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.

scholarly journals An exploration of the relationship between recruitment communication and foraging in stingless bees

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robbie I’Anson Price ◽  
Francisca Segers ◽  
Amelia Berger ◽  
Fabio S Nascimento ◽  
Christoph Grüter
Keyword(s):  
Stingless Bees ◽  
Sugar Content ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Food Resources ◽  
Food Sources ◽  
Foraging Strategies ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Recruitment Communication ◽  
Eusocial Bees ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract Social information is widely used in the animal kingdom and can be highly adaptive. In social insects, foragers can use social information to find food, avoid danger or choose a new nest site. Copying others allows individuals to obtain information without having to sample the environment. When foragers communicate information they will often only advertise high quality food sources, thereby filtering out less adaptive information. Stingless bees, a large pantropical group of highly eusocial bees, face intense inter- and intra-specific competition for limited resources, yet display disparate foraging strategies. Within the same environment there are species that communicate the location of food resources to nest-mates and species that do not. Our current understanding of why some species communicate foraging sites while others do not is limited. Studying freely foraging colonies of several co-existing stingless bee species in Brazil, we investigated if recruitment to specific food locations is linked to (1) the sugar content of forage, (2) the duration of foraging trips and (3) the variation in activity of a colony from one day to another and the variation in activity in a species over a day. We found that, contrary to our expectations, species with recruitment communication did not return with higher quality forage than species that do not recruit nestmates. Furthermore, foragers from recruiting species did not have shorter foraging trip durations than those from weakly-recruiting species. Given the intense inter- and intraspecific competition for resources in these environments, it may be that recruiting species favour food resources that can be monopolised by the colony rather than food sources that offer high-quality rewards.

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 Predictably harsh environment is associated with reduced cognitive flexibility in wild food-caching mountain chickadees

2017 ◽  
Vol 123 ◽  
pp. 139-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Croston ◽  
Carrie L. Branch ◽  
Angela M. Pitera ◽  
Dovid Y. Kozlovsky ◽  
Eli S. Bridge ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Flexibility ◽  
Wild Food ◽  
Harsh Environment ◽  
Food Caching ◽  
Mountain Chickadees

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 Changing our thinking about changing their thinking in older adulthood

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (9) ◽  
pp. 1405-1407
Author(s):  
Viviana M. Wuthrich
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Cognitive Flexibility ◽  
Cognitive Deficits ◽  
Processing Speed ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Anxiety And Depression ◽  
Cognitive Changes ◽  
Older Adulthood ◽  
New Learning

It is well-established that as people age, deterioration in cognitive abilities including processing speed, memory, and cognitive flexibility occurs, although vast individual differences occur in the rate and consequences of this decline (Christensen, 2001). Anxiety and depression in late life are also associated with specific cognitive deficits in memory and executive functioning that may impact on new learning (Yochim et al., 2013). Therefore, it is possible that cognitive changes make it more difficult for older adults to learn how to change their thinking particularly in the context of psychological therapy.

scholarly journals Pemahaman Lembaga Penyiaran Radio di Provinsi Sumatera Barat dalam Pemenuhan Kebutuhan Informasi Khalayak

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Ardian Ardian
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Mass Communication ◽  
Information Needs ◽  
Information Dissemination ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Research Data ◽  
Case Study Approach ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
Radio Broadcasting

This article describes about the analysis of  the understanding of institutions of broadcasting radios in west sumatera to fulfill the need of social information. This research is based from the phenomenon in the field showing the decrease of social interest in listening to a radio closed by the modernization of mass communication.  To reveal the reality in the field, this research used constructive paradigm, qualitative methods and case study approach. The research data was collected by interviewing 5 key informen and documentation study. Based on the result of analysis in the field in completing the need of social information, the researcher concluded as followed: (1) Radios in West Sumatera comprehend the 3 functions of communication in fulfilling social information needs: (a) information, (b) social learning, and (c) entertainment. That was seen from the constructions of the broadcasting programs produced; (2) In the effort of fulfilling the need of information, radios conduct surveys, observations and researches of the market that need information; and (3) Radio broadcasting board of West Sumatera comprehends that in information dissemination KPID of West Sumatera is the regulator taking roll in supervising the broadcasting programs and any kinds of violations than by the radios. 

scholarly journals Social learning and networks in Nestor parrots

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Daniel Donoghue
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Social Learning ◽  
Tool Use ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Habitat Modification ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Video Playback ◽  
Food Aversion ◽  
Network Analyses ◽  
The Social

<p>Social learning and network analyses are theorised to be of great utility in the context of behavioural conservation. For example, harnessing a species’ capacity for social learning may allow researchers to seed useful information into populations, while network analyses could provide a useful tool to monitor community stability, and predict pathways of pathogen transfer. Thus, an understanding of how individuals learn and the nature of the social networks within a population could enable the development of new behavioural based conservation interventions for species facing rapid environmental change, such as human-induced habitat modification. Parrots, the most threatened avian order worldwide, are notably underrepresented in the social learning and social network literature. This thesis addresses this knowledge gap by exploring social learning and networks using two endangered species of parrot; kākā (Nestor meridionalis) and kea (Nestor notabilis). The first study explores social learning of tool use in captive kea, using a trained kea demonstrator. The results from this experiment indicate that both social learning and play behaviour facilitated the uptake of tool use, and suggests that kea are highly sensitive to social information even when presented with complex tasks. The second study assesses whether wild kākā can socially learn novel string-pulling and food aversion behaviours from video playbacks of conspecific demonstrators. Although there was no evidence to indicate that kākā learn socially, these individuals also show no notable reaction to video playback of a familiar predator. Therefore, these results are likely due to difficulties in interpreting information on the screens, and not necessarily a reflection of their ability to perceive social information. In the final study, social network analysis (SNA) was performed to map social connectivity within wellington’s urban kākā population. SNA indicates that kākā form non-random social bonds, selectively associating with some individuals more than others, and also show high levels of dissimilarity in community composition at different feeding sites. Taken together, these results provide rare empirical evidence of social learning in a parrot species and suggest that even complicated seeded behaviours can quickly spread to other individuals. These findings may also be indicative of the difficulties in conducting video playback experiments in wild conditions, which is an area in need of future research. Overall, these findings contribute to the very limited body of research on social learning and networks in parrots, and provide information of potential value in the management of these species.</p>

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