scholarly journals Social comparison impacts stimulus evaluation in a competitive social learning task

PLoS ONE ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. e0234397
Author(s):  
Rebecca Burnside ◽  
Markus Ullsperger
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Social Comparison ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Stimulus Evaluation

Epistemic and relational conflicts in sharing identical vs. complementary information during cooperative learning

2002 ◽  
Vol 61 (3) ◽  
pp. 139-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Céline Darnon ◽  
Céline Buchs ◽  
Fabrizio Butera
Keyword(s):  
Cooperative Learning ◽  
Social Comparison ◽  
Positive Relationship ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Complementary Information ◽  
Relational Conflict ◽  
The Social ◽  
The University

When interacting on a learning task, which is typical of several academic situations, individuals may experience two different motives: Understanding the problem, or showing their competences. When a conflict (confrontation of divergent propositions) emerges from this interaction, it can be solved either in an epistemic way (focused on the task) or in a relational way (focused on the social comparison of competences). The latter is believed to be detrimental for learning. Moreover, research on cooperative learning shows that when they share identical information, partners are led to compare to each other, and are less encouraged to cooperate than when they share complementary information. An epistemic vs. relational conflict vs. no conflict was provoked in dyads composed by a participant and a confederate, working either on identical or on complementary information (N = 122). Results showed that, if relational and epistemic conflicts both entailed more perceived interactions and divergence than the control group, only relational conflict entailed more perceived comparison activities and a less positive relationship than the control group. Epistemic conflict resulted in a more positive perceived relationship than the control group. As far as performance is concerned, relational conflict led to a worse learning than epistemic conflict, and - after a delay - than the control group. An interaction between the two variables on delayed performance showed that epistemic and relational conflicts were different only when working with complementary information. This study shows the importance of the quality of relationship when sharing information during cooperative learning, a crucial factor to be taken into account when planning educational settings at the university.

Copy the In-group: Group Membership Trumps Perceived Reliability, Warmth, and Competence in a Social-Learning Task

2021 ◽  
pp. 095679762110322
Author(s):  
Marcel Montrey ◽  
Thomas R. Shultz
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Learning Strategy ◽  
Group Membership ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Minimal Group Paradigm ◽  
Learning Game ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Cumulative Cultural Evolution

Surprisingly little is known about how social groups influence social learning. Although several studies have shown that people prefer to copy in-group members, these studies have failed to resolve whether group membership genuinely affects who is copied or whether group membership merely correlates with other known factors, such as similarity and familiarity. Using the minimal-group paradigm, we disentangled these effects in an online social-learning game. In a sample of 540 adults, we found a robust in-group-copying bias that (a) was bolstered by a preference for observing in-group members; (b) overrode perceived reliability, warmth, and competence; (c) grew stronger when social information was scarce; and (d) even caused cultural divergence between intermixed groups. These results suggest that people genuinely employ a copy-the-in-group social-learning strategy, which could help explain how inefficient behaviors spread through social learning and how humans maintain the cultural diversity needed for cumulative cultural evolution.

scholarly journals Investigation of persuasive system design predictors of competitive behavior in fitness application: A mixed-method approach

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 205520761987860 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kiemute Oyibo ◽  
Julita Vassileva
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Social Learning ◽  
Behavior Change ◽  
System Design ◽  
Social Comparison ◽  
Physical Inactivity ◽  
Persuasive Strategies ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Method Approach ◽  
Fitness Application

Fitness applications aimed at behavior change are becoming increasingly popular due to the global prevalence of sedentary lifestyles and physical inactivity, causing countless non-communicable diseases. Competition is one of the most common persuasive strategies employed in such applications to motivate users to engage in physical activity in a social context. However, there is limited research on the persuasive system design predictors of users’ susceptibility to competition as a persuasive strategy for motivating behavior change in a social context. To bridge this gap, we designed storyboards illustrating four of the commonly employed persuasive strategies (reward, social learning, social comparison, and competition) in fitness applications and asked potential users to evaluate their perceived persuasiveness. The result of our path analysis showed that, overall, users’ susceptibilities to social comparison (βT = 0.48, p < 0.001), reward (βT = 0.42, p < 0.001), and social learning (βT = 0.29, p < 0.01) predicted their susceptibility to competition, with our model accounting for 41% of its variance. Social comparison partially mediated the relationship between reward and competition, while social learning partially mediated the relationship between social comparison and competition. Comparatively, the relationship between reward and social learning was stronger for females than for males, whereas the relationship between reward and competition was stronger for males than for females. Overall, our findings underscore the compatibility of all four persuasive strategies in a one-size-fits-all fitness application. We discuss our findings, drawing insight from the comments provided by participants.

scholarly journals Improving Social Interactive Learning through Dual Brain Stimulation

