Cultural transmission between and within generations

Abstract

We describe some simulations that compare cultural transmission between and within generations (inter-generational vs intra-generational transmission) in populations of embodied agents controlled by neural networks. Our results suggest that intra-generational transmission has the role of adding variability to the evolutionary process and that this function seems particularly useful when the population lives in a rapidly changing environment. Adaptation to environmental change is slower if cultural transmission is purely inter-generational while it is faster if a certain amount of intra-generational cultural transmission makes it possible to remove earlier and no longer suitable behaviors, facilitating the emergence of new and more appropriate ones.