01 / Fragments

The Puzzle

How did language evolve? Sequence the events to learn more about how we became talking apes.

02 / Investigate

Explore Theory

How did early language work?

02 / Investigate

Before You Begin

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03 / Experiment

The Procedure

Now you'll do an experiment - a communication game - to test your hypothesis. Here's the basic gist of the game:

• Players will take turns being the director, while all the other players are guessers.
• In each turn, the director will get a word that the guessers can't see, and needs to get the guessers to...guess the word.
• A director's turn lasts 30 seconds, during which their job is to get the guessers to guess as many words as they can.
• When one players 30s turn as director is up, the next player becomes the director and the previous director joins the guessers.

The Catch

Each round will have five 30s intervals for directors to lead the guessers. There are limits to what the director can do in each round to get the other players to guess the word - these will change with each round, and relate to the hypothesis you're testing in different ways. When you're ready, click begin to see how to play, and get the rules for your first roundß.

Begin