scholarly journals Evolution of heterogeneous perceptual limits and indifference in competitive foraging

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. e1008734
Author(s):  
Richard P. Mann
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Environmental Variability ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Ideal Free Distribution ◽  
Collective Behaviour ◽  
Patch Selection ◽  
Collective Wisdom ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Perceptual Limits

The collective behaviour of animal and human groups emerges from the individual decisions and actions of their constituent members. Recent research has revealed many ways in which the behaviour of groups can be influenced by differences amongst their constituent individuals. The existence of individual differences that have implications for collective behaviour raises important questions. How are these differences generated and maintained? Are individual differences driven by exogenous factors, or are they a response to the social dilemmas these groups face? Here I consider the classic case of patch selection by foraging agents under conditions of social competition. I introduce a multilevel model wherein the perceptual sensitivities of agents evolve in response to their foraging success or failure over repeated patch selections. This model reveals a bifurcation in the population, creating a class of agents with no perceptual sensitivity. These agents exploit the social environment to avoid the costs of accurate perception, relying on other agents to make fitness rewards insensitive to the choice of foraging patch. This provides a individual-based evolutionary basis for models incorporating perceptual limits that have been proposed to explain observed deviations from the Ideal Free Distribution (IFD) in empirical studies, while showing that the common assumption in such models that agents share identical sensory limits is likely false. Further analysis of the model shows how agents develop perceptual strategic niches in response to environmental variability. The emergence of agents insensitive to reward differences also has implications for societal resource allocation problems, including the use of financial and prediction markets as mechanisms for aggregating collective wisdom.

Dynamic roles of social presence and individual differences in social TV platforms

2021 ◽  
pp. 135485652110575
Author(s):  
Jihyun Kim ◽  
Kelly Merrill
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Social Presence ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Unique Form ◽  
Tv Viewing ◽  
Television Content ◽  
Social Tv ◽  
The Social ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
The Individual

These days, many individuals engage in a unique form of TV viewing that includes a simultaneous act of watching television content and talking about it with others in a mediated environment. This phenomenon is commonly referred to as social TV viewing. Responding to the popularity of this form of TV viewing behavior, the present study examines the individual differences of the social TV viewing experience, particularly with regard to different communication platforms (e.g. private vs. public). Based on the data collected from an online survey, primary findings indicate that extroverted and lonely individuals have different social TV viewing experiences such as preferences for a particular type of platforms for social TV viewing. Further, social presence plays an important role in the understanding of social TV enjoyment in private and public platforms.

scholarly journals Social learning strategies regulate the wisdom and madness of interactive crowds

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wataru Toyokawa ◽  
Andrew Whalen ◽  
Kevin N. Laland
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Group Size ◽  
Collective Intelligence ◽  
Collective Wisdom ◽  
The Social ◽  
Challenging Tasks ◽  
Task Uncertainty ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Social Learning Strategies

AbstractWhy groups of individuals sometimes exhibit collective ‘wisdom’ and other times maladaptive ‘herding’ is an enduring conundrum. Here we show that this apparent conflict is regulated by the social learning strategies deployed. We examined the patterns of human social learning through an interactive online experiment with 699 participants, varying both task uncertainty and group size, then used hierarchical Bayesian model-ftting to identify the individual learning strategies exhibited by participants. Challenging tasks elicit greater conformity amongst individuals, with rates of copying increasing with group size, leading to high probabilities of herding amongst large groups confronted with uncertainty. Conversely, the reduced social learning of small groups, and the greater probability that social information would be accurate for less-challenging tasks, generated ‘wisdom of the crowd’ effects in other circumstances. Our model-based approach provides evidence that the likelihood of collective intelligence versus herding can be predicted, resolving a longstanding puzzle in the literature.

