scholarly journals Horses Failed to Learn from Humans by Observation

Animals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 221
Author(s):  
Maria Vilain Rørvang ◽  
Tina Bach Nielsen ◽  
Janne Winther Christensen
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Food Reward ◽  
Stimulus Enhancement ◽  
Instrumental Task ◽  
And Behaviors ◽  
Human Demonstration

Animals can acquire new behavior through both individual and social learning. Several studies have investigated horses’ ability to utilize inter-species (human demonstrator) social learning with conflicting results. In this study, we repeat a previous study, which found that horses had the ability to learn from observing humans performing an instrumental task, but we include a control for stimulus enhancement. One human demonstrator and thirty horses were included, and the horses were randomly assigned to one of three treatments: (A) full human demonstration, (B) partial human demonstration, and (C) no human demonstration. The task was for the horses to touch an object situated 1 m away from a feed box, to open this feed box, and thereby obtain a food reward. The success of each horse, the behavior directed towards the apparatus and the human, and behaviors indicative of frustration were observed. The results showed that horses observing a full and partial human demonstration were not more successful in solving the instrumental task than horses not observing any demonstration. Horses that did not solve the task expressed more box- and human-oriented behavior compared to successful horses, which may be an indication of motivation to solve the task and/or frustration from being unable to solve the task.

scholarly journals Age-dependent social learning in a lizard

2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 20140430 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel W. A. Noble ◽  
Richard W. Byrne ◽  
Martin J. Whiting
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Group Living ◽  
Food Sources ◽  
Success Rates ◽  
Young Males ◽  
Association Task ◽  
Instrumental Task ◽  
Eastern Australia ◽  
Age Dependent ◽  
Dependent Learning

Evidence of social learning, whereby the actions of an animal facilitate the acquisition of new information by another, is taxonomically biased towards mammals, especially primates, and birds. However, social learning need not be limited to group-living animals because species with less interaction can still benefit from learning about potential predators, food sources, rivals and mates. We trained male skinks ( Eulamprus quoyii ), a mostly solitary lizard from eastern Australia, in a two-step foraging task. Lizards belonging to ‘young’ and ‘old’ age classes were presented with a novel instrumental task (displacing a lid) and an association task (reward under blue lid). We did not find evidence for age-dependent learning of the instrumental task; however, young males in the presence of a demonstrator learnt the association task faster than young males without a demonstrator, whereas old males in both treatments had similar success rates. We present the first evidence of age-dependent social learning in a lizard and suggest that the use of social information for learning may be more widespread than previously believed.

scholarly journals Human Demonstration Does not Facilitate the Performance of Horses (Equus caballus) in a Spatial Problem-Solving Task

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joan-Bryce Burla ◽  
Janina Siegwart ◽  
Christian Nawroth
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Social Learning ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Spatial Problem ◽  
New Information ◽  
The Impact ◽  
And Training ◽  
Problem Solving Task ◽  
Human Demonstration ◽  
Spatial Problem Solving

Horses’ ability to adapt to new environments and to acquire new information plays an important role in handling and training. Social learning in particular would be very adaptive for horses as it enables them to flexibly adapt to new environments. In the context of horse handling, social learning from humans has been rarely investigated but could help to facilitate management practices. We assessed the impact of human demonstration on spatial problem-solving abilities in horses using a detour task. In this task, a bucket with a food reward was placed behind a double-detour barrier and horses (n = 16) received a human demonstration or no demonstration. Horses were allocated to two test groups of 8 horses each, which experienced the two treatments in a counterbalanced order. We found that horses did not solve the detour task faster with human demonstration. However, both test groups improved rapidly over trials. Our results suggest that horses prefer to use individual rather than social information when being confronted with a spatial problem-solving task.

Splitting, lumping, and priming

1998 ◽  
Vol 21 (5) ◽  
pp. 690-691 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Gardner ◽  
Cecilia Heyes
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Priming Effects ◽  
Response Facilitation ◽  
Stimulus Enhancement ◽  
The Social

Byrne & Russon's proposal that stimulus enhancement, emulation, and response facilitation should be lumped together as priming effects conceals important questions about nonimitative social learning, fails to forge a useful link between the social learning and cognitive psychological literatures, and leaves unexplained the most interesting feature of phenomena ascribed to “response facilitation.”

