Towards a Computational Formalism for a Grounding Model of Cultural Transmission

Abstract

Computational models of the transmission of cultural information usually neglect that cultural transmission between individuals occurs mainly as a consequence of complex social interactions. We analyze the requirements for a computational model of a social psychological theory of cultural transmission, a theory which postulates that actors in a joint activity build on their common ground to align their information to a degree sufficient for them to carry out their activity. This grounding process adds to their common ground and thus contributes to a diffusion of cultural information. The proposed tentative formal account exploits the Shared Plan model of joint activities and uses an argumentation-based dialogue as the representation of the grounding process. This work advances the social-psychological study of cultural dynamics and the exploration of computational methods for the modeling of social systems.