Portland State University First Thursday -- Presentation Slides

I’m off to Portland State University tomorrow, to give a talk in their “First Thursday” series, at 4pm in Smith 296. If you’re in the neighborhood, please join us. If not, here are links to the slides I’ll be using, including the version with notes (which help with some of the minimalist image-based slides).

My goal is threefold:

1. Introduce formal models of cultural transmission without mathematical detail or the guts of simulation models.
2. Summarize some of the ways in which formal CT models are ripe for expansion.
3. Give a short introduction to my recent researches into “coarse grained” models of CT, focusing on temporal aggregation and fitting CT models to time averaged data from archaeological deposits.

CT models are ripe for expansion along several dimensions, and I’m going to mention and (very) briefly outline a couple:

1. Richer models of social learning, including embodiment of learning through artifacts and niche construction
2. Formal modeling of the structured relationship between cultural traits (i.e., getting away from the “allele at locus models” we use at present)
3. The ability to view models at multiple temporal scales and using different classifications as observable “filters”

Presentation slides: available in various formats