scholarly journals Eurasian jays do not copy the choices of conspecifics, but they do show evidence of stimulus enhancement

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachael Miller ◽  
Corina J Logan ◽  
Katherine Lister ◽  
Nicola S Clayton
Keyword(s):  
Discrimination Task ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Information Use ◽  
Social Situation ◽  
Colour Discrimination ◽  
New Caledonian Crow ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Show Evidence ◽  
Social Information Use ◽  
Explicit Training

Corvids (birds in the crow family) are hypothesised to have a general cognitive tool-kit because they show a wide range of transferrable skills across social, physical and temporal tasks, despite differences in socioecology. However, it is unknown whether relatively asocial corvids differ from social corvids in their use of social information in the context of copying the choices of others, because only one such test has been conducted in a relatively asocial corvid. We investigated whether relatively asocial Eurasian jays (Garrulus glandarius) use social information (i.e., information made available by others). Previous studies have indicated that jays attend to social context in their caching and mate provisioning behaviour; however, it is unknown whether jays copy the choices of others. We tested the jays in two different tasks varying in difficulty, where social corvid species have demonstrated social information use in both tasks. Firstly, an object-dropping task was conducted requiring objects to be dropped down a tube to release a food reward from a collapsible platform, which corvids can learn through explicit training. Only one rook and one New Caledonian crow have learned the task using social information from a demonstrator. Secondly, we tested the birds on a simple colour discrimination task, which should be easy to solve, because it has been shown that corvids can make colour discriminations. Using the same colour discrimination task in a previous study, all common ravens and carrion crows copied the demonstrator. After observing a conspecific demonstrator, none of the jays solved the object-dropping task, though all jays were subsequently able to learn to solve the task in a non-social situation through explicit training, and jays chose the demonstrated colour at chance levels. Our results suggest that social and relatively asocial corvids differ in social information use, indicating that relatively asocial species may have secondarily lost this ability due to lack of selection pressure from an asocial environment.

scholarly journals Eurasian jays do not copy the choices of conspecifics, but they do show evidence of stimulus enhancement

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachael Miller ◽  
Corina J Logan ◽  
Katherine Lister ◽  
Nicola S Clayton
Keyword(s):  
Discrimination Task ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Information Use ◽  
Social Situation ◽  
Colour Discrimination ◽  
New Caledonian Crow ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Show Evidence ◽  
Social Information Use ◽  
Explicit Training

Corvids (birds in the crow family) are hypothesised to have a general cognitive tool-kit because they show a wide range of transferrable skills across social, physical and temporal tasks, despite differences in socioecology. However, it is unknown whether relatively asocial corvids differ from social corvids in their use of social information in the context of copying the choices of others, because only one such test has been conducted in a relatively asocial corvid. We investigated whether relatively asocial Eurasian jays (Garrulus glandarius) use social information (i.e., information made available by others). Previous studies have indicated that jays attend to social context in their caching and mate provisioning behaviour; however, it is unknown whether jays copy the choices of others. We tested the jays in two different tasks varying in difficulty, where social corvid species have demonstrated social information use in both tasks. Firstly, an object-dropping task was conducted requiring objects to be dropped down a tube to release a food reward from a collapsible platform, which corvids can learn through explicit training. Only one rook and one New Caledonian crow have learned the task using social information from a demonstrator. Secondly, we tested the birds on a simple colour discrimination task, which should be easy to solve, because it has been shown that corvids can make colour discriminations. Using the same colour discrimination task in a previous study, all common ravens and carrion crows copied the demonstrator. After observing a conspecific demonstrator, none of the jays solved the object-dropping task, though all jays were subsequently able to learn to solve the task in a non-social situation through explicit training, and jays chose the demonstrated colour at chance levels. Our results suggest that social and relatively asocial corvids differ in social information use, indicating that relatively asocial species may have secondarily lost this ability due to lack of selection pressure from an asocial environment.

scholarly journals Eurasian jays do not copy the choices of conspecifics, but they do show evidence of stimulus enhancement

PeerJ ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. e2746 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachael Miller ◽  
Corina J. Logan ◽  
Katherine Lister ◽  
Nicola S. Clayton
Keyword(s):  
Discrimination Task ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Information Use ◽  
Social Situation ◽  
Colour Discrimination ◽  
New Caledonian Crow ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Show Evidence ◽  
Social Information Use ◽  
Explicit Training

Corvids (birds in the crow family) are hypothesised to have a general cognitive tool-kit because they show a wide range of transferrable skills across social, physical and temporal tasks, despite differences in socioecology. However, it is unknown whether relatively asocial corvids differ from social corvids in their use of social information in the context of copying the choices of others, because only one such test has been conducted in a relatively asocial corvid. We investigated whether relatively asocial Eurasian jays (Garrulus glandarius) use social information (i.e., information made available by others). Previous studies have indicated that jays attend to social context in their caching and mate provisioning behaviour; however, it is unknown whether jays copy the choices of others. We tested the jays in two different tasks varying in difficulty, where social corvid species have demonstrated social information use in both tasks. Firstly, an object-dropping task was conducted requiring objects to be dropped down a tube to release a food reward from a collapsible platform, which corvids can learn through explicit training. Only one rook and one New Caledonian crow have learned the task using social information from a demonstrator. Secondly, we tested the birds on a simple colour discrimination task, which should be easy to solve, because it has been shown that corvids can make colour discriminations. Using the same colour discrimination task in a previous study, all common ravens and carrion crows copied the demonstrator. After observing a conspecific demonstrator, none of the jays solved the object-dropping task, though all jays were subsequently able to learn to solve the task in a non-social situation through explicit training, and jays chose the demonstrated colour at chance levels. Our results suggest that social and relatively asocial corvids differ in social information use, indicating that relatively asocial species may have secondarily lost this ability due to lack of selection pressure from an asocial environment.

