The Mint’s blog

This is the blog of the MINT Journal Club where we monthly discuss papers on minds and traditions.

The invention of cuneiform: Writing in Sumer

This month we are reading the final chapters of Jean-Jacques Glassner's The invention of cuneiform: Writing in Sumer (2003). Glassner's work is original in both its style and scope. He opens with a

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Sensitivity to shared information in social learning

In July we’re reading Whalen et al. (2017): Sensitivity to shared information in social learning. In the study, three experiments are presented with regard to the source of informants’ knowledge

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The sky is falling: negativity bias in social transmission

For June’s edition of the journal club, we’re reading Bebbington et al. (2017): The sky is falling: evidence of a negativity bias in the social transmission of information. The paper presents

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Modularity and Recombination in Technological Evolution

In May we read Mathieu Charbonneau's 2016 article, Modularity and Recombination in Technological Evolution. The article is describing a key property of cultural variation, recombination, and its

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Random drift and culture change

In April we chose to read Bentley, Hahn and Shennan's paper Random drift and culture change (2004). This very interesting study explains cultural variants on three real-world datasets using a

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Iconicity as structure mapping

In March we revisit the subject of iconicity, this time the question of structured mappings between the form and the meaning of the signs in sign language. In her article, Iconicity as structure

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Article for February: All forms of writing

Hi everyone! For February we chose to read Greg Downey's critique of Stanislas Dehaene's  2009 book Reading in the Brain. In his article titled All Forms of Writing (Mind & Language 2014), Greg

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Article for January: Iconicity and the Emergence of Combinatorial Structure in Language

Our first paper in 2017 is Iconicity and the Emergence of Combinatorial Structure in Language by Verhoef, Kirby and de Boer (2016), published in Cognitive Science. They present experimental results

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Article for December: Population size does not explain past changes in cultural complexity (?)

Dear friends of the Mint’s Journal Club, For the last month of 2016 we decided to read the paper from Krist Vaesen et al. Population size does not explain past changes in cultural complexity.

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Article for November: Probabilistic pragmatics

Hi everyone! November’s article for the Mint Journal club is a recent publication by Michael Franke and Gerhard Jäger called Probabilistic pragmatics, or why Bayes’ rule is probably important

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Article for October: Pragmatic Choice in Conversation

In October we read the paper from Raymond W. Gibbs and Guy Van Orden, published in Topics in Cognitive Science in 2012, Pragmatic Choice in Conversation. The authors are discussing regularity and

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Article for September: Image, Memory and Ritual: Re-viewing the Antecedents of Writing

Welcome (finally!) to the new edition of Mint Journal Club, hosted by the International Cognition and Culture Institute! This month we agreed on reading and discussing the paper by Sarah Kielt

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