Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Adult Learners in a Novel Environment Use Prestige-Biased Social Learning (2012)
Journal Article
Atkisson, C., Mesoudi, A., & O'Brien, M. (2012). Adult Learners in a Novel Environment Use Prestige-Biased Social Learning. Evolutionary Psychology, 10(3), 519-537

Social learning (learning from others) is evolutionarily adaptive under a wide range of conditions and is a long-standing area of interest across the social and biological sciences. One social-learning mechanism derived from cultural evolutionary the... Read More about Adult Learners in a Novel Environment Use Prestige-Biased Social Learning.

Evolutionary approaches to sport (2012)
Book Chapter
Wiedemann, D., Barton, R., & Hill, R. (2012). Evolutionary approaches to sport. In S. Roberts (Ed.), Applied Evolutionary Psychology (290-307). Oxford University Press

An agent-based model of group decision-making in baboons (2012)
Book Chapter
Hill, R., Sellers, W., Logan, B., & Zapala, J. (2012). An agent-based model of group decision-making in baboons. In A. Seth, T. Prescott, & J. Bryson (Eds.), Modelling Natural Action Selection (454-476). Cambridge University Press

An Experimental Test of the Accumulated Copying Error Model of Cultural Mutation for Acheulean Handaxe Size (2012)
Journal Article
Kempe, M., Lycett, S., & Mesoudi, A. (2012). An Experimental Test of the Accumulated Copying Error Model of Cultural Mutation for Acheulean Handaxe Size. PLoS ONE, 7(11), Article e48333. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0048333

Archaeologists interested in explaining changes in artifact morphology over long time periods have found it useful to create models in which the only source of change is random and unintentional copying error, or ‘cultural mutation’. These models can... Read More about An Experimental Test of the Accumulated Copying Error Model of Cultural Mutation for Acheulean Handaxe Size.

Word Diffusion and Climate Science (2012)
Journal Article
Bentley, R., Garnett, P., O'Brien, M., & Brock, W. (2012). Word Diffusion and Climate Science. PLoS ONE, 7(11), Article e47966. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0047966

As public and political debates often demonstrate, a substantial disjoint can exist between the findings of science and the impact it has on the public. Using climate-change science as a case example, we reconsider the role of scientists in the infor... Read More about Word Diffusion and Climate Science.

Comment concerning cumulative cultural evolution, on M. O'Brien and K.N. Laland 'Genes, culture and agriculture: an example of human niche construction' (2012)
Journal Article
Kendal, J. (2012). Comment concerning cumulative cultural evolution, on M. O'Brien and K.N. Laland 'Genes, culture and agriculture: an example of human niche construction'. Current Anthropology, 53(4), 434-470. https://doi.org/10.1086/666585

O’Brien and Laland point out that human culture is exceptional in its cumulative nature. This is often characterized by the ratchet effect, highlighting that high-fidelity social transmission can underpin the accumulation of trait modifications. They... Read More about Comment concerning cumulative cultural evolution, on M. O'Brien and K.N. Laland 'Genes, culture and agriculture: an example of human niche construction'.

Embodied cognitive evolution and the cerebellum (2012)
Journal Article
Barton, R. A. (2012). Embodied cognitive evolution and the cerebellum. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 367(1599), 2097-2107. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2012.0112

Much attention has focused on the dramatic expansion of the forebrain, particularly the neocortex, as the neural substrate of cognitive evolution. However, though relatively small, the cerebellum contains about four times more neurons than the neocor... Read More about Embodied cognitive evolution and the cerebellum.

Going Around Again: Modelling Standing Ovations with a Flexible Agent-based Simulation Framework (2012)
Conference Proceeding
Garnett, P., Stepney, S., Andrews, P., & Read, M. (2012). Going Around Again: Modelling Standing Ovations with a Flexible Agent-based Simulation Framework. In Proceedings of the 2012 workshop on complex systems modelling and simulation (27-46)

We describe how we have used the CoSMoS process to trans- form a computer simulation originally developed for the simulation of plant development for use in modelling aspects of audience behaviour. An existing agent-based simulator is re-factored to... Read More about Going Around Again: Modelling Standing Ovations with a Flexible Agent-based Simulation Framework.