scholarly journals Collective decision making by rational individuals

2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (44) ◽  
pp. E10387-E10396 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard P. Mann
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Information Use ◽  
Collective Decision ◽  
Collective Decision Making ◽  
Rational Decision ◽  
Rational Decision Making ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Social Information Use

The patterns and mechanisms of collective decision making in humans and animals have attracted both empirical and theoretical attention. Of particular interest has been the variety of social feedback rules and the extent to which these behavioral rules can be explained and predicted from theories of rational estimation and decision making. However, models that aim to model the full range of social information use have incorporated ad hoc departures from rational decision-making theory to explain the apparent stochasticity and variability of behavior. In this paper I develop a model of social information use and collective decision making by fully rational agents that reveals how a wide range of apparently stochastic social decision rules emerge from fundamental information asymmetries both between individuals and between the decision makers and the observer of those decisions. As well as showing that rational decision making is consistent with empirical observations of collective behavior, this model makes several testable predictions about how individuals make decisions in groups and offers a valuable perspective on how we view sources of variability in animal, and human, behavior.

scholarly journals Collective decision making by rational individuals

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard P. Mann
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Information Use ◽  
Collective Decision ◽  
Collective Decision Making ◽  
Rational Decision ◽  
Rational Decision Making ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Social Information Use

The patterns and mechanisms of collective decision making in humans and animals have attracted both empirical and theoretical attention. Of particular interest has been the variety of social feedback rules, and the extent to which these behavioural rules can be explained and predicted from theories of rational estimation and decision making. However, models that aim to model the full range of social information use have incorporated ad hoc departures from rational decision-making theory to explain the apparent stochasticity and variability of behaviour. In this paper I develop a model of social information use and collective decision making by fully rational agents that reveals how a wide range of apparently stochastic social decision rules emerge from fundamental information asymmetries both between individuals, and between the decision-makers and the observer of those decisions. As well as showing that rational decision making is consistent with empirical observations of collective behaviour, this model makes several testable predictions about how individuals make decisions in groups, and offers a valuable perspective on how we view sources of variability in animal, and human, behaviour.

scholarly journals Cultural influence of social information use in pedestrian road-crossing behaviours

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 160739 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie Pelé ◽  
Caroline Bellut ◽  
Elise Debergue ◽  
Charlotte Gauvin ◽  
Anne Jeanneret ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Red Light ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Group Living ◽  
Information Use ◽  
The Road ◽  
Collective Decisions ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Social Information Use ◽  
Road Crossing

Social information use is common in a wide range of group-living animals, notably in humans. The role it plays in decision-making could be a key to understanding how social groups make collective decisions. The observation of road-crossing behaviours in the presence of other individuals is an ideal means to study the influence of social information on decision-making. This study investigated the influence of culture on social information used by pedestrians in a potentially dangerous scenario, namely road crossing. We scored the collective crossing of pedestrians at four locations in Nagoya (Japan) and three locations in Strasbourg (France). French pedestrians cross against the lights much more often (41.9%) than Japanese ones (2.1%). Individuals deciding to cross the road were strongly influenced by the behaviour and the presence of other pedestrians, especially in Japan, where a stronger conformism was noted. However, Japanese pedestrians were half as likely to be influenced by social information as their French counterparts when crossing at the red light, as they were more respectful of rules. Men show riskier behaviour than women (40.6% versus 25.7% of rule-breaking, respectively), deciding quickly and setting off earlier than women. Further related studies could help target specific preventive, culture-specific solutions for pedestrian safety.

scholarly journals Experience shapes social information use in foraging fish

2018 ◽  
Vol 146 ◽  
pp. 63-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mike M. Webster ◽  
Kevin N. Laland
Keyword(s):  
Social Information ◽  
Information Use ◽  
Social Information Use

Decreased environmental variability induces a bias for social information use in humans

2009 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulf Toelch ◽  
Marjolijn J. van Delft ◽  
Matthew J. Bruce ◽  
Rogier Donders ◽  
Marius T.H. Meeus ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Variability ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Information Use ◽  
Social Information Use

scholarly journals The Effect of Social Information Use without Learning on the Evolution of Social Behavior

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
James M. Borg ◽  
Alastair Channon
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Life ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Information Use ◽  
Evolutionary System ◽  
Behavioral Differences ◽  
Agent Interaction ◽  
Social Information Use ◽  
Improved Performance ◽  
Foraging Task ◽  
Better Than

In a recent article by Borg and Channon it was shown that social information alone, decoupled from any within-lifetime learning, can result in improved performance on a food-foraging task compared to when social information is unavailable. Here we assess whether access to social information leads to significant behavioral differences both when access to social information leads to improved performance on the task, and when it does not: Do any behaviors resulting from social-information use, such as movement and increased agent interaction, persist even when the ability to discriminate between poisonous and non-poisonous food is no better than when social-information is unavailable? Using a neuroevolutionary artificial life simulation, we show that social-information use can lead to the emergence of behaviors that differ from when social information is unavailable, and that these behaviors act as a promoter of agent interaction. The results presented here suggest that the introduction of social information is sufficient, even when decoupled from within-lifetime learning, for the emergence of pro-social behaviors. We believe this work to be the first use of an artificial evolutionary system to explore the behavioral consequences of social-information use in the absence of within-lifetime learning.

The 3E's Approach to Social Information Use in Birds

2013 ◽  
pp. 272-297 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ira G. Federspiel ◽  
Nicola S. Clayton ◽  
Nathan J. Emery
Keyword(s):  
Social Information ◽  
Information Use ◽  
Social Information Use
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