the previous study demonstrated the emergence of hierarchical structures in non-linguistic systems, we argue that their laboratory study may have overestimated the role of cultural transmission because of a lack of appropriate controls and analyses. To directly test the effect of cultural transmission, we conducted an experiment with no cultural transmission as a control (i

SUBMITTER: Nakata S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10770839 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature