scholarly journals Task allocation and site fidelity jointly influence foraging regulation in honeybee colonies

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (8) ◽  
pp. 170344 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thiago Mosqueiro ◽  
Chelsea Cook ◽  
Ramon Huerta ◽  
Jürgen Gadau ◽  
Brian Smith ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Site Fidelity ◽  
Collective Behaviour ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Resource Collection ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Collective Foraging ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Colony Level ◽  
And Task

Variation in behaviour among group members often impacts collective outcomes. Individuals may vary both in the task that they perform and in the persistence with which they perform each task. Although both the distribution of individuals among tasks and differences among individuals in behavioural persistence can each impact collective behaviour, we do not know if and how they jointly affect collective outcomes. Here, we use a detailed computational model to examine the joint impact of colony-level distribution among tasks and behavioural persistence of individuals, specifically their fidelity to particular resource sites, on the collective trade-off between exploring for new resources and exploiting familiar ones. We developed an agent-based model of foraging honeybees, parametrized by data from five colonies, in which we simulated scouts, who search the environment for new resources, and individuals who are recruited by the scouts to the newly found resources, i.e. recruits. We varied the persistence of returning to a particular food source of both scouts and recruits and found that, for each value of persistence, there is a different optimal ratio of scouts to recruits that maximizes resource collection by the colony. Furthermore, changes to the persistence of scouts induced opposite effects from changes to the persistence of recruits on the collective foraging of the colony. The proportion of scouts that resulted in the most resources collected by the colony decreased as the persistence of recruits increased. However, this optimal proportion of scouts increased as the persistence of scouts increased. Thus, behavioural persistence and task participation can interact to impact a colony's collective behaviour in orthogonal directions. Our work provides new insights and generates new hypotheses into how variations in behaviour at both the individual and colony levels jointly impact the trade-off between exploring for new resources and exploiting familiar ones.

scholarly journals Collective behaviour is not robust to disturbance, yet parent and offspring colonies resemble each other in social spiders

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
David N. Fisher ◽  
James L.L. Lichtenstein ◽  
Raul Costa-Pereira ◽  
Justin Yeager ◽  
Jonathan N. Pruitt
Keyword(s):  
Initial Conditions ◽  
Collective Behaviour ◽  
Group Level ◽  
Natural Conditions ◽  
Social Spider ◽  
The Social ◽  
Parent Colony ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Collective Foraging ◽  
The Stability

AbstractGroups of animals possess phenotypes such as collective behaviour, which may determine the fitness of group members. However, the stability and robustness to perturbations of collective phenotypes in natural conditions is not established. Furthermore, whether group phenotypes are transmitted from parent to offspring groups is required for understanding how selection on group phenotypes contributes to evolution, but parent-offspring resemblance at the group level is rarely estimated. We evaluated robustness to perturbation and parent-offspring resemblance of collective foraging aggressiveness in colonies of the social spider Anelosimus eximius. Among-colony differences in foraging aggressiveness were consistent over time but changed if the colony was perturbed through the removal of individuals, or via their removal and subsequent return. Offspring and parent colony behaviour were correlated, but only once the offspring colony had settled after being translocated. The parent-offspring resemblance was not driven by a shared elevation but could be due to other environmental factors. Laboratory collective behaviour was not correlated with behaviour in the field. Colony aggression seems sensitive to initial conditions and easily perturbed between behavioural states. Despite this sensitivity, offspring colonies have collective behaviour that resembles that of their parent colony, provided they are given enough time to settle into the environment.

scholarly journals Individual willingness to leave a safe refuge and the trade-off between food and safety: a test with social fish

2019 ◽  
Vol 286 (1907) ◽  
pp. 20190826 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesse Balaban-Feld ◽  
William A. Mitchell ◽  
Burt P. Kotler ◽  
Sundararaj Vijayan ◽  
Lotan T. Tov Elem ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Predation Risk ◽  
Foraging Behaviour ◽  
Foraging Success ◽  
Group Foraging ◽  
Refuge Use ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Individual Fish ◽  
Risk Of Predation ◽  
Group Members ◽  
The Individual

Refuges offer prey animals protection from predation, but increased time spent hiding can reduce foraging opportunities. Within social groups, individuals vary in their refuge use and willingness to forage in the presence of a predator. Here, we examine the relative foraging benefits and mortality costs associated with individual refuge use and foraging behaviour within groups of goldfish ( Carassius auratus ) under predation risk from an avian predator (little egret— Egretta garzetta ). We assessed individual order of emergence from the refuge and participation over 15 group foraging outings, and assigned each fish a daily outing index score. The individual fish that emerged from the refuge earlier than the other group members and that participated in more outings received high outing index scores and consumed more food compared with fish that tended to emerge in posterior positions and participate in fewer outings. However, individual fish that attained high outing index scores suffered a higher risk of predation. Furthermore, the amount of time the egret spent at the pool affected group foraging behaviour: as predation risk increased, groups of fish consumed significantly less food. Our results exemplify the trade-off between foraging success and safety from predation that prey species regularly experience.

scholarly journals The legacy effects of keystone individuals on collective behaviour scale to how long they remain within a group

2015 ◽  
Vol 282 (1814) ◽  
pp. 20151766 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan N. Pruitt ◽  
Noa Pinter-Wollman
Keyword(s):  
Foraging Behaviour ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Prey Capture ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Collective Behaviour ◽  
Legacy Effects ◽  
Social Spider ◽  
The Social ◽  
Collective Foraging ◽  
The Individual

The collective behaviour of social groups is often strongly influenced by one or few individuals, termed here ‘keystone individuals’. We examined whether the influence of keystone individuals on collective behaviour lingers after their departure and whether these lingering effects scale with their tenure in the group. In the social spider, Stegodyphus dumicola , colonies' boldest individuals wield a disproportionately large influence over colony behaviour. We experimentally manipulated keystones' tenure in laboratory-housed colonies and tracked their legacy effects on collective prey capture following their removal. We found that bolder keystones caused more aggressive collective foraging behaviour and catalysed greater inter-individual variation in boldness within their colonies. The longer keystones remained in a colony, the longer both of these effects lingered after their departure. Our data demonstrate that, long after their disappearance, keystones have large and lasting effects on social dynamics at both the individual and colony levels.

Welfare tradeoff psychology is present in children and adults

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rhea M Howard ◽  
Annie C. Spokes ◽  
Samuel A Mehr ◽  
Max Krasnow
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Context ◽  
Opportunity Cost ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Contextual Features ◽  
Limited Experience ◽  
The Individual

Making decisions in a social context often requires weighing one's own wants against the needs and preferences of others. Adults are adept at incorporating multiple contextual features when deciding how to trade off their welfare against another. For example, they are more willing to forgo a resource to benefit friends over strangers (a feature of the individual) or when the opportunity cost of giving up the resource is low (a feature of the situation). When does this capacity emerge in development? In Experiment 1 (N = 208), we assessed the decisions of 4- to 10-year-old children in a picture-based resource tradeoff task to test two questions: (1) When making repeated decisions to either benefit themselves or benefit another person, are children’s choices internally consistent with a particular valuation of that individual? (2) Do children value friends more highly than strangers and enemies? We find that children demonstrate consistent person-specific welfare valuations and value friends more highly than strangers and enemies. In Experiment 2 (N = 200), we tested adults using the same pictorial method. The pattern of results successfully replicated, but adults’ decisions were more consistent than children’s and they expressed more extreme valuations: relative to the children, they valued friends more and valued enemies less. We conclude that despite children’s limited experience allocating resources and navigating complex social networks, they behave like adults in that they reference a stable person-specific valuation when deciding whether to benefit themselves or another and that this rule is modulated by the child’s relationship with the target.

The Epistemology of Groups

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Lackey
Keyword(s):  
Group Level ◽  
Social Significance ◽  
Individual Group ◽  
Key Concepts ◽  
Normative Requirements ◽  
Group Members ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Belief Justification ◽  
In Virtue Of ◽  
Trump Administration

Groups are often said to bear responsibility for their actions, many of which have enormous moral, legal, and social significance. The Trump Administration, for instance, is said to be responsible for the U.S.’s inept and deceptive handling of COVID-19 and the harms that American citizens have suffered as a result. But are groups subject to normative assessment simply in virtue of their individual members being so, or are they somehow agents in their own right? Answering this question depends on understanding key concepts in the epistemology of groups, as we cannot hold the Trump Administration responsible without first determining what it believed, knew, and said. Deflationary theorists hold that group phenomena can be understood entirely in terms of individual members and their states. Inflationary theorists maintain that group phenomena are importantly over and above, or otherwise distinct from, individual members and their states. It is argued that neither approach is satisfactory. Groups are more than their members, but not because they have “minds of their own,” as the inflationists hold. Instead, this book shows how group phenomena—like belief, justification, and knowledge—depend on what the individual group members do or are capable of doing while being subject to group-level normative requirements. This framework, it is argued, allows for the correct distribution of responsibility across groups and their individual members.

Time-accuracy trade-off and task partitioning of hygienic behavior among honey bee (Apis mellifera) workers

2021 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine R. Barrs ◽  
M. Omar Ani ◽  
Kimberlyn K. Eversman ◽  
Jonathan T. Rowell ◽  
Kaira M. Wagoner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Apis Mellifera ◽  
Honey Bee ◽  
Hygienic Behavior ◽  
Task Partitioning ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Time Accuracy ◽  
And Task

scholarly journals Decentralised sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas) vine multiplication in Lake Zone, Tanzania: Five years later

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 677-689
Author(s):  
Margaret A. McEwan ◽  
Conny J. M. Almekinders ◽  
Moses S. Matui ◽  
Dorothy Lusheshanija ◽  
Mariana Massawe ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Group Dynamics ◽  
Ipomoea Batatas ◽  
Water Access ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
Lake Zone ◽  
Norms And Values ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Market Factors ◽  
The Individual

AbstractFarmer-based seed multiplication is widely promoted by development practitioners, but there is limited understanding of the individual or collective motivations of farmers to engage or disengage in specialised seed production. The objective of this study is to understand the factors influencing the continuity of sweetpotato vine multiplication enterprises in the Lake Zone of Tanzania, five years after support from a project ended. A total of 81 out of 88 trained group or individual decentralised vine multipliers (DVMs) were traced to assess their vine multiplication activities. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected through telephone and field interviews. Our data showed that 40% of the 81 DVMs had sold vines in the year prior to the study and 20% had maintained the improved varieties for their own use. Some group members had continued vine sales as individuals. The DVMs’ reasons for abandoning vine multiplication included climatic and water access issues, market factors and group dynamics. The DVMs did not engage in high volumes of commercial sales. Socio-economic norms and values underpin the transactions of sweetpotato vines. These norms may undermine the emergence of commercially viable enterprises yet seem navigable for a substantial number of the DVMs. Group DVMs seem less commercially successful than individuals.

Volunteering as Group Spokesman as a Function of Task Effectiveness, Leader Success, and Task Similarity

1971 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 911-917
Author(s):  
Jack M. Wright ◽  
Morgan Worthy
Keyword(s):  
Task Success ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Task Similarity ◽  
Type Apparatus ◽  
And Task

By reversing the procedure in a Crutchfield-type apparatus, the frequency of adopting the job of spokesman for one's group was studied as a function of the following variables: effectiveness of performance on a previous task, success in influencing the behavior of other group members; and task similarity. Results for 64 male Ss indicate that persons are most willing to function as spokesmen for the group when they have been effective on an earlier task. This is especially likely when the earlier task is similar to the task on which they volunteer as spokesmen or when Ss had been unable to influence other group members' judgments on the previous task. The interpretation is advanced that some types of leadership attempts occur more readily on the basis of feeling of adequacy on the task than on feelings of acceptance as leader (i.e., successful influence).

scholarly journals Interactive, Compensatory Reading Strategies

1996 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-70
Author(s):  
Gregory Schraw
Keyword(s):  
Reading Instruction ◽  
Reading Strategies ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Structural Relation ◽  
External Constraints ◽  
Compensatory Strategy ◽  
Text Information ◽  
And Task

Three experiments examined the trade-off between the text-based and task-based importance. Text-based importance was defined as information in a text that is important due to its structural relation to other text segments. Task-based importance was defined as text information that is important due to external constraints such as instructions. Undergraduates in this study spontaneously adopted an interactive, compensatory strategy in which task-based importance superseded the role of text-based importance. Implications for reading instruction and practice were discussed.

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