Humans use compression heuristics to improve the recall of social networks.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Brashears ME
PROVIDER: S-EPMC3604710 | biostudies-literature | 2013
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Humans use compression heuristics to improve the recall of social networks.
Scientific reports 20130101
The ability of primates, including humans, to maintain large social networks appears to depend on the ratio of the neocortex to the rest of the brain. However, observed human network size frequently exceeds predictions based on this ratio (e.g., "Dunbar's Number"), implying that human networks are too large to be cognitively managed. Here I show that humans adaptively use compression heuristics to allow larger amounts of social information to be stored in the same brain volume. I find that human ...[more]
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Project description:[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0216329.].
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