Cover not available
Article published In:
Interaction Studies
Vol. 16:1 (2015) ► pp.118–140

External stores

Simulating the evolution of storing goods and its effects on human behaviour

| School of Psychology, Plymouth University, UK, PL48AA | Centre for Robotics & Neural Systems and Cognition Institute, Plymouth University, UK, PL48AA | Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, National Research Council of Rome, Italy, 00185 |
| Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, National Research Council of Rome, Italy, 00185 |
| Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, National Research Council of Rome, Italy, 00185 |

Human beings possess external stores in which they put all sorts of goods to use them at some later time. In this paper we investigate this typically human adaptation using agent-based simulations. We show that the use of external stores explains many aspects of human life, allowing the agents to reduce their dependence on both the environment and the current state of their body and to be more efficient in extracting the energy contained in the environment. We analyse the spatial behaviour of agents with external stores located in specific positions of the environment and we find that these agents tend to develop a sedentary life. We discuss how stores can be at the origin of many human mental and social phenomena such as the acquisition of a more extended temporal perspective, specialisation in producing different types of goods, and exchange of goods.

Keywords: External, stores, agent-based simulation, evolutionary robotics, sedentarism
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The usefulness of external stores
    • 2.1 Methods
    • 2.2 Results
    • 2.3 Discussion and further analysis
  • 3.Sedentary life
    • 3.1 Methods
    • 3.2 Results
    • 3.3 Discussion
    • 3.4 Sedentary behaviour
  • 4.Summary of results and general discussion
    • 4.1 Future work
    • 4.2 Social stores and central stores
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgement
  • References
Published online: 17 August 2015
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/is.16.1.06bis
References
Acerbi, A., & Parisi, D
(2007) The evolution of pain. In F. Almeida e Costa, et al. (Eds.), Advances in artificial life. Proceedings of ECAL 2007 (pp. 816–824). Berlin: Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2006) Cultural transmission between and within generations. Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, 9(1), 9. [URL]Google Scholar
Bartlett, M., & Kazakov, D
(2004) The role of environment structure in multi-agent simulations of language evolution. Proc. of the 4th Symposium on Adaptive Agents and Multi-Agent Systems (AAMAS 2004) , pp. 2–9.
(2005) The origins of syntax: From navigation to language. Connection Science, 17(3–4), 271–288. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bean, L.J., & Lawton, H.W
(1973) Some explanations for the rise of cultural complexity in native California with comments on proto_agriculture and agriculture. In H. Lweis (Ed.), Patterns of Indian Burning in California: Ecology and Ethno-history (pp. v–xvii). Ballena Press Anthropological Papers 1. Ramona, California.Google Scholar
Cecconi, F., Denaro, D., Parisi, D., & Piazzalunga, U
(1994) Social aggregation in evolving neural networks. In C. Castelfranchi & E. Werner (Eds.), Artifical Social Systems (pp. 41–54). New York: Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cecconi, F., & Parisi, D
(1998) Individual versus social survival strategies. Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, 11, [URL]Google Scholar
Colson, E
(1980) In good years and bad: food strategies of self-reliant societies. Journal of Anthropological Research, 351, 1–29.Google Scholar
Charnov, E.L
(1976) Optimal foraging, the marginal value theorem. Theoretical Population Biology, 91, 129–136. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Csibra, G., & Gergely, G
(2006) Social learning and social cognition: The case for pedagogy. Processes of change in brain and cognitive development, attention and performance, XXI1, 249–274Google Scholar
Da Rold, F., Petrosino, G., & Parisi, D
(2011) Male and female agents. Adaptive Behaviour, 191, 317–334. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Denaro, D., & Parisi, D
(1997) Cultural evolution in a population of neural networks. In Neural Nets WIRN VIETRI-96 (pp. 100–111). Springer London. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dougherty, P.J., Grubb, T.J., & Bronson, C.L
(1996) Territories and caching-related behaviour of red-headed woodpeckers wintering in a beech grove. The Wilson Bulletin, 1081, 740–747.Google Scholar
Flannery, K.V
(1969) Origins and ecological effects of early domestication in Iran and the Near East. In P.J. Ucko & G.W. Dimbleby (Eds.), The domestication and exploitation of plants and animals (pp. 73–100). Chicago: Aldine.Google Scholar
(1972) The origins of the village as a settlement type in Mesoamerica and the Near East: A comparative study. In P.J. Ucko, R. Tringham, & G.W. Dimbleby (Eds.), Man, settlement, and urbanism. London: Duckworth.Google Scholar
Fine, L.T., Lauritzen, S.L., Jordan, M., Lawless, J., & Nair, V
(1999) Feedforward neural network methodology. Secaucus, NJ: Springer-Verlag New York, Inc.Google Scholar
Gergely, G., & Csibra, G
(2005) The social construction of the cultural mind: Imitative learning as a mechanism of human pedagogy. Interaction Studies, 6(3), 463–481. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hampton, R.R., & Sherry, D.F
(1994) The effects of cache loss on choice of cache sites in the black-capped chickadee. Behavioral Ecology, 51, 44–50. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hassan, F.A
(1975) Determination of the size, density and growth rate of hunting-gathering populations. In S. Polgar (Ed.), Population, ecology, and social evolution. Paris: Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hawkes, H., Hill, K., & O’Connell, J
(1982) Why hunters gather: Optimal foraging and the Aché of eastern Paraguay. American Ethnologist, 91, 379–398. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Heyes, C.M., & Foster, C.L
