preprints
Winters, J. (2020). Is the cultural evolution of technology cumulative or combinatorial? SocArXiv. [preprint].
journal articles
Winters, J. (2023). Graphic codes, language, and the computational niche. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 46, E256. [link]. A commentary on Morin (2022).
Segovia-Martin, J., Creutzig, F., & Winters, J. (2023). Efficiency traps beyond the climate crisis: exploration–exploitation trade-offs and rebound effects. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 378: 20220405. [link].
Müller, T.F., Brinkmann, L., Winters, J., & Pescetelli, N. (2023). Machine Impostors Can Avoid Human Detection and Interrupt the Formation of Stable Conventions by Imitating Past Interactions: A Minimal Turing Test. Cognitive Science, 47(4): e13288. [link].
Charbonneau, M., Strachan J.W.A., & Winters, J. (2023). The problem with solutions: A commentary of “Blind alleys and fruitful pathways in the comparative study of cultural cognition” by Andrew Whiten. Physics of Life Reviews. [link].
Han, S.J., Kelly, P., Winters, J., & Kemp, C. (2022). Simplification Is Not Dominant in the Evolution of Chinese Characters. Open Mind. [link].
Morin, O., Müller, T.F., Morisseau, T., & Winters, J. (2022). Cultural evolution of precise and consensual semantic conventions in a multiplayer gaming app. Cognitive Science. [link] [preprint].
Kelly, P., Winters, J., Miton, H., & Morin, O. (2022). The predictable evolution of letter shapes: An emergent script of West Africa recapitulates historical change in writing systems. Current Anthropology. [link] [preprint].
Pavlek, B., Winters, J., & Morin, O. (2022). Standards and quantification of coin iconography: possibilities and challenges. DSH: Digital Scholarship in the Humanities. [link].
Müller, T.F., Winters, J., Morisseau, T., Noveck, I., & Morin, O. (2021). Color terms: Natural language semantic structure and artificial language structure formation in a large-scale online smartphone application. Journal of Cognitive Psychology [link].
Henschel, M., Winters, J., Müller, T.F., & Bräuer, J. (2020). Effect of shared information and owner behaviour on showing in Dogs (Canis familiaris). Animal Cognition. [link].
Pavlek, B., Winters, J., & Morin, O. (2020). Reverse engineering cash: Coin designs mark out high value differentials and coin sizes track values logarithmically. Cognition, 198: 104182. [link].
Winters, J. (2019). Escaping optimization traps: The role of cultural adaptation and cultural exaptation in facilitating open-ended cumulative culture. Palgrave Communications, 5: 149. [link] [repo] [tutorial]
Pavlek, B., Winters, J., & Morin, O. (2019). Ancient coin designs encoded increasing amounts of economic information over centuries. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 56: 101103. [link]
Müller, T., Winters, J., & Morin, O. (2019). The influence of shared visual context on the successful emergence of conventions in a referential communication task. Cognitive Science, 43(9): e12783. [link]
Winters, J., & Morin, O. (2019). From context to code: Information transfer constrains the emergence of graphic codes. Cognitive Science, 43(3): e12722. doi: 10.1111/cogs.12722. [link]
Morin, O., Winters, J., & Kelly, P. (2018). Writing, graphic codes, and asynchronous communication. topiCS. “The Cultural Evolution of Cognition”. Topic Editors: Andrea Bender, Sieghard Beller & Fiona Jordan. [link]
Müller, T.F., & Winters, J. (2018). Compression in cultural evolution: Homogeneity and structure in the emergence and evolution of a large-scale online collaborative art project. PLoS One, 13(9): e0202019. [link]
Morin, O., Winters, J., Müller, T.F., Morisseau, T., Etter, C., & Greenhill, S. (2018). The “Color Game”: What smartphone apps may contribute to language evolution research. Journal of Language Evolution, 3(2): 91–93. [link]
Winters, J., Kirby, S., & Smith, K. (2018). Contextual predictability shapes signal autonomy. Cognition, 176:15-30. [link]
