Multiagent systems phenomena are fascinating. Social learning and the adaptation of new affordances give way to social phenomena. Current models that predict who would adopt a behavior do not seem to accurately describe observations in mini-societies or society at large. Nye builds a cognitive framework that accounts for attention, social influence, and motivation that influences the learning and adaptation of the new behavior. In this framework, memes spread though cognitive mechanisms. The model is applied in context of the Stanford prison experiment, and appears promising, as alignment between what the model predicted and what the experiment showed originally does not differ by much.

This paper is significant in many important ways. It has the promise of being able to explain some social phenomena, such as sourcing from a meme, based on social influences and social learning, among other parameters. The Stanford prison case is a small sample behavior, and the author aims to look into larger-scale studies on adoption patterns. One thing is certain: existing theories do not do a good enough job explaining social phenomena emergence, so this may be a glimpse of hope.

The paper is a pleasure to read, as it is well organized and gives the appropriate background to follow the paper. The style, intertwined with examples of applications and explanations of real-world phenomena, makes these somewhat complex concepts and approaches easier to understand.