Chapter 2. A Brief History of Social Learning Research

2013 ◽  
pp. 16-32
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
History Of ◽  
Learning Research

A Brief History of Social Learning Research

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Hoppitt ◽  
Kevin N. Laland
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Diffusion Of Innovations ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
Behavioral Repertoire ◽  
History Of Research ◽  
History Of ◽  
Learning Research ◽  
Evolution Of Mind ◽  
Animal Culture

This chapter provides a brief historical background to social learning research. The history of research into social learning and imitation dates back to Aristotle, who explicitly made the claim that animals acquire behavior through imitation and other forms of social learning. Aristotle was particularly impressed with the human imitative tendency. The three insights made in the fourth century BC—that humans are uncharacteristically reliant on imitative learning compared to other animals, that young children in particular acquire important aspects of their behavioral repertoire through copying, and that imitation appears intrinsically rewarding to children—are remarkably relevant to contemporary social learning research. The chapter examines how investigations of social learning have been central to research into the evolution of mind, the mechanisms of social learning, animal culture, the diffusion of innovations, child development, and cultural evolution.

Conclusions

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Hoppitt ◽  
Kevin N. Laland
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Mathematical Models ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Learning Mechanisms ◽  
Diffusion Data ◽  
History Of ◽  
Learning Research ◽  
Key Terms ◽  
Social Learning Strategies

This concluding chapter summarizes the different social learning concepts and methods explored in the book, beginning with definitions of some key terms such as social learning, social transmission, imitation, and innovation. The book has discussed the history of social learning research, methods for studying social learning in the laboratory, social learning mechanisms, statistical methods for diffusion data, repertoire-based data, and developmental approaches. It has also examined social learning strategies and some of the mathematical models that can be applied to investigate social learning, cultural evolution, and gene-culture coevolution. A key emphasis throughout the book has been that mathematical and statistical modeling is at its most powerful when tightly integrated with empirical research.

Either We're Too Early and They Can't Learn It or We're Too Late and They Know It Already: The Dilemma of "Applying Piaget"

1979 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 297-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eleanor Duckworth
Keyword(s):  
Psychological Research ◽  
Accelerate Development ◽  
History Of ◽  
Learning Research

This essay is a response to the history of American reactions to Piaget's work—skepticism about his findings, followed by a desire to accelerate development. Influenced by the mass of psychological research devoted to these issues, educators have adopted them as their concerns as well. Eleanor Duckworth sketches this history, reviews recent Genevan learning research, and in so doing, suggests that the dilemma is both false and beside the point. She turns to a consideration of issues of greater educational concern,bringing Piaget's work to bear on them.

scholarly journals The Difference Culture Makes

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul K Wason
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Genetic Relatedness ◽  
Full Potential ◽  
Animal Kingdom ◽  
Symbolic Thought ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Difference

The dawn of culture and its subsequent elaboration is one of the most important developments in the history of life. It is now recognized that culture, at least in a minimalist sense of behavioral traditions shaped by social learning, is found widely throughout the animal kingdom.  And this fact, perhaps ironically for those of a reductionist bent, has made possible new understandings of just how distinctive humans are, especially in terms of symbolic thought, cooperativity far beyond genetic relatedness, the cumulative nature of our cultures, and our pervasive sense of transcendence. Yet, nearly 150 years after Tylor’s Primitive Culture, we are still coming to appreciate in sometimes surprising new ways how the phenomenon of culture is transforming this planet. I suggest that despite the apparent pervasiveness of the concept, or at least the word, in both scholarly and everyday discourse, we have yet to appreciate the full potential of the concept of culture as an intellectual tool. Through brief exploration of five different situations in which it is useful, I hope to illustrate the importance of the phenomenon and show the untapped potential of the concept. 

The Archaeology of the Extended Mind

2019 ◽  
pp. 143-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim Sterelny
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Extended Mind ◽  
Last Common Ancestor ◽  
Great Ape ◽  
Material Technology ◽  
Material Resources ◽  
History Of ◽  
Physical Skills

Our great ape cousins, and very likely the last common ancestor of the human and pan lineage, depend very largely on their own intrinsic capacities not just for material resources but also for their informational resources. Chimps and bonobos are capable of social learning, and very likely, in their foraging and their communicative practices, they do learn from their parents and peers. But everything they learn socially they could probably learn by themselves, by individual exploration learning. Their lives do not depend on social learning. And while they may learn about their physical and social environment from others, they do not learn how to learn. Humans are very different: for us, social learning is essential rather than optional. As a consequence, our cognitive capacities are amplified by our social environment, by our material technology, and by our capacities to learn cognitive skills, not just physical skills, from our social peers. This chapter charts the deep history of these changes and their archaeological signature.

scholarly journals Conformity does not perpetuate suboptimal traditions in a wild population of songbirds

2017 ◽  
Vol 114 (30) ◽  
pp. 7830-7837 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucy M. Aplin ◽  
Ben C. Sheldon ◽  
Richard McElreath
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Adaptive Behavior ◽  
Parus Major ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Rate Of Change ◽  
Maladaptive Behavior ◽  
History Of ◽  
Puzzle Box ◽  
Open Question ◽  
Sensitive Individual

Social learning is important to the life history of many animals, helping individuals to acquire new adaptive behavior. However despite long-running debate, it remains an open question whether a reliance on social learning can also lead to mismatched or maladaptive behavior. In a previous study, we experimentally induced traditions for opening a bidirectional door puzzle box in replicate subpopulations of the great titParus major. Individuals were conformist social learners, resulting in stable cultural behaviors. Here, we vary the rewards gained by these techniques to ask to what extent established behaviors are flexible to changing conditions. When subpopulations with established foraging traditions for one technique were subjected to a reduced foraging payoff, 49% of birds switched their behavior to a higher-payoff foraging technique after only 14 days, with younger individuals showing a faster rate of change. We elucidated the decision-making process for each individual, using a mechanistic learning model to demonstrate that, perhaps surprisingly, this population-level change was achieved without significant asocial exploration and without any evidence for payoff-biased copying. Rather, by combining conformist social learning with payoff-sensitive individual reinforcement (updating of experience), individuals and populations could both acquire adaptive behavior and track environmental change.

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