Simulation
TransmissionLab
The goal of TransmissionLab is to accurately represent theoretical models of cultural transmission (e.g., random copying, prestige-biased transmission, frequency-biased transmission) within a variety of population structures (e.g., complete graphs/well-mixed, sparse random graphs and social networks of varying topologies, spatial lattices), and using a variety of update algorithms (e.g., Moran processes, Wright-Fisher processes, various other birth-death processes). TransmissionLab seeks to also make data collection and ‘observation’ of simulated populations simple, with modules which are completely separate from the simulated population itself thus preventing observational ‘side-effects’ on the model. Analysis flows from data collection, and can be done in a variety of ways.
TransmissionLab grew directly out of the RandomCopyModel version 1.3 codebase, but underwent a complete redesign to improve modularity and extensibility. Use this model if you are interested in a more generic long-term platform for cultural transmission simulation; use the RandomCopyModel as described below if you are interested in specifically replicating Bentley et al.’s 2007 results.
The TransmissionLab codebase is available under a standard open-source license (CC-GPL), and is hosted by GitHub at:
http://github.com/mmadsen/TransmissionLab
The project website includes a publicly-available Git repository for the simulation code, and issue tracking.
RandomCopyModel
In their 2007 paper titled “Regular rates of popular culture change reflect random copying,” Alex Bentley, Carl Lipo, Harold Herzog, and Matthew Hahn present a convincing hypothesis for cultural imitation of many “neutral” phenomena, such as popular music preferences, first names, and dog breed popularity. The paper is in press in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior, and available in official pre-print form from ScienceDirect. Bentley et al. studied random copying phenomena using an agent-based simulation model, written in RepastJ.
The original RandomCopyModel code (as revised by Madsen) is available upon request.
