Collective Cognition Flashcards
What two animals display collective cognition
Starling ‘murmurations’
Sardine Shoals
Describe Edmund Selous’ view on Starling Flocks and Collective Cognition
they circle; now dense like a polished roof, now disseminated like the meshes of some vast all-heaven-sweeping net…wheeling, rending, darting…a madness in the sky
They must think collectively, all at the same time, or at least in streaks or patches —a square yard or so of an idea, a flash out of so many brains
Do starlings have a collective mind
No (but also yes…)
What are the three simple rules of Starlings’ Collective Mind?
- Attraction (when a neighbor is inside “zone of attraction”)
- Alignment (when a neighbor is inside “zone of orientation”)
- Avoidance (when a neighbor is inside ”zone of repulsion”)
What do individual starlings only respond to
Neighbors
What do starlings lock
Central control (the system is self organized)
What are the three rules about starlings sufficient for
Generation of very realistic flock behavior in simulations
What is the argument for starlings having a collective mind
Interactions between individuals allow a group to function as an integrated sensory, information-processing and decision-making unit
Hence, individuals in groups have access to higher-order computational capabilities
What are the 7 reasons for why animals live in groups
- Dilute risk
- Build bigger things
- Raise young together
- Follow those in the know
- Spot danger quicker
- Hunt larger prey
- Save energy
Describe collective sensing
Individuals have access to their own information as well as others’
Increases effective perceptual range
Increases effective perceptual range
Give an example of an animal that does collective sensing
Visual field reconstruction for individual fish within a shoal is limited but when summed for all fish theres a visual sensory network
What can groups function like in collective sensing?
Sensor arrays
Describe an example of an animal that uses collective sensing to form sensor arrays
Soaring birds use thermals (rising columns of warm air) to gain height
Detecting where thermals are is not a trivial task, and locating the next one is essential for continuing travel (as in paragliding)
In flocks of white storks, individuals monitor where others circle -> this gives them information beyond their own sensory range
-> the flock functions as a distributed sensor network for detecting thermals
What two human oriented fields does collective sensing have applications in
Robotics and sports
What is collective memory
The many brains of a collective can also function to hold more (or more diverse) memory than individuals
What is the benefit of collective memory
Full information does not have to be stored in a single brain
What is experience-pooling in collective memory?
Collective problem-solving through combining different individuals’ knowledge
Give an example of experience pooling
- Three-spined sticklebacks were trained on a two-stage foraging task
- Each fish was only trained on one stage (either A. how to navigate to a feeder box, or B. how to open the feeder box)
- Shoals consisting of A and B fish solved the full task faster than shoals of all-A or shoals of all-B fish
- Memory for complete solution can be stored in separate brains
Give an example of collective memory in migration
- Normally, bighorn sheep and moose are migratory: they track the seasonal emergence of vegetation across north-western US
- But: translocated populations (those moved by humans outside of their normal range) initially do not migrate, but then gradually begin to do so, and increasingly better track the seasonal emergence of food
- They collectively build up knowledge about environment (over decades)
Describe the basis of collective decision making
Not everyone in a group will necessarily agree on what they want to do next, where they want to go, etc.
Who makes the decision?
What are two human oriented examples of collective decision making
Democracy (average preferences, take majority opinion)
Despotism (one or a few individuals lead)
Describe collective decisions in killer whales
- Killer whale pods tend to be led by females
- Among females, post-reproductive (old) females do most of the leading
- In times when salmon (critical food source) abundance is low, leadership by postreproductive females is especially prominent.
- Old females act as repositories of ecological knowledge, and are called on when times are hard
Describe collective decisions in Elephants
- African elephant family groups: matriarchs (old females) also act as “repositories of knowledge”
- Playback experiments show that matriarchs can discriminate calls of a large number of extra-family individuals and initiate defensive behavior if they identify a potentially dangerous intruder
Describe the basis a study of collective intelligence
- Visitors at a livestock fair could enter a competition to guess the weight of an ox
- Galton (1907) analyzed the visitors’ guesses statistically
