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Recursive Combination Has Adaptability in Diversifiability of Production and Material Culture.
Genta Toya1, Takashi Hashimoto1
1School of Knowledge Science, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Nomi, Japan.
Frontiers in Psychology
|October 5, 2018
Summary
Recursive combination, key to human language and culture, enhances production and product diversity. This ability, rare in animals, evolved in environments favoring varied outputs and robust creation processes.
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary Psychology
- Cognitive Science
- Computational Biology
Background:
- Hierarchically structured symbols, characteristic of human language, are theorized to arise from recursive combination.
- Recursive combination is prevalent in human behaviors like language, action, and technology, but scarce in animals, prompting questions about its evolutionary origins and adaptability.
Purpose of the Study:
- To identify environmental factors that favor recursive combination for survival and reproduction, thus driving its evolution.
- To demonstrate potential evolutionary pathways for recursive combination.
Main Methods:
- An evolutionary simulation was developed with agents employing recursive combination to generate products.
- Fitness functions, simulating adaptive environments, were analyzed to determine conditions favoring the emergence of recursive combination.
Main Results:
- Two key adaptabilities of recursive combination were identified: diversifiability of production and diversifiability of products.
- Recursive combination enhances production robustness against errors and supports the creation of diverse products in environments where variety is advantageous.
Conclusions:
- Recursive combination is proposed as a driving force for material culture and human cognitive evolution.
- The study suggests recursive combination's evolutionary trajectory, potentially generalizing to various human cognitive functions, including language.
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