Flock Size and Behaviour in Captive Red-Billed Weaverbirds (Quelea Quelea): Implications for Social Facilitation and the Functions of Flocking

Behaviour ◽  
1979 ◽  
Vol 71 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 127-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Lazarus
Keyword(s):  
Social Facilitation ◽  
Feeding Behaviour ◽  
Alternative Interpretation ◽  
Flock Size ◽  
Weak Effect ◽  
Head Turning ◽  
The Social ◽  
Feeding Habitat ◽  
Normal Feeding ◽  
Escape Responses

AbstractAs a consequence of the anti-predator functions of flocking it is predicted that as flock size increases individual birds will (i) spend less time vigilant for predators and more time feeding, and (2) show fewer escape responses. These predictions are corroborated here in experiments with captive flocks of the red-billed weaverbird Quelea quelea varying in size from I to 32 individuals. In Experiment i the presence of companions reduced feeding latency and increased the rate of pecking. Feeding behaviour by the companion(s) was not necessary to produce these effects and did not produce additional facilitation of the rate of pecking, but feeding companions were more potent facilitators of the onset of pecking than non-feeding companions. The number of companions influenced different measures of feeding in different ways but facilitation reached a ceiling with three companions. These and other findings in the social facilitation literature are interpreted in the light of various propositions concerning the functions of flocking behaviour. In Experiment 2 undisturbed birds with companions made less frequent head-turns (possibly vigilant responses), wing-flicks (flight intention movements), hops and flights than birds on their own but the number of companions had no effect on the frequency of these responses. All responses correlated significantly and positively across individuals. Solitary individuals were more often perched, and less often on the ground, than those in flocks, a finding compatible with greater safety in flocks in the normal feeding habitat of the species. These (undisturbed) birds, in flocks of 1, 2 and 4, had lower rates of head-turning than those in another experiment (LAZARUS, 1979), which had been subjected to 10 alarm stimuli; in larger flocks there was no difference in the rate of head-turning. An alternative interpretation of the experimental results is evaluated and a possible reason for the weak effect of flock size considered.

Social facilitation in the feeding behaviour of pigs and the effect of rank

1984 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 265-270 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liang Chou Hsia ◽  
D.G.M. Wood-Gush
Keyword(s):  
Social Facilitation ◽  
Feeding Behaviour

Antiphonal exchanges in African elephants (Loxodonta africana): collective response to a shared stimulus, social facilitation, or true communicative event?

Behaviour ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 145 (3) ◽  
pp. 297-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Savage ◽  
Joseph Soltis ◽  
Katherine Leighty ◽  
Kirsten Leong
Keyword(s):  
Social Facilitation ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Individual Identification ◽  
Vocal Response ◽  
African Elephants ◽  
Facilitation Effect ◽  
The Social ◽  
Independent Effects ◽  
The Individual ◽  
External Stimuli

AbstractFemale African elephants are thought to exchange 'rumble' vocalizations, but such temporally associated calls may not constitute communicative events. Affiliated females are more likely to engage in antiphonal calling, but affiliation is defined according to time spent in proximity. Affiliated partners may vocalize in sequence simply because their proximity causes them to collectively respond to shared external stimuli or due to a social facilitation effect. We used bi-variate and partial correlation analyses to test for the independent effects of the strength of the social relationship and distance between vocal partners on the likelihood of a vocal response. Female African elephants at Disney's Animal Kingdom were video-taped and outfitted with audio-recording collars that allowed for the individual identification of low-frequency rumbles. Affiliation had a strong influence on response likelihood, even after controlling for the effects of the distance between vocalizing partners. Further, the distance between vocalizing partners did not correlate with response likelihood, and factoring out the effects of affiliation did not significantly alter this result. These results suggest that rumble exchanges are communicative events that reflect social bonds, not simply artifacts of increased proximity and, therefore, provide support for functional hypotheses concerning rumble exchanges in wild African elephants.

