Module Catalogue 2025/26

Pre Requisite Comment

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Co Requisite Comment

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Aims

Human technological skills and cultural repertoire surpass those of any other species. This remarkable complexity is reliant on cumulative culture, and thus our expertise as both innovators and social learners. This module aims to explore how this expertise develops in humans and how it evolved more generally, including which elements are shared with other animals. Topics will include:


1)       providing students with knowledge of both the comparative and developmental approaches used to study cultural transmission and innovation in humans and other animals
2)       facilitating critical evaluation of research methods and findings
3)       encouraging students to consider the real-world implications of the research and how to communicate these to a variety of audiences.

Outline Of Syllabus

Human technological skills and cultural repertoire surpass those of any other species. This remarkable complexity is reliant on cumulative culture, and thus our expertise as both innovators and social learners. This module aims to explore how this expertise develops in humans and how it evolved more generally, including which elements are shared with other animals. Topics will include:

- Cumulative culture: what is it, who has it, and how did it evolve?
- Social learning and culture: how do ‘cultures’ come about? How do we define and measure ‘cultures’ in other species?
- Social learning strategies: What rules govern when and from whom humans and other animals learn? How do these strategies develop in humans? What patterns do we see in other animals?
- Innovation: How do we define innovation in humans and other animals? What cognitive mechanisms support innovation and how do they develop?
-Tool use: How and when does tool use develop in children? Is human tool use fundamentally different than forms seen in other animals? What cognitive abilities support tool use?

Within each of these topics, students will review up-to-date research articles and discuss the benefits and drawbacks of comparative and developmental approaches. Students will also benefit from fieldwork, observing and recording behaviours of humans and/or other animals ‘in the wild’ and at a local zoo.

Intended Knowledge Outcomes

At the end of the module, students will be able to:

1)       Identify the cognitive and social mechanisms underpinning cumulative culture in humans
2)       Describe the developmental trajectory of tool use, social learning, and innovation
3)       Explain how cumulative culture might have evolved in humans, and what elements of social learning, tool use and innovation are shared more widely across the animal kingdom
4)       Review the strengths and weaknesses of comparative and developmental approaches

Intended Skill Outcomes

At the end of the module, students should be able to:

1)       Present well-structured critical analyses of the research literature in both written and verbal formats
2)       Synthesise scientific findings across a variety of disciplines
3)       Critically evaluate the methods used in developmental and comparative research
4)       Condense and communicate complex scientific information for a variety of audiences
5) Develop and justify a research proposal for a funding bid, demonstrating an understanding of scientific methods, hypothesis formulation, and the broader impact of the research
6)       Create behavioural ethograms assessing social interaction in a range of species
7)       Collect observational behavioural data

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

The weekly lectures will provide students with key background information, including the theoretical drives and research methods of each relevant topic (knowledge outcomes 1-4). Lectures will introduce key papers and act as a guide for the students’ independent reading. Small group work will centre around a more focused discussion of key papers, theoretical questions, or central debates in the field. Students will be asked to engage in exchanges/debates, feeding their conclusions back to the larger group. This will help achieve critical analysis of the material, as well as presentation skills (skills outcome 1-3). Both lectures and small group work will provide a venue for students to ask questions, engage with the material, and build upon key skills. Students will embark on a field-trip to collect social observations on groups of animals and/or humans. Workshops will provide students with interactive feedback from peers and the module leader to develop ethograms for their fieldwork and work on shaping these into their funding bids. Guided activities will provide practice with logistics involved in data collection, science communication, and generating real-world impact (skills outcome 1-4).

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

Students will prepare a funding bid / small grant application for a project addressing cultural transmission processes in humans and/or other animals. Through guided independent learning and small group work, students will build ethograms to use to collect pilot data with a target species on the fieldtrip to the zoo. They will then build this into a funding bid, outlining the theoretical background and hypotheses, methods and logistics, and impact and broader significance of the project (skills outcomes 1-7).

Formative practice will be provided through small group work and module leader feedback. Written feedback will be provided on behavioural ethograms and justification for the target species and research question in preparation for the fieldwork. The results of this will be used to feed into the summative funding bid assessment.

FMS Schools offering Semester One modules available as ‘Study Abroad’ will, where required, provide an alternative assessment time for examinations that take place after the Winter vacation. Coursework with submission dates after the Winter vacation will either be submitted at an earlier date or at the same time remotely. The assessment format will not normally vary from the original to ensure learning outcomes are met. Any changes to the original format must meet module learning outcomes and be approved by the school.

If the module is failed, Stage 3 students may only be offered a resit if an honours degree is not awarded on the first occasion. Failed assessments will be the same format during the August resit period.

General Notes

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