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Outputs (39)

Selective copying of the majority suggests children are broadly “optimal-” rather than “over-” imitators (2017)
Journal Article
Evans, C., Laland, K., Carpenter, M., & Kendal, R. (2018). Selective copying of the majority suggests children are broadly “optimal-” rather than “over-” imitators. Developmental Science, 21(5), https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12637

Human children, in contrast to other species, are frequently cast as prolific “over-imitators”. However, previous studies of “over-imitation” have overlooked many important real-world social dynamics, and may thus provide an inaccurate account of thi... Read More about Selective copying of the majority suggests children are broadly “optimal-” rather than “over-” imitators.

Testing differential use of payoff-biased social learning strategies in children and chimpanzees (2017)
Journal Article
Vale, G., Flynn, E. G., Kendal, J., Rawlings, B., Hopper Lydia, M., Schapiro Steven, J., Lambeth Susan, P., & Kendal, R. (2017). Testing differential use of payoff-biased social learning strategies in children and chimpanzees. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 284(1868), Article 20171751. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2017.1751

Various non-human animal species have been shown to exhibit behavioural traditions. Importantly, this research has been guided by what we know of human culture, and the question of whether animal cultures may be homologous or analogous to our own cul... Read More about Testing differential use of payoff-biased social learning strategies in children and chimpanzees.

Follow (or don’t follow) the crowd: Young children’s conformity is influenced by norm domain and age (2017)
Journal Article
Flynn, E., Turner, C., & Giraldeau, L. (2018). Follow (or don’t follow) the crowd: Young children’s conformity is influenced by norm domain and age. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 167, 222-233. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2017.10.014

This study investigated whether young children’s conformity to a consensus varies across the normative domain and age. A total of 168 3- and 5-year-olds participated. Each child was presented with a puzzle box that had two transparent compartments. I... Read More about Follow (or don’t follow) the crowd: Young children’s conformity is influenced by norm domain and age.

What drives young children to over-imitate? Investigating the effects of age, context, action type, and transitivity (2017)
Journal Article
Clay, Z., Over, H., & Tennie, C. (2018). What drives young children to over-imitate? Investigating the effects of age, context, action type, and transitivity. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 166, 520-534. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2017.09.008

Imitation underlies many traits thought to characterize our species, which includes the transmission and acquisition of language, material culture, norms, rituals, and conventions. From early childhood, humans show an intriguing willingness to imitat... Read More about What drives young children to over-imitate? Investigating the effects of age, context, action type, and transitivity.

Re-evaluating the link between brain size and behavioural ecology in primates (2017)
Journal Article
Powell, L. E., Isler, K., & Barton, R. A. (2017). Re-evaluating the link between brain size and behavioural ecology in primates. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 284(1865), https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2017.1765

Comparative studies have identified a wide range of behavioural and ecological correlates of relative brain size, with results differing between taxonomic groups, and even within them. In primates for example, recent studies contradict one another ov... Read More about Re-evaluating the link between brain size and behavioural ecology in primates.

Women’s emotional and sexual attraction to men across the menstrual cycle (2017)
Journal Article
Shimoda, R., Campbell, A., & Barton, R. (2018). Women’s emotional and sexual attraction to men across the menstrual cycle. Behavioral Ecology, 29(1), 51-59. https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arx124

There is ongoing debate about how and why the menstrual cycle affects women’s attraction to men. According to the dual sexuality hypothesis, women form pair-bond relationships with men who provide care but also obtain genetic benefits by biasing mati... Read More about Women’s emotional and sexual attraction to men across the menstrual cycle.

Foreword (2017)
Book Chapter
Kendal, J. (2017). Foreword. In C. Deane-Drummond, & A. Fuentes (Eds.), The evolution of human wisdom. Lexington Books

Resource depletion through primate stone technology (2017)
Journal Article
Luncz, L. V., Tan, A., Haslam, M., Kulik, L., Proffitt, T., Malaivijitnond, S., & Gumert, M. (2017). Resource depletion through primate stone technology. eLife, 6, Article e23647. https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.23647

Tool use has allowed humans to become one of the most successful species. However, tool-assisted foraging has also pushed many of our prey species to extinction or endangerment, a technology-driven process thought to be uniquely human. Here, we demon... Read More about Resource depletion through primate stone technology.

Multidisciplinary exhibit design in a Science Centre: a participatory action research approach (2017)
Journal Article
Rudman, H., Bailey-Ross, C., Kendal, J., Mursic, Z., Lloyd, A., Ross, B., & Kendal, R. L. (2018). Multidisciplinary exhibit design in a Science Centre: a participatory action research approach. Educational Action Research, 26(4), 567-588-588. https://doi.org/10.1080/09650792.2017.1360786

In this paper we highlight the issues and opportunities of a participatory action research (PAR) and co-design project, currently being undertaken as engaged research between academics at Durham University and practitioners at the UK’s International... Read More about Multidisciplinary exhibit design in a Science Centre: a participatory action research approach.

