Ubiquitous Copying

2018 ◽  
pp. 31-49
Author(s):  
Kevin N. Laland
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Functional Domains ◽  
Behavioral Differences ◽  
Learning From Others

This chapter provides a brief overview of the evidence for social learning in animals, demonstrating the ubiquity of copying in nature. It explains that learning from others is an extremely prevalent trick that animals rely on to acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to earn a living in a tough and unforgiving world. All kinds of creatures exploit the wisdom others have accrued, and that wisdom is absolutely vital to the animal's survival. This chapter presents examples from some of the better-studied functional domains in some of the most intensively researched animal systems on the myriad of different ways in which animals exploit information provided by others. However, it also points out that social learning is so useful that it crops up in contexts that are far less intuitive, including some instances in which science has yet to understand the function of the transmitted behavior. Copying is everywhere in nature, where animals regularly invent new solutions to problems, and these innovations often spread through the population, sometimes generating behavioral differences akin to cultures.

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 The Psychological Reach of Culture in Animals’ Lives

2021 ◽  
pp. 096372142199311
Author(s):  
Andrew Whiten
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Cultural Change ◽  
Learning Processes ◽  
Cumulative Culture ◽  
Knowledge And Skills ◽  
Social Learning Processes ◽  
Learning From Others ◽  
Behavioral Domains

Culture—the totality of traditions acquired in a community by social learning from other individuals—has increasingly been found to be pervasive not only in humans’ but in many other animals’ lives. Compared with learning on one’s own initiative, learning from others can be very much safer and more efficient, as the wisdom already accumulated by other individuals is assimilated. This article offers an overview of often surprising recent discoveries charting the reach of culture across an ever-expanding diversity of species, as well as an extensive variety of behavioral domains, and throughout an animal’s life. The psychological reach of culture is reflected in the knowledge and skills an animal thus acquires, via an array of different social learning processes. Social learning is often further guided by a suite of adaptive psychological biases, such as conformity and learning from optimal models. In humans, cumulative cultural change over generations has generated the complex cultural phenomena observed today. Animal cultures have been thought to lack this cumulative power, but recent findings suggest that elementary versions of cumulative culture may be important in animals’ lives.

scholarly journals Autism and the mirror neuron system: insights from learning and teaching

2014 ◽  
Vol 369 (1644) ◽  
pp. 20130184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giacomo Vivanti ◽  
Sally J. Rogers
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Mirror Neuron System ◽  
Mirror Neuron ◽  
Educational Practice ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Neuron System ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Positive Treatment ◽  
Learning From Others

Individuals with autism have difficulties in social learning domains which typically involve mirror neuron system (MNS) activation. However, the precise role of the MNS in the development of autism and its relevance to treatment remain unclear. In this paper, we argue that three distinct aspects of social learning are critical for advancing knowledge in this area: (i) the mechanisms that allow for the implicit mapping of and learning from others' behaviour, (ii) the motivation to attend to and model conspecifics and (iii) the flexible and selective use of social learning. These factors are key targets of the Early Start Denver Model, an autism treatment approach which emphasizes social imitation, dyadic engagement, verbal and non-verbal communication and affect sharing. Analysis of the developmental processes and treatment-related changes in these different aspects of social learning in autism can shed light on the nature of the neuropsychological mechanisms underlying social learning and positive treatment outcomes in autism. This knowledge in turn may assist in developing more successful pedagogic approaches to autism spectrum disorder. Thus, intervention research can inform the debate on relations among neuropsychology of social learning, the role of the MNS, and educational practice in autism.

scholarly journals Emotion as information in early social learning

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yang Wu ◽  
Laura Schulz ◽  
Michael C. Frank ◽  
Hyowon Gweon
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Early Learning ◽  
Emotional Expressions ◽  
Cognitive Sciences ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The World ◽  
Learning From Others ◽  
Information Framework ◽  
Source Of Information