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yafeng Pan ◽  
Giacomo Novembre ◽  
Bei Song ◽  
Yi Zhu ◽  
Yi Hu
Keyword(s):  
Social Behavior ◽  
Social Learning ◽  
Brain Stimulation ◽  
Information Transfer ◽  
Brain Research ◽  
Interactive Learning ◽  
Body Movement ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Learning Performance

AbstractSocial interactive learning denotes the ability to acquire new information from a conspecific – a prerequisite for cultural evolution and survival. As inspired by recent neurophysiological research, here we tested whether social interactive learning can be augmented by exogenously synchronizing oscillatory brain activity across an instructor and a learner engaged in a naturalistic song-learning task. We used a dual brain stimulation protocol entailing the trans-cranial delivery of synchronized electric currents in two individuals simultaneously. When we stimulated inferior frontal brain regions, with 6 Hz alternating currents being in-phase between the instructor and the learner, the dyad exhibited spontaneous and synchronized body movement. Remarkably, this stimulation also led to enhanced learning performance. A mediation analysis further disclosed that interpersonal movement synchrony acted as a partial mediator of the effect of dual brain stimulation on learning performance, i.e. possibly facilitating the effect of dual brain stimulation on learning. Our results provide a causal demonstration that inter-brain synchrony is a sufficient condition to improve real-time information transfer between pairs of individuals.SignificanceThe study of social behavior, including but not limited to social learning, is undergoing a paradigm shift moving from single- to multi-person brain research. Yet, nearly all evidence in this area is purely correlational: inter-dependencies between brains’ signals are used to predict success in social behavior. For instance, inter-brain synchrony has been shown to be associated with successful communication, cooperation, and joint attention. Here we took a radically different approach. We stimulated two brains simultaneously, hence manipulating inter-brain synchrony, and measured the resulting effect upon behavior in the context of a social learning task. We report that frequency- and phase-specific dual brain stimulation can lead to the emergence of spontaneous synchronized body movement between an instructor and a learner. Remarkably, this can also augment learning performance.

scholarly journals Effects of Serotonin and Dopamine Depletion on Neural Prediction Computations during Social Learning

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna-Lena Frey ◽  
Ciara McCabe
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Social Learning ◽  
Computational Modelling ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Social Outcomes ◽  
Marginal Effect ◽  
Social Reward ◽  
Dopamine Depletion ◽  
Double Blind ◽  
Reward Prediction

AbstractWe recently found that individuals with high depression scores demonstrate impaired learning from social outcomes. Given that depression has been linked to altered serotonin (5-HT) and dopamine (DA) functioning, the current study aimed to elucidate the role of these neurotransmitters in social learning with the use of dietary precursor depletion. In a double-blind design, 70 healthy volunteers were randomly allocated to the 5-HT depletion (N=24), DA depletion (N = 24), or placebo (N = 22) group. Participants performed a social learning task during fMRI scanning, as part of which they learned associations between name cues and rewarding (happy faces) or aversive (fearful faces) social outcomes. Behaviourally, 5-HT depleted subjects demonstrated impaired social reward learning compared to placebo controls, with a marginal effect in the same direction in the DA depletion group. On the neural level, computational modelling-based fMRI analyses revealed that 5-HT depletion altered social reward prediction signals in the insula, temporal lobe, and prefrontal cortex. DA depletion affected social reward prediction encoding only in the prefrontal cortex. These results indicate that 5-HT depletion impairs learning from social rewards, on both the behavioural and the neural level, while DA depletion has a less extensive effect. Interestingly, the behavioural and neural responses observed after 5-HT depletion in the current study closely resemble our previous findings in individuals with high depression scores. It may thus be the case that decreased 5-HT levels contribute to social learning deficits in depression.

scholarly journals Dynamic social learning in temporally and spatially variable environments

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (12) ◽  
pp. 200734
Author(s):  
Dominik Deffner ◽  
Vivien Kleinow ◽  
Richard McElreath
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Natural Populations ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Spatial And Temporal Variation ◽  
Adaptive Responses ◽  
Strategic Learning ◽  
Time Dynamics ◽  
Variable Environments ◽  
Theoretical Predictions ◽  
Group Members

Cultural evolution is partly driven by the strategies individuals use to learn behaviour from others. Previous experiments on strategic learning let groups of participants engage in repeated rounds of a learning task and analysed how choices are affected by individual payoffs and the choices of group members. While groups in such experiments are fixed, natural populations are dynamic, characterized by overlapping generations, frequent migrations and different levels of experience. We present a preregistered laboratory experiment with 237 mostly German participants including migration, differences in expertise and both spatial and temporal variation in optimal behaviour. We used simulation and multi-level computational learning models including time-varying parameters to investigate adaptive time dynamics in learning. Confirming theoretical predictions, individuals relied more on (conformist) social learning after spatial compared with temporal changes. After both types of change, they biased decisions towards more experienced group members. While rates of social learning rapidly declined in rounds following migration, individuals remained conformist to group-typical behaviour. These learning dynamics can be explained as adaptive responses to different informational environments. Summarizing, we provide empirical insights and introduce modelling tools that hopefully can be applied to dynamic social learning in other systems.