Hartmann, S, Pleyer, M., Winters, J, & Zlatev, J. (2017). Interaction and iconicity in the evolution of language: Introduction to the special issue. Interaction Studies, 18(3):303-313. [link]
Roberts, S.G., Winters, J., & Chen, K. (2015). Future tense and economic decisions: controlling for cultural evolution. PLoS One, 10(7): e0132145. [link]
Pleyer, M., & Winters, J. (2015). Integrating cognitive linguistics and language evolution research. Theoria Et Historia Scientiarium, 11, 19-44. [link]
Winters, J., Kirby, S., & Smith, K. (2015). Languages adapt to their contextual niche. Language and Cognition, 7(3): 415-449. [link]
Littauer, R., Roberts, S.G., Winters, J., Bailes, R., Pleyer, M., & Little, H. (2014). From the Savannah to the Cloud: Blogging Evolutionary Linguistics Research. In: The Past, Present and Future of Language Evolution Research, Eds., L. McCrohon, B. Thompson, T. Verhoef, H. Yamauchi. [link]
Roberts, S. G., & Winters, J. (2013). Linguistic diversity and traffic accidents: Lessons from statistical studies of cultural traits. PLoS One, 8(8): e70902. [link]
Roberts, S. G., & Winters, J. (2012). Social structure and language structure: The new nomothetic approach. Psychology of Language and Communication, 16: 89-112. [link]
peer-reviewed conference proceedings
Winters, J., & Morin, O. (2018). From context to code: Shared information constrains the evolution of optimal codes. In C. Cuskley, M. Flaherty, H. Little, Luke McCrohon, A. Ravignani and T. Verhoef (eds.) The Evolution of Language: Proceedings of the 12th International Conference (EVOLANGXII) [link]
Müller, T., Morisseau, T., Winters, J., Morin, O. (2018). The influence of shared visual context on performance with novel codes in a referential communication game. In C. Cuskley, M. Flaherty, H. Little, Luke McCrohon, A. Ravignani and T. Verhoef (eds.) The Evolution of Language: Proceedings of the 12th International Conference (EVOLANGXII) [link]
Müller, T.F., & Winters, J. (2017). Cumulative culture and systematicity in “Place”: Compression, variation, and stability in a large-scale online “pixel art” collaboration. Cultural Evolution Society 2017, Jena. [link]
Winters, J., & Morin, O. (2017). Information transfer constrains the cultural evolution of graphic codes. Cultural Evolution Society 2017, Jena. [link]
Winters, J., & Morin, O. (2017). Emergence of optimal codes is contingent on the mode and function of communication. European Human Behaviour and Evolution Conference 2017. [link]
Müller, T., Morisseau, T., Winters, J., Morin, O. (2017). The Influence of Common Perceptual Context on the Evolution of Graphic Codes. European Human Behaviour and Evolution Conference 2017. [link]
Winters, J., Kirby S., & Smith K. (2016). Signal Autonomy Is Shaped By Contextual Predictability. In S.G. Roberts, C. Cuskley, L. McCrohon, L. Barceló-Coblijn, O. Fehér & T. Verhoef (eds.) The Evolution of Language: Proceedings of the 11th International Conference (EVOLANG11). [abstract]
Winters, J., Kirby, S., & Smith, K. (2014). Experimentally investigating the role of context in the structure of linguistic systems over cultural evolution. In: E.A. Cartmill et al, Proceedings of the 10th International Conference (EVOLANG X).
Littauer, R., Winters, J., Roberts, S.G., Little, H., Pleyer, M., & Benzon, B (2012). Academic research in the blogosphere: Adapting to new risks and opportunities on the Internet. In: Jan Christoph Meister (Ed.): Digital Humanities 2012. Conference Abstracts. University of Hamburg, July 16-22. Hamburg: Hamburg University Press, 268-269 [abstract]
Roberts, S. & Winters, J. (2012). Constructing Knowledge: Nomothetic approaches to language evolution. In: L. McCrohon, T et al, Five Approaches to Language Evolution: Proceedings of the Workshops of the 9th International Conference on the Evolution of Language. Evolang9 Organizing Committee.
thesis
Winters, J. (2016). Context, Cognition, and Communication in language. Examiners: Mike Frank and Holly Branigan. [link]