What is it about?
Common acts, not skipped by anyone performing a similar task, constitute a pragmatic phase of that task. Repetitive few common acts render culture rituals a rigid form, serving as memes for cultural transmission. In contrast, behavioral variability comprises idiosyncratic acts that are not performed by all the individuals completing a similar task. Idiosyncratic acts amalgamate at the beginning and/or end of motor tasks, serving as preparatory, confirmatory, and transitional phases.
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Why is it important?
The method described in this article can serve in testing the "evolution" of memes . By testing the prevalence if an act in successive generations one can tell whether the acts is selected for and will turn a meme, or whether it is selected against and will be omitted from that motor ritual.
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This page is a summary of: The cognitive roles of behavioral variability: Idiosyncratic acts as the foundation of identity and as transitional, preparatory, and confirmatory phases, Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, February 2015, Elsevier,
DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2014.11.023.
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