When rank counts — dominant dogs learn better from a human demonstrator in a two-action test

Behaviour ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 149 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Péter Pongrácz ◽  
Petra Bánhegyi ◽  
Ádám Miklósi
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Social Rank ◽  
Target Object ◽  
The Other ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Object A ◽  
Companion Dogs ◽  
Initial Preference ◽  
The Social ◽  
Human Demonstration

AbstractDogs can learn effectively from a human demonstrator in detour tests as well as in different kinds of manipulative tasks. In this experiment we used a novel two-action device from which the target object (a ball) was obtained by tilting a tube either by pulling a rope attached to the end of the tube, or by directly pushing the end of the tube. Tube tilting was relatively easy for naïve companion dogs; therefore, the effect of the human demonstration aimed to alter or increase the dogs’ initial preference for tube pushing (according to the behaviour shown by naïve dogs in the absence of a human demonstrator). Our results have shown that subjects preferred the demonstrated action in the two-action test. After having witnessed the tube pushing demonstration, dogs performed significantly more tube pushing than the dogs in the rope pulling demonstration group. In contrast, dogs that observed the rope pulling demonstration, performed significantly more similar actions than the subjects of the other demonstration group. The ratio of rope pulling was significantly higher in the rope pulling demonstration group, than in the No Demo (control) group. The overall success of solving the task was also influenced by the social rank of the dog among its conspecific companions at home. Independently of the type of demonstration, dominant dogs solved the task significantly more often than the subordinate dogs did. There was no such difference in the No Demo group. This experiment has shown that a simple two-action device that does not require excessive pre-training, can be suitable for testing social learning in dogs. However, effects of social rank should be taken into account when social learning in dogs is being studied and tested, because dominant and subordinate dogs perform differently after observing a demonstrator.

scholarly journals No evidence for individual recognition in threespine or ninespine sticklebacks ( Gasterosteus aculeatus or Pungitius pungitius )

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (7) ◽  
pp. 191703
Author(s):  
Mike M. Webster ◽  
Kevin N. Laland
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Food Reward ◽  
Gasterosteus Aculeatus ◽  
Individual Recognition ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Model Organisms ◽  
Pungitius Pungitius ◽  
Trained Subjects ◽  
Exciting Opportunity ◽  
Class Level

Recognition plays an important role in the formation and organization of animal groups. Many animals are capable of class-level recognition, discriminating, for example, on the basis of species, kinship or familiarity. Individual recognition requires that animals recognize distinct cues, and learn to associate these with the specific individual from which they are derived. In this study, we asked whether sticklebacks ( Gasterosteus aculeatus and Pungitius pungitius ) were capable of learning to recognize individual conspecifics. We have used these fish as model organisms for studying selective social learning, and demonstrating a capacity for individual recognition in these species would provide an exciting opportunity for studying how biases for copying specific individuals shape the dynamics of information transmission. To test for individual recognition, we trained subjects to associate green illumination with the provision of a food reward close to one of two conspecifics, and, for comparison, one of two physical landmarks. Both species were capable of recognizing the rewarded landmark, but neither showed a preference for associating with the rewarded conspecific. Our study provides no evidence for individual recognition in either species. We speculate that the fission–fusion structure of their social groups may not favour a capacity for individual recognition.

scholarly journals Evidence of model based transmission bias in captive chimpanzees: initial tool choice matches proficient groupmate

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lara A Wood ◽  
Rachel L Kendal ◽  
Lydia M Hopper ◽  
Susan P Lambeth ◽  
Steven J Schapiro ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Tool Use ◽  
Learning Theories ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
Model Based ◽  
Stimulus Enhancement ◽  
Group Members ◽  
The One ◽  
Social Learning Strategies

