Ethnographic research highlights that there are constraints placed on the time available to produce cultural artefacts in differing circumstances. Given that copying error, or cultural 'mutation', can have important implications for the evolutionary processes involved in material culture change, it is essential to explore empirically how such 'time constraints' affect patterns of artefactual variation. Here, we report an experiment that systematically tests whether, and how, varying time constraints affect shape copying error rates. A total of 90 participants copied the shape of a 3D 'target handaxe form' using a standardized foam block and a plastic knife. Three distinct 'time conditions' were examined, whereupon participants had either 20, 15, or 10 minutes to complete the task. One aim of this study was to determine whether reducing production time produced a proportional increase in copy error rates across all conditions, or whether the concept of a task specific 'threshold' might be a more appropriate manner to model the effect of time budgets on copy-error rates. We found that mean levels of shape copying error increased when production time was reduced. However, there were no statistically significant differences between the 20 minute and 15 minute conditions. Significant differences were only obtained between conditions when production time was reduced to 10 minutes. Hence, our results more strongly support the hypothesis that the effects of time constraints on copying error are best modelled according to a 'threshold' effect, below which mutation rates increase more markedly. Our results also suggest that 'time budgets' available in the past will have generated varying patterns of shape variation, potentially affecting spatial and temporal trends seen in the archaeological record. Hence, 'time-budgeting' factors need to be given greater consideration in evolutionary models of material culture change.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4014615 | PMC |
| http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0097157 | PLOS |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Predicting vasovagal reactions to needles from video data using 2D-CNN with GRU and LSTM.
PLoS One
January 2025
Department of Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands.
When undergoing or about to undergo a needle-related procedure, most people are not aware of the adverse emotional and physical reactions (so-called vasovagal reactions; VVR), that might occur. Thus, rather than relying on self-report measurements, we investigate whether we can predict VVR levels from the video sequence containing facial information measured during the blood donation. We filmed 287 blood donors throughout the blood donation procedure where we obtained 1945 videos for data analysis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFReliability of artificial intelligence-driven markerless motion capture in gait analyses of healthy adults.
PLoS One
January 2025
Department of Kinesiology and Sport Sciences, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL, United States of America.
The KinaTrax markerless motion capture system, used extensively in the analysis of baseball pitching and hitting, is currently being adapted for use in clinical biomechanics. In clinical and laboratory environments, repeatability is inherent to the quality of any diagnostic tool. The KinaTrax system was assessed on within- and between-session reliability for gait kinematic and spatiotemporal parameters in healthy adults.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMolnupiravir clinical trial simulation suggests that polymerase chain reaction underestimates antiviral potency against SARS-CoV-2.
medRxiv
January 2025
Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center; Seattle, WA, USA.
Molnupiravir is an antiviral medicine that induces lethal copying errors during SARS-CoV-2 RNA replication. Molnupiravir reduced hospitalization in one pivotal trial by 50% and had variable effects on reducing viral RNA levels in three separate trials. We used mathematical models to simulate these trials and closely recapitulated their virologic outcomes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe replicative polymerase delta is inefficient copying repetitive DNA sequences. Error-prone translesion polymerases have been shown to switch with high-fidelity replicative polymerases to help navigate repetitive DNA. We and others have demonstrated the importance of one such translesion polymerase, polymerase Eta (pol eta), in facilitating replication at genomic regions called common fragile sites (CFS), which are difficult-to-replicate genomic regions that are hypersensitive to replication stress.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFConcurrent validity of skin-based motion capture systems in measuring dynamic lumbar intervertebral angles.
J Biomech
February 2025
Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, Canada. Electronic address:
Spine kinematics are commonly measured by external sensors such as motion capture and accelerometers. However, these skin-based measures cannot directly capture intervertebral motion of the lumbar spine. To date, research in this area has focused on the estimation of intervertebral kinematics using static trials but no study has analyzed agreement throughout the dynamic range of motion.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWant AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!