Dataset Information

Cultural transmission in a food preparation task: The role of interactivity, innovation and storytelling.

ABSTRACT: Interactive conversation drives the transmission of cultural information in small groups and large networks. In formal (e.g. schools) and informal (e.g. home) learning settings, interactivity does not only allow individuals and groups to faithfully transmit and learn new knowledge and skills, but also to boost cumulative cultural evolution. Here we investigate how interactivity affects performance, teaching, learning, innovation and chosen diffusion mode (e.g. instructional discourse vs. storytelling) of previously acquired information in a transmission chain experiment. In our experiment, participants (n = 288) working in 48 chains with three generations of pairs had to learn and complete a collaborative food preparation task (ravioli-making), and then transmit their experience to a new generation of participants in an interactive and non-interactive condition. Food preparation is a real-world task that it is taught and learned across cultures and transmitted over generations in families and groups. Pairs were defined as teachers or learners depending on their role in the transmission chain. The number of good exemplars of ravioli each pair produced was taken as measurement of performance. Contrary to our expectations, the results did not reveal that (1) performance increased over generations or that (2) interactivity in transmission sessions promoted increased performance. However, the results showed that (3) interactivity promoted the transmission of more information from teachers to learners; (4) increased quantity of information transmission from teachers led to higher performance in learners; (5) higher performance generations introduced more innovations in transmission sessions; (6) learners applied those transmitted innovations to their performance which made them persist over generations; (7) storytelling was specialized for the transmission of non-routine, unexpected information. Our findings offer new insights on how interactivity, innovation and storytelling affect the cultural transmission of complex collaborative tasks.

SUBMITTER: Bietti LM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6750589 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Cultural transmission in a food preparation task: The role of interactivity, innovation and storytelling.

Bietti Lucas M LM Bangerter Adrian A Knutsen Dominique D Mayor Eric E

PloS one 20190918 9

Interactive conversation drives the transmission of cultural information in small groups and large networks. In formal (e.g. schools) and informal (e.g. home) learning settings, interactivity does not only allow individuals and groups to faithfully transmit and learn new knowledge and skills, but also to boost cumulative cultural evolution. Here we investigate how interactivity affects performance, teaching, learning, innovation and chosen diffusion mode (e.g. instructional discourse vs. storyte ...[more]

PMID: 31532770

Similar Datasets

Project description:During a narrative discourse, accessibility of the referents is rarely fixed once and for all. Rather, each referent varies in accessibility as the discourse unfolds, depending on the presence and prominence of the other referents. This leads the speaker to use various referential expressions to refer to the main protagonists of the story at different moments in the narrative. This study relies on a new, collaborative storytelling in sequence task designed to assess how speakers adjust their referential choices when they refer to different characters at specific discourse stages corresponding to the introduction, maintaining, or shift of the character in focus, in increasingly complex referential contexts. Referential complexity of the stories was manipulated through variations in the number of characters (1 vs. 2) and, for stories in which there were two characters, in their ambiguity in gender (different vs. same gender). Data were coded for the type of reference markers as well as the type of reference content (i.e., the extent of the information provided in the referential expression). Results showed that, beyond the expected effects of discourse stages on reference markers (more indefinite markers at the introduction stage, more pronouns at the maintaining stage, and more definite markers at the shift stage), the number of characters and their ambiguity in gender also modulated speakers' referential choices at specific discourse stages, For the maintaining stage, an effect of the number of characters was observed for the use of pronouns and of definite markers, with more pronouns when there was a single character, sometimes replaced by definite expressions when two characters were present in the story. For the shift stage, an effect of gender ambiguity was specifically noted for the reference content with more specific information provided in the referential expression when there was referential ambiguity. Reference content is an aspect of referential marking that is rarely addressed in a narrative context, yet it revealed a quite flexible referential behavior by the speakers.

Project description:BackgroundMental illness stigma has been a global concern, owing to its adverse effects on the recovery of people with mental illness, and may delay help-seeking for mental health because of the concern of being stigmatized. With technological advancement, internet-based interventions for the reduction of mental illness stigma have been developed, and these effects have been promising.ObjectiveThis study aimed to examine the differential effects of internet-based storytelling programs, which varied in the levels of interactivity and stigma content, in reducing mental illness stigma.MethodsUsing an experimental design, this study compared the effects of 4 storytelling websites that varied in the levels of interactivity and stigma content. Specifically, the conditions included an interactive website with stigma-related content (combo condition), a noninteractive website with stigma-related content (stigma condition), an interactive website without stigma-related content (interact condition), and a noninteractive website without stigma-related content (control condition). Participants were recruited via mass emails to all students and staff of a public university and via social networking sites. Eligible participants were randomized into the following four conditions: combo (n=67), stigma (n=65), interact (n=64), or control (n=67). The participants of each group viewed the respective web pages at their own pace. Public stigma, microaggression, and social distance were measured on the web before the experiment, after the experiment, and at the 1-week follow-up. Perceived autonomy and immersiveness, as mediators, were assessed after the experiment.ResultsBoth the combo (n=66) and stigma (n=65) conditions were effective in reducing public stigma and microaggression toward people with mental illness after the experiment and at the 1-week follow-up. However, none of the conditions had significant time×condition effects in reducing the social distance from people with mental illness. The interact condition (n=64) significantly reduced public stigma after the experiment (P=.02) but not at the 1-week follow-up (P=.22). The control condition (n=67) did not significantly reduce all outcomes associated with mental illness stigma. Perceived autonomy was found to mediate the effect of public stigma (P=.56), and immersiveness mediated the effect of microaggression (P=.99).ConclusionsInternet-based storytelling programs with stigma-related content and interactivity elicited the largest effects in stigma reduction, including reductions in public stigma and microaggression, although only its difference with internet-based storytelling programs with stigma-related content was not statistically significant. In other words, although interactivity could strengthen the stigma reduction effect, stigma-related content was more critical than interactivity in reducing stigma. Future stigma reduction efforts should prioritize the production of effective stigma content on their web pages, followed by considering the value of incorporating interactivity in future internet-based storytelling programs.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT05333848; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT05333848.

Dataset Information

Cultural transmission in a food preparation task: The role of interactivity, innovation and storytelling.

Publications

Cultural transmission in a food preparation task: The role of interactivity, innovation and storytelling.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets