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Statistical signals of copying are robust to time- and space-averaging

Cattle brands (ownership marks left on animals) are subject to forces influencing other graphic codes: the copying of constituent parts, pressure for distinctiveness and pressure for complexity. The historical record of cattle brands in some US states is complete owing to legal registration, providi...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Youngblood, Mason, Miton, Helena, Morin, Olivier
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Cambridge University Press 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10426036/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37587938
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/ehs.2023.5
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author Youngblood, Mason
Miton, Helena
Morin, Olivier
author_facet Youngblood, Mason
Miton, Helena
Morin, Olivier
author_sort Youngblood, Mason
collection PubMed
description Cattle brands (ownership marks left on animals) are subject to forces influencing other graphic codes: the copying of constituent parts, pressure for distinctiveness and pressure for complexity. The historical record of cattle brands in some US states is complete owing to legal registration, providing a unique opportunity to assess how sampling processes leading to time- and space-averaging influence our ability to make inferences from limited datasets in fields like archaeology. In this preregistered study, we used a dataset of ~81,000 Kansas cattle brands (1990–2016) to explore two aspects: (1) the relative influence of copying, pressure for distinctiveness and pressure for complexity on the creation and diffusion of brand components; and (2) the effects of time- and space-averaging on statistical signals. By conducting generative inference with an agent-based model, we found that the patterns in our data are consistent with copying and pressure for intermediate complexity. In addition, by comparing mixed and structured datasets, we found that these statistical signals of copying are robust to, and possibly boosted by, time- and space-averaging.
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spelling pubmed-104260362023-08-16 Statistical signals of copying are robust to time- and space-averaging Youngblood, Mason Miton, Helena Morin, Olivier Evol Hum Sci Research Article Cattle brands (ownership marks left on animals) are subject to forces influencing other graphic codes: the copying of constituent parts, pressure for distinctiveness and pressure for complexity. The historical record of cattle brands in some US states is complete owing to legal registration, providing a unique opportunity to assess how sampling processes leading to time- and space-averaging influence our ability to make inferences from limited datasets in fields like archaeology. In this preregistered study, we used a dataset of ~81,000 Kansas cattle brands (1990–2016) to explore two aspects: (1) the relative influence of copying, pressure for distinctiveness and pressure for complexity on the creation and diffusion of brand components; and (2) the effects of time- and space-averaging on statistical signals. By conducting generative inference with an agent-based model, we found that the patterns in our data are consistent with copying and pressure for intermediate complexity. In addition, by comparing mixed and structured datasets, we found that these statistical signals of copying are robust to, and possibly boosted by, time- and space-averaging. Cambridge University Press 2023-04-13 /pmc/articles/PMC10426036/ /pubmed/37587938 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/ehs.2023.5 Text en © The Author(s) 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Youngblood, Mason
Miton, Helena
Morin, Olivier
Statistical signals of copying are robust to time- and space-averaging
title Statistical signals of copying are robust to time- and space-averaging
title_full Statistical signals of copying are robust to time- and space-averaging
title_fullStr Statistical signals of copying are robust to time- and space-averaging
title_full_unstemmed Statistical signals of copying are robust to time- and space-averaging
title_short Statistical signals of copying are robust to time- and space-averaging
title_sort statistical signals of copying are robust to time- and space-averaging
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10426036/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37587938
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/ehs.2023.5
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