Nutritional status and the influence of TV consumption on female body size ideals in populations recently exposed to the media (2017)
Journal Article
Jucker, J., Thornborrow, T., Beierholm, U., Burt, D., Barton, R., Evans, E., …Boothroyd, L. (2017). Nutritional status and the influence of TV consumption on female body size ideals in populations recently exposed to the media. Scientific Reports, 7(1), Article 8438. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-08653-z

Television consumption influences perceptions of attractive female body size. However, cross-cultural research examining media influence on body ideals is typically confounded by differences in the availability of reliable and diverse foodstuffs. 112... Read More about Nutritional status and the influence of TV consumption on female body size ideals in populations recently exposed to the media.

Accumulation through nationalism: the politics of profit in “neoliberal” Sri Lanka (2017)
Journal Article
Widger, T. (2017). Accumulation through nationalism: the politics of profit in “neoliberal” Sri Lanka. Polity, 7(2), 31-37

It is worth remembering that the introduction of open economic reforms in the country cannot be dichotomized from the tacit encouragement of nationalist forces that led to the outbreak of the civil war. In his analysis of the continued twinning of ca... Read More about Accumulation through nationalism: the politics of profit in “neoliberal” Sri Lanka.

General intelligence does not help us understand cognitive evolution (2017)
Journal Article
Shuker, D. M., Barrett, L., Dickins, T. E., Scott-Phillips, T. C., & Barton, R. A. (2017). General intelligence does not help us understand cognitive evolution. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 40, Article e218. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0140525x16001771

Burkart et al. conflate the domain-specificity of cognitive processes with the statistical pattern of variance in behavioural measures that partly reflect those processes. General intelligence is a statistical abstraction, not a cognitive trait, and... Read More about General intelligence does not help us understand cognitive evolution.

Inferring patterns of folktale diffusion using genomic data (2017)
Journal Article
Bortolini, E., Pagani, L., Crema, E. R., Sarno, S., Barbieri, C., Boattini, A., …Tehrani, J. J. (2017). Inferring patterns of folktale diffusion using genomic data. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(34), 9140-9145. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1614395114

Observable patterns of cultural variation are consistently intertwined with demic movements, cultural diffusion, and adaptation to different ecological contexts [Cavalli-Sforza and Feldman (1981) Cultural Transmission and Evolution: A Quantitative Ap... Read More about Inferring patterns of folktale diffusion using genomic data.

Coevolution of cultural intelligence, extended life history, sociality, and brain size in primates (2017)
Journal Article
Street, S., Navarrete, A., Reader, S., & Laland, K. (2017). Coevolution of cultural intelligence, extended life history, sociality, and brain size in primates. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(30), 7908-7914. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1620734114

Explanations for primate brain expansion and the evolution of human cognition and culture remain contentious despite extensive research. While multiple comparative analyses have investigated variation in brain size across primate species, very few ha... Read More about Coevolution of cultural intelligence, extended life history, sociality, and brain size in primates.

Is Overimitation a Uniquely Human Phenomenon? Insights From Human Children as Compared to Bonobos (2017)
Journal Article
Clay, Z., & Tennie, C. (2018). Is Overimitation a Uniquely Human Phenomenon? Insights From Human Children as Compared to Bonobos. Child Development, 89(5), 1535-1544. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12857

Imitation is a key mechanism of human culture and underlies many of the intricacies of human social life, including rituals and social norms. Compared to other animals, humans appear to be special in their readiness to copy novel actions as well as t... Read More about Is Overimitation a Uniquely Human Phenomenon? Insights From Human Children as Compared to Bonobos.

Father absence and gendered traits in sons and daughters (2017)
Journal Article
Boothroyd, L. G., & Cross, C. P. (2017). Father absence and gendered traits in sons and daughters. PLoS ONE, 12(7), Article e0179954. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0179954

Research has previously found a number of apparently contradictory patterns in the relationship between ‘father absence’ (having a non-resident father during childhood) and the expression of gender roles, as well as other sexually dimorphic traits su... Read More about Father absence and gendered traits in sons and daughters.

Cognitive Evolution and the Transmission of Popular Narratives: A Literature Review and Application to Urban Legends (2017)
Journal Article
Stubbersfield, J., Flynn, E., & Tehrani, J. (2017). Cognitive Evolution and the Transmission of Popular Narratives: A Literature Review and Application to Urban Legends. Evolutionary studies in imaginative culture, 1(1), 121-136. https://doi.org/10.26613/esic.1.1.20

Recent research into cultural transmission suggests that humans are disposed to learn, remember, and transmit certain types of information more easily than others, and that any information that is passed between people will be subjected to cognitive... Read More about Cognitive Evolution and the Transmission of Popular Narratives: A Literature Review and Application to Urban Legends.

A New Trait-Based Model of Child-to-Parent Aggression (2017)
Journal Article
Kuay, H. S., Tiffin, P. A., Boothroyd, L. G., Towl, G. J., & Centifanti, L. C. (2017). A New Trait-Based Model of Child-to-Parent Aggression. Adolescent Research Review, 2(3), 199-211. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40894-017-0061-4

Incidents of child-to-parent aggression have been the most under-researched area of domestic violence. The risk factors for child-to-parent aggression are still unknown. This article reviews risk factors that might explain aggression among adolescent... Read More about A New Trait-Based Model of Child-to-Parent Aggression.