Technologies for investigating large ensemble performance

2021 ◽  
pp. 119-128
Author(s):  
Cayenna Ponchione-Bailey ◽  
Eric F. Clarke
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Large Ensemble ◽  
Ensemble Performance ◽  
Stimulated Recall ◽  
The Social ◽  
Large Ensembles ◽  
Technological Developments ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Practical Factors

Empirical research into large ensemble performance has crossed many disciplinary boundaries from music education to management studies, and has included the investigation of musicians’ interpersonal coordination and communication, group creativity and decision-making, conductors’ gestures, group musical expression, the social organization of large groups and their leadership, audience perceptions of performances, the individual and social benefits of participation, and rehearsal practices. However, there are still relatively few empirical studies of large ensemble performance, due to the social and practical factors that make it challenging to collect research data from large numbers of people engaged in a complex musical activity. Technological developments have increasingly expanded the research methods available to include sophisticated audio capture and analysis, web-based video-stimulated recall, and motion capture. This chapter discusses the challenges faced by researchers investigating large ensembles and describes some of the technological solutions that are opening up new avenues for data collection and analysis.

New Outlines of Structural Sociology, 1945–70

2019 ◽  
pp. 63-85
Author(s):  
J.P.S. Uberoi
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Scientific Theory ◽  
World View ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Home Rule ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Indian Point

This chapter presents a discussion of international intellectual trends in the social sciences, theoretical and empirical studies in India, the question of independence of mind or home rule in intellectual institutions. Following the swarajist project outlined earlier of viewing Europe and its systems of knowledge and practices from an independent Indian point of view, this chapter is in effect a research outline for a new structural sociology in India. We are introduced to structuralism as it exists in the world, its scope and definition and as a methodology for the social sciences. This is followed by the approach to structuralism as scientific theory, method and as philosophical world view. Finally discusses are the principles of structural analysis, structuralism in language, literature and culture, in social structure, with regard to society and the individual, religion, philosophy, politics, sociology and social-anthropology.

The Influences and Responses of Women in IT Education

2011 ◽  
pp. 3293-3298
Author(s):  
K. J. Maser
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Sociocultural Factors ◽  
American University ◽  
Women In It ◽  
The Social ◽  
It Department ◽  
It Education ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Female Responses ◽  
Gender And It

This article highlights findings from an empirical study that explores the nature of female underrepresentation in information technology. Specifically, this research focuses on (a) identifying key sociocultural factors that can facilitate the pursuit of IT at the undergraduate level, and (b) testing Trauth’s (2002) Individual Differences Theory of Gender and IT through a comparison of female responses to the social construction of IT. To answer the author’s research questions, interviews were conducted with 10 female seniors in an IT department at an American university in the mid-Atlantic region (MAU).1 Although experiences with social factors vary, comparing the stories of women who have successfully navigated their way into and through an IT undergraduate degree program reveals common influences and motivations. In addition, though some common factors may facilitate female entry into the field, the Individual Differences Theory of Gender and IT explains that women will react differently to the social constructions of gender and IT. By gaining a better understanding of the gender imbalance, applying appropriate theories to explain the problem, and uncovering the challenges that women of our society face in their entry to the field of IT, collegiate programs can more effectively implement strategies that will improve the recruitment and retention of female students.

Life-Span Changes in Activities, and Consequent Changes in the Cognition and Assessment of the Environment

1992 ◽  
Author(s):  
Spencer Christopher
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Life Span ◽  
Social Role ◽  
Life Stage ◽  
Test Bed ◽  
Environmental Cognition ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Life Course ◽  
Adaptive Nature

In this chapter, I sketch an integrated account of environmental assessment, cognition, and action throughout the individual’s life span. Zimring and Gross (this volume) have already described how the schema is structured to include all three aspects; Canter (this volume) has extended this to stress the social context of meanings and actions in which these schema operate; and this chapter accepts and develops their positions. What further can a life-span approach add to the arguments advanced in these earlier integrative chapters? Liben (this volume) has already stated the case most powerfully with respect to her topic, environmental cognition; and it can as easily be applied to evaluation and action. A life-span approach enables development to be put in context: what earlier stages have so far equipped the individual to do, what the demands of the current situation are on the individual, and how variations at the present stage can affect later development. Taking this developmental perspective throws the emphasis on process and on the adaptive nature of the environmental schema for the particular life stage reached by the individual. As such, the perspective provides a test bed for examining the range of theoretical relationships between affect, cognition, and action in the environment advanced in earlier chapters. The life-span approach can also serve to reintroduce into the field a sense of the importance of individual differences, and continuities of individuality through life, which is conspicuously missing from many of the earlier chapters. The developmental tradition within psychology has not, as a whole, stressed individual differences as much as has done the life-span developmental. The life-span perspective has been much concerned with continuities and developments within the individual, as goals and tasks change over the life course. Much mainstream “developmental” research lacks this sense of continuity, being often presented as a series of snapshots of the typical child at different ages or stages. In contrast, the life-span approach, as Liben’s chapter reminds us, emphasizes the processes whereby developments occur, and conceptualizes this development as affected by biological changes, psychological development, changes in the individual’s social role and context, cultural forces, and historical changes during the individual’s life span.

