In contrast, results from multi-scale simulation models suggest that simple SLMs, like local and stimulus enhancement, are sufficient for generating traditional differences between groups and cumulative cultural change of diet repertoires in the context of learning what to eat [21–23]. This result extends the concept of cumulative culture to ‘non-technical’ learning contexts, although it should be noted that the cumulative cultural change found in the models [21, 22, 25] can be characterized as bounded, in the sense that it is restricted to a fixed set of existing opportunities in the environment. This contrasts with the apparent open-ended cumulative cultural processes mentioned above, often with increases in behavioral complexity, a characteristic of humans, and implies that researchers should distinguish between different kinds of cumulative cultural process. In any case, the simulation results generate the hypothesis that special cognitively sophisticated forms of SLM are not necessary for generating traditional differences and cumulative cultural change.