Cultural evolution via iterated learning and communication explains efficient color naming systems

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Carlsson, Emil, Dubhashi, Devdatt, Regier, Terry
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
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author Carlsson, Emil
Dubhashi, Devdatt
Regier, Terry
author_facet Carlsson, Emil
Dubhashi, Devdatt
Regier, Terry
contents It has been argued that semantic systems reflect pressure for efficiency, and a current debate concerns the cultural evolutionary process that produces this pattern. We consider efficiency as instantiated in the Information Bottleneck (IB) principle, and a model of cultural evolution that combines iterated learning and communication. We show that this model, instantiated in neural networks, converges to color naming systems that are efficient in the IB sense and similar to human color naming systems. We also show that some other proposals such as iterated learning alone, communication alone, or the greater learnability of convex categories, do not yield the same outcome as clearly. We conclude that the combination of iterated learning and communication provides a plausible means by which human semantic systems become efficient.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2305_10154
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Cultural evolution via iterated learning and communication explains efficient color naming systems
Carlsson, Emil
Dubhashi, Devdatt
Regier, Terry
Computation and Language
It has been argued that semantic systems reflect pressure for efficiency, and a current debate concerns the cultural evolutionary process that produces this pattern. We consider efficiency as instantiated in the Information Bottleneck (IB) principle, and a model of cultural evolution that combines iterated learning and communication. We show that this model, instantiated in neural networks, converges to color naming systems that are efficient in the IB sense and similar to human color naming systems. We also show that some other proposals such as iterated learning alone, communication alone, or the greater learnability of convex categories, do not yield the same outcome as clearly. We conclude that the combination of iterated learning and communication provides a plausible means by which human semantic systems become efficient.
title Cultural evolution via iterated learning and communication explains efficient color naming systems
topic Computation and Language
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.10154