[QSB-grads] CIS Seminar Friday Nov. 4: Cristine Legare

[Paul Smaldino]

Hi all,

We will be having a special seminar next Friday, November 4, at 12pm in SSM
317. Our visiting speaker is Dr. Cristine Legare
<http://www.cristinelegare.com/>, from the University of Texas, Austin.

Dr. Legare is a cognitive scientist who studies on the ontogeny of cultural
learning. Her work takes a sort of evo-devo perspective on social learning
in humans, and integrates perspectives from psychology, anthropology, and
evolutionary ecology. I'm assuming there may be broad interest in this talk
around campus, thus I'm advertising this broadly.

Please share this announcement with any interested parties. Full abstract
below, flyer attached. Please email me with any questions.

-Paul



*The Ontogeny of Cultural Learning*

Humans are a social species and much of what we know we learn from others.
To be effective and efficient learners, children must be selective about
when to innovate, when to imitate, and to what degree. In the first part of
my talk I will describe a systematic program of interdisciplinary,
mixed-methodological, and cross-cultural research on how children flexibly
use imitation and innovation as dual engines of cultural learning. Imitation
is multifunctional; it is used to learn both instrumental skills and
cultural conventions such as rituals. I propose that the psychological
system supporting the acquisition of instrumental skills and cultural
conventions is driven by two modes of interpretation: an instrumental
stance (i.e., interpretation based on physical causation) and a ritual
stance (i.e., interpretation based on social convention). I will discuss
cross-cultural research in the U.S. and Vanuatu (a Melanesian archipelago)
on the interplay of imitation and innovation in early childhood. Examining
cultural variation in child socialization has the unique potential to
inform the development of new theoretical perspectives on cultural
learning.


Convergent developments across social scientific disciplines provide
evidence that ritual is a psychologically prepared, culturally inherited,
behavioral trademark of our species. In the second part of my talk I will
draw upon the anthropological and evolutionary science literatures to
provide a psychological account of the social functions of ritual. Solving
the adaptive problems associated with group living requires psychological
mechanisms for identifying group members, ensuring their commitment to the
group, facilitating cooperation with their coalition, and maintaining group
cohesion. I will examine evidence that the threat of social exclusion and
loss of status motivates engagement in ritual throughout development and
provide an account of the ontogeny of ritual cognition. The intersection of
these lines of inquiry promises to provide new avenues for theory and
research on the evolution and ontogeny of social group cognition.


______________________________________________________________
Paul Smaldino, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Cognitive and Information Sciences
University of California, Merced
http://www.smaldino.com
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