(2002) Motor learning by observation: Evidence from a serial reaction time task. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. A, Human Experimental Psychology, 55(2), 593–607. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ingold, T
(1983) The significance of storage in hunting societies. Man, 181, 553–571. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
John, G
(1984) Home range, territoriality, caching behaviour, and food supply of the red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus fremonti) in a subalpine lodgepole pine forest. Animal Behaviour, 321, 1119–1131. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jordan, A.T
(1974) Semi-sedentary hunters and gatherers and the beginnings of agriculture. Papers in Anthropology (University of Oklahome), 15(2),108–16.Google Scholar
Koenig, W.D., & Mumme, R.L
(1987) Population ecology of the cooperatively breeding acorn woodpecker. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN: 0691084645Google Scholar
Kuijt, I
(2009) What do we really know about food storage, surplus, and feasting in preagricultural communities? Current Anthropology, 50(5), 641–644. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kuijt, I., & Finlayson, B
(2009) Evidence for food storage and predomestication granaries 11.000 years ago in the Jordan Valley. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science , 1061, 10966–10970. DOI logo
Meltzoff, A., & Gopnik, A
(1993) The Role of Imitation in Understanding Persons and Developing a Theory of Mind. Understanding Other Minds. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mondada, F., Franzi, E., & Guignard, A
(1999) The development of Khepera. In F. Loeffler, F. Mondada, & U. Rueckert (Eds.), Proceedings of the First International Khepera Workshop. Paderbom, Germany.Google Scholar
Mitchell, M
(1998) An introduction to genetic algorithms (Complex Adaprive System). Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mitchell, T
(1997) Machine learning: A guide to current research. McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Nolfi, S., & Gigliotta, O
(2010) Evoagent: A tool for running experiments on the evolution of communication. In S. Nolfi & M. Mirolli (Eds.), Evolution of communication and language in embodied agents. Berlin: Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nolfi, S., & Floreano, D
(2000) Evolutionary robotics. Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2002) Synthesis of autonomous robots through evolution. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 6(1), 31–37. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Parisi, D
(1997) What to do with a surplus. In R. Conte, P. Terna, & R. Hegselmann (Eds.), Simulating social phenomena. Berlin: Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Parisi, D., & Carmantini, G.S
(2013) Agents that specialize and make exchanges. In Artificial Life (ALIFE), 2013 IEEE Symposium on (pp. 120–125). IEEE. DOI logo
Parisi, D
(2014) Future robots. Towards a robotic science of human beings. Amsterdam: John Bejiamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pravosudov, V.V., & Lucas, J.R
(2001) A re-evaluation of the logic of pilferage effects, predation risk and environmental variability on avian energy regulation: The critical role of time budgets. Behavioral Ecology, 121, 246–260. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Redman, C.L
(1977) Man, domestication, and culture in south-western Asia. In C.A. Reed (Ed.), Origins of agriculture. Paris: Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Reed, C.A
(1969) The pattern of animal domestication in the prehistoric Near East. In C.A. Reed (Ed.), The domestication and exploitation of plants and animals. Paris: Mouton.Google Scholar
(1977a) A model for the origin of agriculture in the Near East. In C.A. Reed (Ed.), Origins of agriculture. Paris: Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(1977b) Origins of agriculture: Discussion and some conclusions. In C.A. Reed (Ed.), Origins of agriculture. Paris: Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sahlins, M.D
(1972) Stone age economics. Chicago: Aldine. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Soley, F., & Alvarado-Diaz, I
(2011) Prospective thinking in a mustelid? Eira Barbara (Carnivora) cache unripe fruit to consume them when ripened. Naturwissenschaften, 981, 693–698. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Taylor, W.W
(1973) Storage and the neolithic revolution. In Professor Dr. Luis Pericot (Ed.), Estudios dedicados al. Barcelona: Instituto de Arueologia y Prehistoria, Universidad de Barcelona.Google Scholar
Testart, A
(1982) The significance of food storage among hunter-gatherers: residence patterns, population densities, and social inequalities. Current Anthropology, 251, 523–537. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(1988) Food storage among hunter-gatherers: More or less security in the way of life. In I. De Garine & G.A. Harrison (Eds.), Coping with uncertainty in food supply (pp. 170–174). Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Tuci, E., Quinn, M. & Harvey, I
(2003) An evolutionary ecological approach to the study of learning behaviour using a robot based model. Adaptive Behavior, 101, 201–222. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Vander Wall, S.B
(1990) Food hoarding in animals. Chicago: Chicago University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Vander Wall, S.B., & Jenkins, S.H
(2003) Reciprocal pilferage and the evolution of food-hoarding behaviour. Behavioural Ecology, 141, 544–549. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
De Vries, H.D., & Biesmeijer, J.C
(1998) Modelling collective foraging by means of individual behaviour rules in honey-bees. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 44(2) 109–124. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Winterhalder, B., & Kennet, D.J
(2009) Four neglected concepts with a role to play in explaining the origins of agriculture. Current Anthropology, 501, 645–648. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 1 other publications

Barceló, Juan A. & Florencia Del Castillo
2016. Simulating the Past for Understanding the Present. A Critical Review. In Simulating Prehistoric and Ancient Worlds [Computational Social Sciences, ], ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 31 march 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.