scholarly journals Impaired Social Learning Predicts Reduced Real-life Motivation in Individuals with Depression: A Computational fMRI Study

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna-Lena Frey ◽  
Ciara McCabe
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Social Engagement ◽  
Parietal Lobe ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Computational Modelling ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Social Experiences ◽  
Social Outcomes ◽  
Social Activities ◽  
Fearful Faces

AbstractBackgroundMajor depressive disorder is associated with altered social functioning and impaired learning, on both the behavioural and the neural level. These deficits are likely related, considering that successful social interactions require learning to predict other people’s emotional responses. Yet, there is little research examining this relation.MethodsForty-three individuals with high (HD; N=21) and low (LD; N=22) depression scores answered questions regarding their real-life social experiences and performed a social learning task during fMRI scanning. As part of the task, subjects learned associations between name cues and rewarding (happy faces) or aversive (fearful faces) social outcomes. Using computational modelling, behavioural and neural correlates of social learning were examined and related to real-life social experiences.ResultsHD participants reported reduced motivation to engage in real-life social activities and demonstrated elevated uncertainty about social outcomes in the task. Moreover, HD subjects displayed altered encoding of social reward predictions in the insula, temporal lobe and parietal lobe. Interestingly, across all subjects, higher task uncertainty and reduced parietal prediction encoding were associated with decreased motivation to engage in real-life social activities.LimitationsThe size of the included sample was relatively small. The results should thus be regarded as preliminary and replications in larger samples are called for.ConclusionTaken together, our findings suggest that reduced learning from social outcomes may impair depressed individuals’ ability to predict other people’s responses in real life, which renders social situations uncertain. This uncertainty, in turn, may contribute to reduced social engagement (motivation) in depression.

Philopatric vervet monkey females are the focus of social attention rather independently of rank

Behaviour ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 150 (6) ◽  
pp. 599-615 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Renevey ◽  
R. Bshary ◽  
E. van de Waal
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Role Models ◽  
Field Experiments ◽  
Vervet Monkey ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Social Attention ◽  
Social Partner ◽  
Vervet Monkeys ◽  
Artificial Fruit ◽  
Group Members

Social learning has potential advantages over individual learning but one challenge is to identify valuable information. One possibility is to not randomly learn from any social partner but mainly from specific role models like for example the mother or high ranking group members. A potential mechanism for such directed social learning could be that individuals observe the actions of role models more often than of other group members. Field experiments showed that in vervet monkeys — a species with female philopatry — dominant females are more closely watched than dominant males in an artificial fruit-type social learning task. Here, we quantified social attention to males and females under natural conditions in six groups of vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus aethiops) at Loskop Dam Nature Reserve, South Africa. Using the focal sampling method, we quantified the frequencies with which all adult individuals were observed by other group members of known age class, rank, sex and degree of relatedness during foraging bouts and grooming interactions. We found that group members generally paid more attention to females than to males. This effect remained when we excluded matriline members from the analyses. Furthermore, we found that an individual’s rank did not affect the attention it received from other group members. These results suggest that philopatry may promote social attention independently of an individual’s rank and across situations.

scholarly journals Persuasive Features that Drive the Adoption of a Fitness Application and the Moderating Effect of Age and Gender

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 17
Author(s):  
Kiemute Oyibo ◽  
Julita Vassileva
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Social Comparison ◽  
Goal Setting ◽  
Moderating Effect ◽  
Intention To Use ◽  
Wide Audience ◽  
Age And Gender ◽  
Self Monitoring ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Effect Of Age

Fitness apps equipped with various persuasive features have become popular worldwide due to the physical inactivity crisis. However, there is a limited understanding of the most important persuasive features that drive their adoption and the moderating effect of age and gender. To bridge this gap, we designed storyboards illustrating six of the commonly employed persuasive strategies in persuasive health applications: Goal-Setting/Self-Monitoring, Reward, Social Learning, Social Comparison, Competition and Cooperation. We conducted an empirical study in which we asked the participants to evaluate their receptiveness to the six persuasive features and their intention to use a fitness app that features them. The result of our Partial Least Square Path Modeling (PLSPM) shows that, overall, Goal-Setting/Self-Monitoring is the strongest predictor of the intention to use a fitness app, followed by Reward and Competition, both of which are in second place. However, Social Learning and Social Comparison turn out to be non-predictors of intention to use. Based on these findings, we recommend that a minimally viable (one-size-fits-all) fitness app, in a personal setting, should support a Goal-Setting/Self-Monitoring feature, coupled with a Reward feature, to increase its appeal to a wide audience. Moreover, in a social setting, it should support a Competition feature to increase its appeal to a wide audience. We discuss these findings and the gender and age differences in the relationships between users’ receptiveness to the six persuasive features and their intention to use a fitness app that support them.

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