Social Facilitation, Affiliation, and Dominance in the Social Life of Spotted Hyenas

1997 ◽  
Vol 807 (1 Integrative N) ◽  
pp. 175-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
STEPHEN E. GLICKMAN ◽  
CYNTHIA J. ZABEL ◽  
SONJA I. YOERG ◽  
MARY L. WELDELE ◽  
CHRISTINE M. DREA ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Social Facilitation ◽  
The Social ◽  
Spotted Hyenas

Behaviour of the Bilby, Macrotis lagotis (Reid), (Marsupialia : Thylacomyidae) in Captivity

1983 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 77 ◽  
Author(s):  
CN Johnson ◽  
KA Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Social Structure ◽  
Feeding Behaviour ◽  
Dominance Hierarchy ◽  
Dominant Male ◽  
Alpha Male ◽  
The Social ◽  
In Captivity ◽  
Below Ground ◽  
Activity Cycles ◽  
Central Australia

The behaviour was observed, in captivity, of the bilby Macrotis lagotis, a fossorial bandicoot of central Australia. Most of the observations were made at night, but some were of below-ground behaviour during the daylight hours. Bilbies proved to be relatively passive in comparison with other bandicoots, and a rigid dominance hierarchy amongst males was maintained without destructive fighting. Dominant males chased subordinate males out of and away from burrows and the alpha male maintained priority of access to all the well used burrows in the enclosure. Males scent-marked around burrows; the dominant male usually marked over scents left by other bilbies. Males shared burrows freely with females, and copulation appears to take place down burrows. Information is also given on female-female and mother-young behaviour, and some suggestions are made concerning the social structure of wild bilbies. Activity cycles, feeding behaviour, etc. are described.

scholarly journals Psychiatric Institutions and the Physical Environment: Combining Medical Architecture Methodologies and Architectural Morphology to Increase Our Understanding

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evangelia Chrysikou
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Configuration ◽  
Alternative Interpretation ◽  
Syntactic Analysis ◽  
Social Fabric ◽  
Patient Interviews ◽  
The Social ◽  
Care Models ◽  
Acute Psychiatric Wards ◽  
Experimental Approaches ◽  
Social Logic

The pluralism that characterized the development of psychiatric services around the world created a variety of policies, care models and building types, and fostered experimental approaches. Increased complexities of care, institutional remnants, stigma, and the limited diagnostic and interventional accuracy of psychiatric treatments resulted in institutional behaviors surviving, even in newly built facilities. This was raised by research on awarded psychiatric buildings. The locus of the research comprised two acute psychiatric wards in London. Each was evaluated using the SCP model, a tool specifically developed for the evaluation of mental health facilities, identifying the relation between policy, care regime, and patient-focused environment. Data were derived from plans, visits, and staff and patient interviews. Findings were juxtaposed to those of an earlier study using the same methodology. Also, a syntactic analysis was conducted, to identify the social logic of ward layouts. There were potential connections between regimes, spatial configuration, and the social fabric. Methodologies of architectural morphologies indicated areas that would attract people because of the layout rather than function. However, insights into medical architecture outlined institutional undercurrents and provided alternative interpretation to spatial analysis. Comprehending the social fabric of psychiatric facilities could challenge the current surveillance-led model, as psychosocial rehabilitation uses could be encouraged at points of higher integration.

Status and Evaluation Potential in the Social Facilitation and Impairment of Task Performance

1979 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 381-385 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franklin G. Miller ◽  
Marion F. Hurkman ◽  
Jennesse Barker Robinson ◽  
Richard A. Feinberg
Keyword(s):  
Task Performance ◽  
Social Facilitation ◽  
The Social

Failure and its Relationship to the Social Facilitation Effect: Evidence for a Learned Drive Interpretation of the Social Facilitation Effect

1978 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 823-829 ◽  
Author(s):  
John P. Lombardo ◽  
John F. Catalano
Keyword(s):  
Conditioned Stimulus ◽  
Classical Conditioning ◽  
Factorial Design ◽  
Social Facilitation ◽  
Motor Task ◽  
The Other ◽  
Facilitation Effect ◽  
The Social ◽  
Complex Motor ◽  
Drive Effect

Social facilitation theory states that an audience functions as a conditioned stimulus for generalized drive and that this drive effect is learned through classical conditioning. In the present study an attempt was made to condition classically an aversive drive to an audience by having a subject fail a task in front of an audience. A sample of 61 subjects took part in a 2 × 2 factorial design. Half of the subjects did not perform a first task but only a complex motor task. Half of these subjects performed in the presence of an audience, half without an audience present. Of those subjects exposed to failure on the first task, half performed a second complex motor task in the presence of the same audience. Results indicated that performance of subjects who failed a first task in the presence of an audience and then performed the second task in the presence of that audience was significantly poorer than all of the other groups. The findings were taken as evidence that the social facilitation effect may be based on an aversive learned drive.

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