1. The major transitions (JMS & ES, 1995) * * * * * These transitions are regarded to be ‘difficult’

2. Three interwoven processes Note the different time-scales involved Cultural transmission: language transmits itself as well as other things A novel inheritance system

3. Challenges: a simple experiment (Hauser & Fitch) Habituation experiments Finite state grammar (AB) n is recognizable by tamarins Phrase structure grammar A n B n is NOT. Human students recognize both

4. BUT: Recursive syntactic pattern learning in birds! European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) accurately recognize recursive syntactic patterns They are able to exlude agrammatical forms Centre-embedding is not uniquely human

5. Patterns are made up of naturally occurring vocal patterns Learning to classify by operant conditioning This is NOT production!

7. Theories/Questions 123456 Language as a mental tool (Jerison, 1991; Burling, 1993) ++-+-- Grooming hypothesis (Dunbar, 1998) -+---- Gossip (Power, 1998) +--+-- Tool making (Greenfield, 1991) +++++- Mating contract (Deacon, 1997) ------ Sexual selection (Miller, 2000) +----- Status for information (Dessalles, 2000) +--+-- Song hypothesis (Vaneechoutte & Skoyles, 1998) -----+ Group bonding/ ritual (Knight, 1998) -+---- Gestural theory (Hewes, 1973) +-++-- Hunting theories (Washburn & Lanchester, 1968) ++++-- (1) selective advantage (2) honesty (3) grounded in reality (4) power of generalisations (5) cognitive abilities (6) uniqueness

8. The evolutionary approach genes development behaviour selection learning environment Impact of evolution on the developmental genetics of the brain!

9. ECAgents: project founded by the Future and Emerging Technologies program (IST-FET) of the European Community under EU R&D contract IST1940. Software architecture 519 classes 99267 lines of C++ code

10. ECAgents: project founded by the Future and Emerging Technologies program (IST-FET) of the European Community under EU R&D contract IST1940. Population dynamics and agent lifecycle

11. ECAgents: project founded by the Future and Emerging Technologies program (IST-FET) of the European Community under EU R&D contract IST1940. Ontogenesis of a neuronal network

12. ECAgents: project founded by the Future and Emerging Technologies program (IST-FET) of the European Community under EU R&D contract IST1940. -1/1 Population Environment A Coordination Game Speaker Listener Decision Signal Decision

13. Different types of game Coodination game (Coop) Coodination game (Coop) Division of Labour (Div) Division of Labour (Div) Prisoners’ dilemma (PD) Prisoners’ dilemma (PD) Hawk- Dove game (SD) Hawk- Dove game (SD) Environment -1Environment 1 Coop (-1)Coop (1) Div PD (-1)PD (1) SD (-1)SD (1) PD (-1)Coop (-1) PD (-1)CoopRev (1) SD (-1)Coop (-1) SD (-1)CoopRev (1) D(1)D(-1) D(1)15 D(-1)03 D(1)D(-1) D(1)5 D(-1)03 D(1)D(-1) D(1)05 D(-1)50 D(1)D(-1) D(1)51 D(-1)00 Coodination game Division of Labour Prisoners’ dilemma Hawk - Dove game