Learning to Manage Global Environmental Risks, vols. 1 & 2. By The Social Learning Group. Edited by William C. Clark, Nancy Dickson, Jill Jäger, and Josee van Eijndhoven. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001. Vol. 1: $75.00 cloth, $30.00 paper. Vol. 2: $60.00 cloth, $27.00 paper.

2002 ◽  
Vol 96 (3) ◽  
pp. 681-682
Author(s):  
Elizabeth R. DeSombre
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Environmental Risks ◽  
African Continent ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Mountain Ranges ◽  
Learning Group ◽  
Social Nature ◽  
Change Direction ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
The Social

I have a colleague who collects maps of Africa that demonstrate a specific phenomenon: the developed world's unlearning of African geography. Across the centuries, the maps seem to show that mapmakers know less about the geography of the African continent—particularly the internal parts—than previously was the case. Rivers change direction; mountain ranges disappear. This unlearning, my colleague argues, comes from notions about the acceptability of sources of information previously used. These maps show the social nature of “learning,” the idea that while in many cases there may be actual answers (after all, African geography exists), what information you look for, and from whom, determines how you will view the information you get, and ultimately what you will do with it.

scholarly journals When to approach novel prey cues? Social learning strategies in frog-eating bats

2013 ◽  
Vol 280 (1772) ◽  
pp. 20132330 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia L. Jones ◽  
Michael J. Ryan ◽  
Victoria Flores ◽  
Rachel A. Page
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Mobile Phone ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Social Transmission ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
The Social ◽  
Trachops Cirrhosus ◽  
Different Sources ◽  
Social Learning Strategies

Animals can use different sources of information when making decisions. Foraging animals often have access to both self-acquired and socially acquired information about prey. The fringe-lipped bat, Trachops cirrhosus , hunts frogs by approaching the calls that frogs produce to attract mates. We examined how the reliability of self-acquired prey cues affects social learning of novel prey cues. We trained bats to associate an artificial acoustic cue (mobile phone ringtone) with food rewards. Bats were assigned to treatments in which the trained cue was either an unreliable indicator of reward (rewarded 50% of the presentations) or a reliable indicator (rewarded 100% of the presentations), and they were exposed to a conspecific tutor foraging on a reliable (rewarded 100%) novel cue or to the novel cue with no tutor. Bats whose trained cue was unreliable and who had a tutor were significantly more likely to preferentially approach the novel cue when compared with bats whose trained cue was reliable, and to bats that had no tutor. Reliability of self-acquired prey cues therefore affects social learning of novel prey cues by frog-eating bats. Examining when animals use social information to learn about novel prey is key to understanding the social transmission of foraging innovations.

scholarly journals Catecholamine Challenge Uncovers Distinct Mechanisms for Direct Versus Indirect, but Not Social Versus Non-Social, Learning

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer L. Cook ◽  
Jennifer C. Swart ◽  
Monja I. Froböse ◽  
Andreea Diaconescu ◽  
Dirk E. M. Geurts ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Learning ◽  
Individual Learning ◽  
Additional Source ◽  
Direct Experience ◽  
Positive Evidence ◽  
Social Nature ◽  
The Social ◽  
Direct Learning ◽  
Indirect Source

ABSTRACTEvidence that social and individual learning are at least partially dissociable sustains the belief that humans possess adaptive specialisations for social learning. However, in most extant paradigms, social information comprises an indirect source that can be used to supplement one’s own, direct, experience. Thus, social and individual learning differ both in terms of social nature (social versus non-social) and directness (indirect versus direct). To test whether the dissociation between social and individual learning is best explained in terms of social nature or directness, we used a catecholaminergic challenge known to modulate learning. Two groups completed a decision-making task which required direct learning, from own experience, and indirect learning from an additional source. The groups differed in terms of whether the indirect source was social or non-social. The catecholamine transporter blocker, methylphenidate, affected direct learning by improving adaptation to changes in the volatility of the environment but there was no effect of methylphenidate on learning from the social or non-social indirect source. Thus, we report positive evidence for a dissociable effect of methylphenidate on direct and indirect learning, but no evidence for a distinction between social and non-social. These data fail to support the adaptive specialisation view, instead providing evidence for distinct mechanisms for direct versus indirect learning.

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