Conceptual Models of Nature in Pakistan (2012)
Conference Proceeding
Lyon, S., & Bennardo, G. (2012). Conceptual Models of Nature in Pakistan. In Cultural models of nature and the environment : self, space and causality ; proceedings of the workshop (29-34)

Situating suicide as an anthropological problem: ethnographic approaches to understanding self-harm and self-inflicted death (2012)
Journal Article
Staples, J., & Widger, T. (2012). Situating suicide as an anthropological problem: ethnographic approaches to understanding self-harm and self-inflicted death. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, 36(2), 183-203. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11013-012-9255-1

More than a century after Durkheim’s sociological classic placed the subject of suicide as a concern at the heart of social science, ethnographic, cross-cultural analyses of what lie behind people’s attempts to take their own lives remain few in numb... Read More about Situating suicide as an anthropological problem: ethnographic approaches to understanding self-harm and self-inflicted death.

Suffering, Frustration, and Anger: Class, Gender, and History in Sri Lankan Suicide Stories (2012)
Journal Article
Widger, T. (2012). Suffering, Frustration, and Anger: Class, Gender, and History in Sri Lankan Suicide Stories. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, 36(2), 225-244. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11013-012-9250-6

This paper explores competing stories of suffering, frustration and anger that shape the performance and reception of suicidal behaviours in contemporary Sri Lanka. Drawing from the results of 21 months of ethnographic fieldwork, I show how suicidal... Read More about Suffering, Frustration, and Anger: Class, Gender, and History in Sri Lankan Suicide Stories.

Identification of the social and cognitive processes underlying human cumulative culture (2012)
Journal Article
Dean, L., Kendal, R., Schapiro, S., Thierry, B., & Laland, K. (2012). Identification of the social and cognitive processes underlying human cumulative culture. Science, 335(6072), 1114-1118. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1213969

The remarkable ecological and demographic success of humanity is largely attributed to our capacity for cumulative culture, with knowledge and technology accumulating over time, yet the social and cognitive capabilities that have enabled cumulative c... Read More about Identification of the social and cognitive processes underlying human cumulative culture.

Suicide and the morality of kinship in Sri Lanka (2012)
Journal Article
Widger, T. (2012). Suicide and the morality of kinship in Sri Lanka. Contributions to Indian Sociology, 46(1-2), 83-116. https://doi.org/10.1177/006996671104600205

Ethnographic research amongst Sinhala Buddhists in community and clinical settings in the Madampe Division, northwest Sri Lanka, suggests that local understandings and practices of suicidal behaviour reflect the kinship structure. In particular, acts... Read More about Suicide and the morality of kinship in Sri Lanka.

Varieties of openness and types of digital anthropology (2012)
Journal Article
Zeitlyn, D., & Lyon, S. (2012). Varieties of openness and types of digital anthropology. Durham anthropology journal, 18(2), 97-110

We find Danny Miller’s recent article in Hau interesting and provocative (as ever in Miller’s work) but it confuses several issues which are best considered separately. Miller advocates a model of openness in publication which sees a move away from c... Read More about Varieties of openness and types of digital anthropology.

Redness Enhances Perceived Aggression, Dominance and Attractiveness in Men’s Faces (2012)
Journal Article
Stephen, I., Oldham, F., Perrett, D., & Barton, R. (2012). Redness Enhances Perceived Aggression, Dominance and Attractiveness in Men’s Faces. Evolutionary Psychology, 10(3), 562-572

In a range of non-human primate, bird and fish species, the intensity of red coloration in males is associated with social dominance, testosterone levels and mate selection. In humans too, skin redness is associated with health, but it is not known w... Read More about Redness Enhances Perceived Aggression, Dominance and Attractiveness in Men’s Faces.