PSYC14H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Imitative Learning, Encephalization Quotient
Document Summary
Culture is symbolic coding, it has signals, icons, and words that refer to something else that most members of that culture recognize. However this definition can be circular and only attributing it to humans. Broader definition: humans unique in being able to learn info from other members of their species through social transmission. Compared to humans, everyone else is slow in learning culture. Humans unique among other species in whom they choose to imitate, they"re concerned with detecting prestige so they seek who have skills and are respected by others, and then try to imitate what these individuals are doing. Humans" unusually sophisticated cultural learning skills rest on 2 keys capacities: ability to consider the perspective of others and ability to communicate with language. Theory of mind: ppl understand tht others have minds tht are different from their own, and thus that other ppl have perspectives and intentions that are different from their own.