Social learning theories predict biased transmission dictating what and whom is copied. We presented a novel tool-use task to six groups of captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) to investigate a model proficiency bias. The study included six groups totalling 54 chimpanzees (24 males) housed in six social groups at the KCCMR, University of Texas, U.S.A. Subjects were aged 12- to 43-years-old (M = 24.5 years, SD = 7). In each of four groups (N = 33, Males = 18), two models were trained to use one of two visually and functionally different ‘hook’ and ‘spoon’ tools to obtain baskets containing food that were otherwise out-of-reach. Once trained, the models demonstrated their tool-use in the presence of the group. The two models differed in their novel-task-solving proficiency as ascertained by prior interactions with novel tasks (also observed by group members) and caregiver ratings of each chimpanzee’s general proficiency. Two groups of ‘control’ chimpanzees (N = 21) had no prior information regarding the task and saw no conspecific demonstrations. Within the experimental groups, significantly more chimpanzees touched the tool used by the ‘high proficiency’ model than the one used by the ‘low proficiency’ model (p < 0.001), demonstrating some degree of model-based social learning bias. The tool used in observing chimpanzees’ first attempts and first successes, however, did not differ as a function of which model used the tool. This was likely because the task could be easily learned asocially. We propose that the chimpanzees’ tool-use behaviour was guided by biased stimulus enhancement alongside asocial learning. As with humans, chimpanzees demonstrate an ability to discern the most proficient model but also show the flexibility to asocially acquire multiple successful methods. Thus, chimpanzees and humans both demonstrate adaptive social learning strategies dictating when and whom they copy.

Social Learning Mechanisms

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Hoppitt ◽  
Kevin N. Laland
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Social Facilitation ◽  
Social Transmission ◽  
Pragmatic Approach ◽  
Local Enhancement ◽  
Learning Mechanisms ◽  
Response Facilitation ◽  
Stimulus Enhancement

This chapter presents a classification of social learning mechanisms and explains how these mechanisms can be distinguished empirically. In most published social learning studies it is very difficult to determine exactly which mechanisms are operating. This is because experiments are often not designed with this primary purpose. Nonetheless, in such cases a researcher may still wish to draw some inferences about the process underlying a particular case of social learning. The chapter discusses stimulus enhancement, local enhancement, observational conditioning, response facilitation, social facilitation, imitation, observational R-S learning, emulation, opportunity providing, inadvertent coaching, and production imitation. It also considers a pragmatic approach to characterizing mechanisms of social transmission.

Can Imitation in Pigeons be Explained by Local Enhancement Together with Trial-and-Error Learning?

1997 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 459-460 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daren H. Kaiser ◽  
Thomas R Zentall ◽  
Bennett G Galef
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Food Reward ◽  
Learning Processes ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Trial And Error ◽  
Local Enhancement ◽  
Control Groups ◽  
Imitative Learning ◽  
Error Learning ◽  
Social Learning Processes

Zentall Sutton and Sherburne (1996) reported that pigeons observing a conspecific demonstrator either step on or peck at a treadle to obtain food subsequently showed a significant tendency to manipulate the treadle as had their demonstrator Zentall et al suggested this finding showed observer pigeons had learned by imitation to peck at or step on the treadle However, the same result might have been obtained if pigeons had learned to step on the treadle by trial and error, and pigeons exposed to a treadle-pecking demonstrator had come to peck at the treadle as a result of nonimitative social-learning processes such as local enhancement or contagion Here we report the results for two control groups showing that pigeons do not learn to step on or peck at a treadle for food reward unless they observe a relevant demonstrator These results considerably strengthen the original conclusion Future research using the two action method to demonstrate imitative learning should include similar controls

scholarly journals Dopamine neurons of the VTA encode active conspecific interaction and promote social learning through social reward prediction error

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clément Prévost-Solié ◽  
Benoit Girard ◽  
Beatrice Righetti ◽  
Malika Tapparel ◽  
Camilla Bellone
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Prediction Error ◽  
Cooperative Behavior ◽  
Dopamine Neurons ◽  
Neuron Activity ◽  
Social Reward ◽  
Reward Prediction Error ◽  
Reward Prediction ◽  
Instrumental Task

AbstractSocial interactions motivate behavior in many species, facilitating learning, foraging and cooperative behavior. However, how the brain encodes the reinforcing properties of social interactions remains elusive. Here using in vivo recording in freely moving mice, we show that Dopamine (DA) neurons of the Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA) increase their activity during active interactions with unfamiliar conspecific. Using a social instrumental task, we then show that VTA DA neuron activity signals social reward prediction error and drives social reinforcement learning. Thereby, our findings propose that VTA DA neurons are a neural substrate for a social learning signal driving motivated behavior.One Sentence SummaryDA neurons are a substrate for social reward learning through the Social Reward Prediction Error.

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