Adults often display a wide range of emotional expressions when they interact with young children. What do these expressions mean, and what role do they play in how children think and learn? While emotional expressions are typically considered to be indicators of how others feel, an emerging body of work suggests that these expressions support rich, powerful inferences about hidden aspects of the world and about the contents of others’ minds. Beyond learning from others’ speech, actions, and demonstrations, here we argue that infants and children harness others’ emotional expressions as a source of information for learning broadly. This “emotion as information” framework integrates affective, developmental, and computational cognitive sciences, extending the scope of signals that count as “information" in early learning.

scholarly journals Using Microlearning and Social Learning to Improve Teachers’ Instructional Design Skills: A Mixed Methods Study of Technology Integration in Teacher Professional Development

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 145
Author(s):  
George O Hanshaw ◽  
Janet Hanson
Keyword(s):  
Instructional Design ◽  
Social Learning ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Significant Negative Correlation ◽  
On Line ◽  
Teacher Professional ◽  
Design Skills ◽  
Work Samples ◽  
Learning From Others ◽  
Study Participants

The purpose of this mixed-method study was to test the usefulness of a new technology-based instructional design, using microlearning and social learning, to improve employee skills on the job.  Researchers collected data from professionals responsible for instructional design at their workplace (N=51). Participants engaged in a fully on-line training at a time convenient to them over a two-week period. A learning management system supported the content delivery. A social learning component included video demonstrations of the content and participants asynchronously sharing their learning with other participants. Researchers performed follow-up interviews (N=10) to develop a deeper understanding of the participants’ perceptions and to validate self-reports collected in a Likert-style quantitative survey. Participants created work samples used as evidence of their learning from the training. Three themes emerged from the qualitative analyses including, participants wanted training that provided skills useful immediately on the job, sought to expand their perspectives by learning from others, and to expand their skills in their craft beyond those of other designers. Participants’ reported that opportunities to share their learning with others made the learning “more personal” and provided a “bigger picture,” or broader perspective. Participants’ reported the instructional design increased their motivation to engage the content and that their skills improved. Positive reports of the effectiveness of the microlearning component were not consistent, however, with the statistical results. There was a significant negative correlation between microlearning and the social learning component and the dependent variable of the study, participants’ perceptions of the effectiveness of the instructional design.

scholarly journals Social learning solves the problem of narrow-peaked search landscapes: experimental evidence in humans

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (9) ◽  
pp. 160215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alberto Acerbi ◽  
Claudio Tennie ◽  
Alex Mesoudi
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Learning Strategy ◽  
Individual Learning ◽  
Hill Climbing ◽  
Adaptive Landscape ◽  
Search Spaces ◽  
Individual Trial ◽  
Ecological Success ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Learning From Others

The extensive use of social learning is considered a major reason for the ecological success of humans. Theoretical considerations, models and experiments have explored the evolutionary basis of social learning, showing the conditions under which learning from others is more adaptive than individual learning. Here we present an extension of a previous experimental set-up, in which individuals go on simulated ‘hunts’ and their success depends on the features of a ‘virtual arrowhead’ they design. Individuals can modify their arrowhead either by individual trial and error or by copying others. We study how, in a multimodal adaptive landscape, the smoothness of the peaks influences learning. We compare narrow peaks, in which solutions close to optima do not provide useful feedback to individuals, to wide peaks, where smooth landscapes allow an effective hill-climbing individual learning strategy. We show that individual learning is more difficult in narrow-peaked landscapes, but that social learners perform almost equally well in both narrow- and wide-peaked search spaces. There was a weak trend for more copying in the narrow than wide condition, although as in previous experiments social information was generally underutilized. Our results highlight the importance of tasks’ design space when studying the adaptiveness of high-fidelity social learning.

scholarly journals Animal social learning: associations and adaptations

F1000Research ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 2120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon M. Reader
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Life Experience ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
Current Evidence ◽  
Early Life Experience ◽  
Experiential Effects ◽  
Adaptive Specializations ◽  
Learning From Others ◽  
Powerful Process

