Bruner, Justin and O'Connor, Cailin and Rubin, Hannah and Huttegger, Simon (2014) David Lewis in the Lab: an Experimental Study of Signaling Convention. [Preprint]

PDF (Synthese, 2014) LewisLabSynth.pdf - Accepted Version Download (411kB)

Abstract

In this paper we use an experimental approach to investigate how linguistic conventions can emerge in a society without explicit agreement. As a starting point we consider the signaling game introduced by Lewis (1969). We find that in experimental settings, small groups can quickly develop conventions of signal meaning in these games. We also investigate versions of the game where the theoretical literature indicates that meaning will be less likely to arise---when there are more than two states for actors to transfer meaning about and when some states are more likely than others. In these cases, we find that actors are less likely to arrive at strategies where signals have clear conventional meaning. We conclude with a proposal for extending the use of the methodology of experimental economics in experimental philosophy.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Bruner, Justin justin.bruner@anu.edu.au O'Connor, Cailin cailino@uci.edu Rubin, Hannah hannahr@uci.edu Huttegger, Simon shuttegg@uci.edu
Keywords:	language, evolution, signaling, game, game theory, evolutionary game theory, convention, experimental economics, experiment
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Biology > Evolutionary Theory Specific Sciences > Economics General Issues > Experimentation
Depositing User:	Dr. Cailin O'Connor
Date Deposited:	12 Apr 2016 22:55
Last Modified:	12 Apr 2016 22:55
Item ID:	12038
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Biology > Evolutionary Theory Specific Sciences > Economics General Issues > Experimentation
Date:	2014
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/12038

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