Social learning influences the preferences of domestic hens for novel food

2002 ◽  
Vol 63 (5) ◽  
pp. 933-942 ◽  
Author(s):  
C.M. Sherwin ◽  
C.M. Heyes ◽  
C.J. Nicol
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Novel Food

scholarly journals Processing of novel food reveals payoff and rank-biased social learning in a wild primate

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Canteloup ◽  
Mabia B. Cera ◽  
Brendan J. Barrett ◽  
Erica van de Waal
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Individual Learning ◽  
Diffusion Experiment ◽  
Vervet Monkeys ◽  
Dynamic Learning ◽  
Novel Food ◽  
Bias Attention ◽  
Higher Rank ◽  
Learning From Others

AbstractSocial learning—learning from others—is the basis for behavioural traditions. Different social learning strategies (SLS), where individuals biasedly learn behaviours based on their content or who demonstrates them, may increase an individual’s fitness and generate behavioural traditions. While SLS have been mostly studied in isolation, their interaction and the interplay between individual and social learning is less understood. We performed a field-based open diffusion experiment in a wild primate. We provided two groups of vervet monkeys with a novel food, unshelled peanuts, and documented how three different peanut opening techniques spread within the groups. We analysed data using hierarchical Bayesian dynamic learning models that explore the integration of multiple SLS with individual learning. We (1) report evidence of social learning compared to strictly individual learning, (2) show that vervets preferentially socially learn the technique that yields the highest observed payoff and (3) also bias attention toward individuals of higher rank. This shows that behavioural preferences can arise when individuals integrate social information about the efficiency of a behaviour alongside cues related to the rank of a demonstrator. When these preferences converge to the same behaviour in a group, they may result in stable behavioural traditions.

scholarly journals Influence of Early Social Learning on Later Feeding Behaviour for Novel Food in Calves

1999 ◽  
Vol 70 (5) ◽  
pp. 356-359 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michiru FUKASAWA ◽  
Shusuke SATO ◽  
Kazuo SUGAWARA
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Feeding Behaviour ◽  
Novel Food

scholarly journals Processing of novel food reveal payoff and rank-biased social learning in a wild primate

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Canteloup ◽  
M.B. Cera ◽  
B.J. Barrett ◽  
E. van de Waal
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Diffusion Experiment ◽  
Vervet Monkeys ◽  
Cultural Complexity ◽  
Dynamic Learning ◽  
Novel Food ◽  
Bias Attention ◽  
Higher Rank ◽  
Social Learning Strategies

AbstractCultural complexity is strongly shaped by the efficiency by which new knowledge is propagated. Different social learning strategies (SLS), where individuals biasedly learn particular behaviors or from specific demonstrators, can contribute to an individual’s success. While SLS have been mostly studied in isolation, their interaction and the interplay between individual and social learning is less understood. We performed a field-based open diffusion experiment in a wild primate. We provided two groups of vervet monkeys with a novel food, unshelled peanuts, and documented how three different peanut opening techniques spread within the groups. We analyzed data using hierarchical Bayesian dynamic learning models that explore the integration of multiple SLS with individual learning. We show that vervets preferentially use the technique yielding the highest observed payoff, and also bias attention toward individuals of higher rank. This shows that traditions may arise when individuals integrate information about the efficiency of a behavior alongside cues related to the rank of a demonstrator.

scholarly journals Food discovery is associated with different reliance on social learning and lower cognitive flexibility across environments in a food-caching bird

2021 ◽  
Vol 288 (1951) ◽  
pp. 20202843
Author(s):  
Virginia K. Heinen ◽  
Angela M. Pitera ◽  
Benjamin R. Sonnenberg ◽  
Lauren M. Benedict ◽  
Eli S. Bridge ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Cognitive Flexibility ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Information Acquisition ◽  
Social Information ◽  
High Elevation ◽  
Independent Learning ◽  
Food Sources ◽  
Novel Food ◽  
Food Caching

Social learning is a primary mechanism for information acquisition in social species. Despite many benefits, social learning may be disadvantageous when independent learning is more efficient. For example, searching independently may be more advantageous when food sources are ephemeral and unpredictable. Individual differences in cognitive abilities can also be expected to influence social information use. Specifically, better spatial memory can make a given environment more predictable for an individual by allowing it to better track food sources. We investigated how resident food-caching chickadees discovered multiple novel food sources in both harsher, less predictable high elevation and milder, more predictable low elevation winter environments. Chickadees at high elevation were faster at discovering multiple novel food sources and discovered more food sources than birds at low elevation. While birds at both elevations used social information, the contribution of social learning to food discovery was significantly lower at high elevation. At both elevations, chickadees with better spatial cognitive flexibility were slower at discovering food sources, likely because birds with lower spatial cognitive flexibility are worse at tracking natural resources and therefore spend more time exploring. Overall, our study supported the prediction that harsh environments should favour less reliance on social learning.

scholarly journals Foraging zebra finches ( Taeniopygia guttata ) are public information users rather than conformists

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (6) ◽  
pp. 20200767
Author(s):  
Edwin J. C. van Leeuwen ◽  
Thomas J. H. Morgan ◽  
Katharina Riebel
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Information Acquisition ◽  
Public Information ◽  
Taeniopygia Guttata ◽  
Food Sources ◽  
Zebra Finches ◽  
Foraging Activity ◽  
Novel Food ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Evolutionary Origins

Social learning enables adaptive information acquisition provided that it is not random but selective. To understand species typical decision-making and to trace the evolutionary origins of social learning, the heuristics social learners use need to be identified. Here, we experimentally tested the nature of majority influence in the zebra finch. Subjects simultaneously observed two demonstrator groups differing in relative and absolute numbers (ratios 1 : 2/2 : 4/3 : 3/1 : 5) foraging from two novel food sources (black and white feeders). We find that demonstrator groups influenced observers' feeder choices (social learning), but that zebra finches did not copy the majority of individuals. Instead, observers were influenced by the foraging activity (pecks) of the demonstrators and in an anti-conformist fashion. These results indicate that zebra finches are not conformist, but are public information users.

A cognitive approach to cumulative technological culture is useful and necessary but only if it also applies to other species

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thibaud Gruber
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Learning Processes ◽  
Cognitive Approach ◽  
Technological Culture ◽  
Social Learning Processes

Abstract The debate on cumulative technological culture (CTC) is dominated by social-learning discussions, at the expense of other cognitive processes, leading to flawed circular arguments. I welcome the authors' approach to decouple CTC from social-learning processes without minimizing their impact. Yet, this model will only be informative to understand the evolution of CTC if tested in other cultural species.

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