Cultural Transmission and the Ratchet Effect

Student Name: Sherry Fraser

Blog Title: Cultural Transmission and the Ratchet Effect

When first listening to Tomasselo's ideas of “cultural transmission”, “ratchet effect”, and “social learning” in our Life Learning Processes Class, I was unsure where we were headed with this topic and why it was important to understand its importance relating to life long learning processes. As we discussed such concepts in detail, I began identifying with their meanings from examples in todays society, this allowed me to better understand their importance in the development of cognitive learning in humans. My attempt in this Blog is to give personal and modern culture examples of these concepts, first I will explain these concepts and their importance.

In the book “The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition”, Tomasello defines Cultural Transmission as an evolutionary process that allows animals to save time, effort and risk by using the already existing knowledge and skills of its fellow animal culture. He states that this, is a common practice is most animals ranging from dogs, ants, whales, chimps, and epically humans. (Tomasello, 1999 Page 4) But the degree of cultural transmission in humans is far more complex then found in other animals and this is the reason why humans have been able to move through stages of human cognitive development so quickly.

I feel that we first began to pass on our cultural/social learning to our children the minute we hold them in our arms; some would even argue that it happens even before this during pregnancy. Some parents today play music to their children in the womb believing that they will recognize it when they are born. My point is that the desire for humans to provide cultural learning experiences for our children starts as early as birth and continues all through their lives. Human cultural transmission has lead to other process like “ratchet effect” when it comes to the sharing of human knowledge and skills.

As Tomasello details in his book “The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition”, the ratchet effect is more then just when humans, use and improve on the techniques, skills and tools of the generation before them but it is also the cultural activities and social connections that take place in society. (Tomasello, 1999 Page 7) That is, humans work and live together while sharing knowledge, relationships and resources not only increases the survival rates but also increases rates of learning. Tomasello feels that it is these collective sharing of knowledge and social learning that defines humans as being different from other animal species and allows the continued growth of cognitive development.

The first homo sapiens would have had a need for not only themselves to survive but also for their close group/family members as well. Today we have the same instincts but in a different context. We continuously try and ratchet up the knowledge of our children and ourselves. We no longer need to survive in the most primal sense but we need to survive in an economic and social sense. In any society there is a set of rules that we abide by, the same is true for us now as it was for early homo sapiens. For example, many parents want not only good learning opportunities for their children but they want a variety of best experiences for them so that they not only just survive but but excel in society. They do this by giving educational toys, enrolling in a variety of extracurricular activities and saving for their future education.

A personal example of the “Ratchet Effect” comes from my community in northern Cape Breton. I come from a small fishing village, where it is common for there to be 4 generations living cooperatively in one household sharing resources and culture. In this example is my grandfather that had a Fishing Licence that my father now holds and will pass on to my brother, along with the passing of the licence came knowledge of how to fish in the ocean off northern Cape Breton. Both father's have taught their sons many aspects to fishing; one of these aspects is how to follow the contours of the land to understand the coastal ocean bottom when setting Lobster Traps. This knowledge of the best lobster fishing locations was discovered by my grandfather over 50 years ago and was then taught to my father and currently my father is teaching it to my brother. This fishing knowledge has been improved upon by each son through each generation, my father switched from wooden traps to wire traps, my brother introduced more technological equipmet to aid with fishing, like a GPS Unit. This is a modern day example of Ratchet Effect, making it easy to understand how we build on the learning from one generation to the next generation, continuously improving on what has come before them.

In Tomasello book “The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition”, has far more examples of process of “cultural transmission”, “ratchet effect”, and “social learning” and he details why they are still in place today as we change and evolve our cognitive development. The cognitive processes of humans is what has allowed humans to survive and flourish through history and into tomorrow. Humans are always continuously building up knowledge in their society to better their own way of life, from small fishing villages to taking classes at university.

Sherry Fraser

Lifelong Learning Process

GSLL 6206 01

21/1/2012