Social learning, learning from others, is a powerful process known to impact the success and survival of humans and non-human animals alike. Yet we understand little about the neurocognitive and other processes that underpin social learning. Social learning has often been assumed to involve specialized, derived cognitive processes that evolve and develop independently from other processes. However, this assumption is increasingly questioned, and evidence from a variety of organisms demonstrates that current, recent, and early life experience all predict the reliance on social information and thus can potentially explain variation in social learning as a result of experiential effects rather than evolved differences. General associative learning processes, rather than adaptive specializations, may underpin much social learning, as well as social learning strategies. Uncovering these distinctions is important to a variety of fields, for example by widening current views of the possible breadth and adaptive flexibility of social learning. Nonetheless, just like adaptationist evolutionary explanations, associationist explanations for social learning cannot be assumed, and empirical work is required to uncover the mechanisms involved and their impact on the efficacy of social learning. This work is being done, but more is needed. Current evidence suggests that much social learning may be based on ‘ordinary’ processes but with extraordinary consequences.

scholarly journals Immature wild orangutans acquire relevant ecological knowledge through sex-specific attentional biases during social learning

PLoS Biology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (5) ◽  
pp. e3001173
Author(s):  
Beatrice Ehmann ◽  
Carel P. van Schaik ◽  
Alison M. Ashbury ◽  
Julia Mörchen ◽  
Helvi Musdarlia ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Social Interest ◽  
Attentional Biases ◽  
Ecological Knowledge ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
Adult Males ◽  
Behavioral Differences ◽  
Foraging Patterns ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Life Trajectories

As a part of growing up, immature orangutans must acquire vast repertoires of skills and knowledge, a process that takes several years of observational social learning and subsequent practice. Adult female and male orangutans show behavioral differences including sex-specific foraging patterns and male-biased dispersal. We investigated how these differing life trajectories affect social interest and emerging ecological knowledge in immatures. We analyzed 15 years of detailed observational data on social learning, associations, and diet repertoires of 50 immatures (16 females and 34 males), from 2 orangutan populations. Specific to the feeding context, we found sex differences in the development of social interest: Throughout the dependency period, immature females direct most of their social attention at their mothers, whereas immature males show an increasing attentional preference for individuals other than their mothers. When attending to non-mother individuals, males show a significant bias toward immigrant individuals and a trend for a bias toward adult males. In contrast, females preferentially attend to neighboring residents. Accordingly, by the end of the dependency period, immature females show a larger dietary overlap with their mothers than do immature males. These results suggest that immature orangutans show attentional biases through which they learn from individuals with the most relevant ecological knowledge. Diversifying their skills and knowledge likely helps males when they move to a new area. In sum, our findings underline the importance of fine-grained social inputs for the acquisition of ecological knowledge and skills in orangutans and likely in other apes as well.

scholarly journals Learning from others: an invasive lizard uses social information from both conspecifics and heterospecifics

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (10) ◽  
pp. 20180532 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabel Damas-Moreira ◽  
Daniel Oliveira ◽  
Joana L. Santos ◽  
Julia L. Riley ◽  
D. James Harris ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Invasive Species ◽  
Social Learning ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Podarcis Sicula ◽  
Learning From Others ◽  
Foraging Task ◽  
Italian Wall Lizard ◽  
Podarcis Bocagei

Species that are able to solve novel problems through social learning from either a conspecific or a heterospecific may gain a significant advantage in new environments. We tested the ability of a highly successful invasive species, the Italian wall lizard Podarcis sicula , to solve a novel foraging task when social information was available from both a conspecific and an unfamiliar heterospecific ( Podarcis bocagei ). We found that Italian wall lizards that had access to social information made fewer errors, regardless of whether the demonstrator was a conspecific or a heterospecific, compared to Italian wall lizards that individually learnt the same task. We suggest that social learning could be a previously underappreciated, advantageous mechanism facilitating invasions.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document