scholarly journals Individual differences in learning behaviours in humans: Asocial exploration tendency does not predict reliance on social learning

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wataru Toyokawa ◽  
Yoshimatsu Saito ◽  
Tatsuya Kameda
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Social Learning ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Learning Strategy ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Information Use ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Information Use ◽  
Exploration Exploitation

AbstractA number of empirical studies have suggested that individual differences in asocial exploration tendencies in animals may be related to those in social information use. However, because the ‘exploration tendency’ in most previous studies has been measured without considering the exploration-exploitation trade-off, it is yet hard to conclude that the animal asocial ‘exploration-exploitation’ tendency may be tied to social information use. Here, we studied human learning behaviour in both asocial and social multi-armed bandit tasks. By fitting reinforcement learning models including asocial and/or social decision processes, we measured each individual’s (1) asocial exploration tendency and (2) social information use. We found consistent individual differences in the exploration tendency in the asocial tasks. We also found substantive heterogeneity in the adopted learning strategies in the social task: One-third of participants were most likely to have used the copy-when-uncertain strategy, while the remaining two-thirds were most likely to have relied only on asocial learning. However, we found no significant individual association between the exploration frequency in the asocial task and the use of the social learning strategy in the social task. Our results suggest that the social learning strategies may be independent from the asocial search strategies in humans.

The Influences and Responses of Women in IT Education

2011 ◽  
pp. 808-812
Author(s):  
Kathryn J. Maser
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Sociocultural Factors ◽  
American University ◽  
Women In It ◽  
The Social ◽  
It Department ◽  
It Education ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Female Responses ◽  
Gender And It

This article highlights findings from an empirical study that explores the nature of female underrepresentation in information technology. Specifically, this research focuses on (a) identifying key sociocultural factors that can facilitate the pursuit of IT at the undergraduate level, and (b) testing Trauth’s (2002) Individual Differences Theory of Gender and IT through a comparison of female responses to the social construction of IT. To answer the author’s research questions, interviews were conducted with 10 female seniors in an IT department at an American university in the mid-Atlantic region (MAU).1 Although experiences with social factors vary, comparing the stories of women who have successfully navigated their way into and through an IT undergraduate degree program reveals common influences and motivations. In addition, though some common factors may facilitate female entry into the field, the Individual Differences Theory of Gender and IT explains that women will react differently to the social constructions of gender and IT. By gaining a better understanding of the gender imbalance, applying appropriate theories to explain the problem, and uncovering the challenges that women of our society face in their entry to the field of IT, collegiate programs can more effectively implement strategies that will improve the recruitment and retention of female students.

Differences in Decision Time between Extraverts and Introverts under the “Task-Oriented Situation” and the “Ego-Oriented Situation”

1978 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 563-566 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kunio Shiomi
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Decision Time ◽  
Personality Inventory ◽  
Conflict Situations ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Task Oriented

The individual differences in decision time for conflict situations were investigated chiefly in the contexts of extraversion and introversion measured by the Maudsley Personality Inventory and the Social Extraversion scores of Yatabe-Guilford Personality Inventory. Under “task-oriented instruction” introverts decided faster than extraverts but with “ego-oriented instruction” extraverts decided faster than introverts. These results were discussed in terms of personality traits of introverts and extraverts.

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.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document