文化演化的认知视角——从个体社会学习出发探究文化动态性

文化演化是多学科共同关心的文化研究主题。文化演化的认知视角是心理学家切入该研究主题的一种方式, 它着眼于社会文化环境中的个体认知, 研究个体在社会学习过程中对文化信息的加工、改变、记忆与提取。文化演化的认知视角借用达尔文生物演化理论, 涉及文化传承、创新、选择三个子领域, 提出了文化演化的三原则: 遗传、变异、选择。文化传承的路径包括模仿和教导, 类型分为工具性与习俗性文化传承; 文化创新具有层次性, 人类特有的累积性文化演化建立在文化创新的基础之上, 体现了文化创新的代际传递; 基于行为生态学和人类认知机制的文化选择造成了文化信息的差异化适应。未来研究可以从研究概念、研究思路、研究方法三方面推进认知视角下的文化演化研究, 探索更高层次的文化创新, 扩展文化演化的前因变量, 结合新技术加深对文化演化的理解; 发挥文化演化对文化心理学研究的助推作用, 研究文化混搭、个性心理特征对文化演化的影响。

The cognitive perspective of cultural evolution: Exploring cultural dynamics from the view of social learning

Cultural evolution is a topic of concern for multiple disciplines. The cognitive perspective is a way for psychologists to enter into this domain. It focuses on individual cognition in the social and cultural environment, while studying the processing, change, memory, and extraction of cultural information in individual social learning. Drawing on Darwin’s theory of biological evolution, it involves cultural inheritance, cultural innovation, and cultural selection, additionally it proposes three principles of cultural evolution, i.e. inheritance, variation, and selection. The paths of cultural inheritance include imitation and teaching, as well as the specific types of instrumental cultural inheritance and conventional cultural inheritance. Cultural innovation is hierarchical, and cumulative cultural evolution, which is peculiar to human beings, is based on cultural innovation and reflects the intergenerational transmission of cultural innovation. Cultural selection based on behavioral ecology and the human cognitive mechanism would result in differential adaptation of cultural information. Future studies could explore higher levels of cultural innovation, expand the antecedent variables of cultural evolution, and deepen the understanding of cultural evolution with new technologies. In addition, future research could promote the study of cultural psychology, study the influence of cultural mixing, and the effect of personality on cultural evolution.