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Animal Minds > Social Learning > Flashcards

Social Learning Flashcards

1
Q

What is social learning

A

Learning from other’s behaviors

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2
Q

What four questions arise from the definition of social learning

A

Is learning from others different in mechanism or in function to learning from own experiences?

Is social learning associated with special intelligence?

Under what circumstances is it better to learn from others than through own experience (and vice versa)?

What, when, and from whom should animals learn socially?

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3
Q

What is one animal that exhibits social learning and how?

A

Blue tits - many of them started knowing how to open milk bottles

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4
Q

What five processes could the transmission of bottle opening be due to?

A

Imitation
Emulation
Stimulus enhancement
Local enhancement
Social facilitation

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5
Q

Imitation

A

Copying sequences of anothers actions.

Implies putting theirselves in someone else’s place

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6
Q

Emulation

A

Striving for the same outcome as the other, but does not copy actions

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7
Q

Stimulus enhancement

A

Interactions with object draws an observers attention to it.

Observer tries out various things, and eventually learns how to perform an action

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8
Q

Local enhancement

A

Activity of a conspecific at a specific site attracts observer to same site.

Leads to observer interacting with objects at the site.

Learns again by trial and error

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9
Q

Social facilitation

A

Presence of conspecific acts to increase general activity level in observer and reduces neophobia

Facilitates obervers interactions with objects in the environment

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10
Q

What is conspecific

A

Belonging to same species

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11
Q

What is neophobia

A

Fear of anything new/unfamiliar

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12
Q

Describe rat’s food preferences

A

Prefer to eat foods others have eaten

Leads to social transmission of food habits

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13
Q

Describe mobbing responses in blackbirds

A

Young birds learn to target mobbing through the influence of others’ behavior

Mobbing and certain targets seem pre-programmed, but new targets can be learned socially

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14
Q

Describe mobbing across generations in blackbirds

A

Multi-generational transmission

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15
Q

What is crucial in the case of black bird mobbing and why

A

Sovial factor is crucial because blackbirds respond directly to (and learn from) their own species’ mobbing calls

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16
Q

What type of conditioning is blackbird mobbing

A

Observational conditioning

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17
Q

What is an animal that can aquire novel actions through social learning, and which action is it?

A

Black rats can learn to strip pinecones for food

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18
Q

In which conditions can pinecone stripping in black rats be learned?

A

PCS’s pups + PCS mothers
Naive’s pups + PCS mothers
Naive adults + partially stripped cones

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19
Q

How can transmission of novel skills occur?

A

Through the products of others activity

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20
Q

What is not needed in the learning of pinecone stripping

A

Special attention to conspecifics

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21
Q

What is the learning of pine cone stripping known as?

A

Stimulus enhancement

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22
Q

How was the opening of milk bottles by black capped chickadees studied?

A

They were allowed to observe demonstrations or to interact with bottles

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23
Q

What were the four conditions of the milk bottle experiment and their outcomes?

A

Demonstrator present and seen opening bottle (learn - imitation/emulation)

No demonstrator present, milk bottle is already open (learn - stimulus/local enhancement)

No demonstrator present, bottle is closed (no learn)

Demonstrator present but not seen opening bottle and bottle is closed (learn - social facilitation)

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24
Q

In an experiment of bees, how did being in a social group impact learning?

A

More social observers learnt the task than individual innovators (social learning is important)

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25
Q

What happened with non-social bee observers

A

Did not learn the task (observation of conspecific is important)

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26
Q

What did a detailed analysis of observer’s behavior reveal?

A

They learn by attending to

  • Demonstrator location of activity (local enhancement)
  • Position of string (stimulus enhancement)
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27
Q

Which non-social animal exhibited social learning

A

Red footed tortoises

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28
Q

What task was used on red-footed tortoises

A

Detour task

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29
Q

What happened in the detour task

A

Couldnt learn to solve task alone.

After watching demonstrator, all subjects solved the task

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30
Q

When do humans start imitating others

A

From within days of birth

31
Q

What can be seen in infants in terms of imitation

A

They will faithfully copy arbitrary actions in the absence of transparency

32
Q

What does true imitation require

A

The ability to project someone else’s body and actions onto your body

33
Q

What is the ability to project someone else’s body and actions onto your body called?

