Sociality & Communication: Evolutionary Perspectives

Humans and other group-living species, such as bees, songbirds, nonhuman primates and dolphins (to name a few) face a number of challenges. Sociality provides benefits to individuals but also exposes them to conflicts and competition. Understanding how these challenges are resolved is one of the most dynamic areas of research in evolutionary biology and comparative and developmental psychology. This course looks at sociality from an evolutionary perspective and focuses on how animals - humans included – use communication to live and cooperate with others (as well as deceive and manipulate them). It builds on topics discussed in the year 2 course, PSYC21031 (Evolution of Behaviour and Cognition).

We will look at sociality and how various species deal with the challenges of group living, with a focus on evolutionary and game theoretical approaches. We will also look at how communication helps solve some of the problems with sociality and at the evolution of different forms of communication (including human language, and non-human communication like birdsong and primate vocalisations, and cultural transmission of ideas). This module focuses primarily on research that compares humans and non-humans and that looks at how humans develop during their lifetime but we also bring in diverse work from other fields (e.g., economics, anthropology, genetics) to provide a comprehensive, integrated understanding of human evolution.

This is an optional Final Year unit for the BSc Psychology programme. 

This unit aims to address the following questions:  

• Why live in groups?  
• How do animals solve challenges of group living?  
• Have humans evolved a unique solution to the problem of cooperation?  
• How can game theory help us understand cooperation?  
• How does communication figure into the equation?  
• How do other animals communicate?  
• In what ways is human communication special?  
• How do humans learn to communicate and to read others' intentions?  
• What is the role of imitation in communication?  
• What is the relationship between gestures and speaking in human evolution and development?  
• How does communication aid cooperation, and how does cooperation facilitate the evolution of communication?  
• What is culture, why is it important for sociality, and do other species exhibit it? 

This course will include:  

• 11 x 2-hour lectures
• 11 x 1-hour small group seminars/reading groups

Lecture content (e.g., lecture recordings through the University Lecture Capture), supplementary reading and resources, and a monitored discussion board will be provided.

Feedback will be provided on the coursework essay before research proposal. 

• Identify and discuss the role of evolution and culture in communication and language, the role of language and other forms of communication on the emergence of cooperation and sociality.    
• Reflect on the content of empirical research and extract and summarize key points
• Synthesise literature on the cognitive requirements for evolving language and social living. 

• Explain the ethical and methodological issues related to testing non-humans, children, and participants from diverse groups (e.g., hunter-gatherer communities).
• Identify open questions that can be addressed with empirical research and devise ways to effectively answer those questions in a convincing manner.
• Critically evaluate different, sometimes conflicting theories, on the evolution of language in humans and whether language, or components in it, exist in other animals and whether sociality is uniquely human and universal. 

• Independently gather and select the most relevant information from a body of work through online and library sources. 

• Engage in group discussions and make contributions to a collective goal.
• Demonstrate and improve critical thinking via group discussions.
• Work in a self-directed manner as an independent learner to achieve stated goals
• Produce a written evaluation of research for an educated audience using concise and persuasive arguments. 

Students will receive a grade and written feedback 20 working days after the final submission deadline.

• Call, J., & Tomasello, M. (2008). Does the chimpanzee have a theory of mind? 30 years later. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 12, 187-192.  
• Davies, N. B., Krebs, J. R., & West, S. A. (2012). An Introduction to Behavioural Ecology (4th ed.). Chichester, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.  
• Hauser, M. D. (1996). The Evolution of Communication. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Herrmann, E., Call, J., Hernández-Lloreda, M. V., Hare, B., & Tomasello, M. (2007). Humans have evolved specialized skills of social cognition: The cultural intelligence hypothesis. Science, 317, 1360-1366.  
• Jensen, K. (2012). Social regard: Evolving a psychology of cooperation. In J. Mitani, J. Call, P. Kappeler, R. Palombit & J. Silk (Eds.), The Evolution of Primate Societies. Chicago, USA: Chicago University Press.
• Lieven, E. (in press). Language acquisition as a cultural process. In P.Richerson & M. Christiansen (eds.) Cultural Evolution. Ernst Strüngmann Forum (available on request) Marler, P., & Slabbekoorn, H. (2004). Nature's Music: The Science of Birdsong. London, UK: Elsevier Academic Press.  
• Searcy, W. A., & Nowicki, S. (2005). The Evolution of Animal Communication: Reliability   
  and Deception in Signaling Systems. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
• Tomasello, M. (2008). Origins of Human Communication. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.