A

The correspondence problem

34
Q

Describe true imitation in terms of non human animals

A

Evidence for apparent imitation exists, but clear experiments are hard to find

35
Q

What is the benefit of imitation

A

Allows behaviors to be passed on quickly with high fidelity

36
Q

What does high fidelity transmission facilitate?

A

Ratcheting

37
Q

What is ratcheting

A

Accumulation of incremental improvements in a behavior

38
Q

What is a drawback of imitation

A

May allow non-adaptive behaviors to persist

39
Q

What task is used to test for imitation?

A

Two action task

40
Q

Describe the two action task

A

Future demonstrators trained to solve task by one of two actions

Naive individuals allowed to observe the demonstrators performing either first or second action

Allowed to try to solve the task

41
Q

What question does the two action task ask

A

Do observers learn to solve task in manner they observed (as opposed to alternative method?)

42
Q

What would it mean if observers learn to solve task in manner they observed

A

They pay attention to the actions involved, rather than just objects, locations, or outcome

43
Q

How was the two action task used to test milk bottle opening

A

Bird watches another pierce foil, flip lid, or have no solution (control)

They are given the milk bottle after

44
Q

What were the results of the two action task for milk bottles

A

Social learning was observed in the pierce foil and flip lid conditions

45
Q

What was uncertain about the results of two action task for milk bottles

A

Was it imitation or fine-scale stimulus enhancement?

46
Q

How was the two action task used in marmosets

A

Observer watched demonstrator using mouth-opening technique and hand-opening technique for a container

Obeserver performed demonstrators technique

47
Q

Why were the results of the marmoset two action task important?

A

Effect on the container was the same, so monkeys must have paid attention to demonstrators actions rather than just the object

48
Q

How is imitation observed in both humans and chimps

A

Both prefer actions they’ve observed

49
Q

What is the difference between imitation in humans and chimps?

A

It is clearer and increases with age in humans

50
Q

How is imitation vs emulation tested

A

Box has opening on top and front, front opening connected to a reward (seen only when sides of the box were transparent)

Subjects shown actions relevant (remove front defence) and irrelevant (remove top defence) to retrieving reward

51
Q

What were the results of the imitation vs emulation experiment

A

Chimps and children reproduced the irrelevant action a lot in the opaque condition

Chimps barely reproduced irrelevant action in clear condition, but humans reproduced it more than in the opaque condition

52
Q

What are the implications of the imitate vs emulate experiment

A

When task becomes more transparent, chimps omit irrelevant action and switch to emulation. Humans do not

53
Q

How was overimitation tested in children

A

Irrelevant and relevant actions for opening a box were shown to 3yos and 5yos

Adult AND child demonstrators were used

54
Q

What were the results of the overimitation experiment

A

Tendency to overimitate increases with age

55
Q

What are the three difficulties with comparing imitative abilities in humans and non-humans

A

Imitation rewarded in children by adults during everyday interactions (long history of training)

Difficult to separate motivation from ability (if you can efficiently solve task on your own, why imitate?)

Using human demonstrator for non-human subjects can be unfair

56
Q

What does it mean for an individual A to teach individual B? (3 things)

A

A must modify behavior in response to presence of B

A incurs cost, or derives no immediate benefit from instruction

B is able to squire behavior more rabidly than they would on their own

57
Q

What is teaching not the same as?

A

Facilitating someone’s learning by allowing them to watch you, or by leaving the environment in a state which facilitates learning in others

58
Q

What are four cases in the wild in which teaching has been demonstrated

A

Thorton et al 2006 - Prey handling in meerkats

Franks and Richardson 2006 - tandem running to food source in ants

Raihani and Ridley 2008 - food calls in pied babblers

Musgrave et al 2016 - tool use in chimps

59
Q

What does most social learning appear to be

A

Solely the responsibility of the learner

60
Q

Describe the study of teaching prey handling skills in meerkats

A

Adults modify own behavior in response to pups present

Adults incur cost (time and effort capturing pray before handing it to pups; monitored ups after)

Pups gradually improve prey handling skills (also shown by providing pups with dead vs live prey and watching for improvement in skills)

61
Q

Describe how routes to food sources can be taught in ants

A

Tandem leader regulate speed to keep follower within antenna reach

Tandem leader slowed down 4x compared to when they walk alone

Tandem follower find food more quickly than individual explorers, and learn the route of leader

62
Q

Describe teaching of tool use in chimps

A

Adults modify behavior in young’s presence

Adults termite-fishing efficiency temporarily reduced when handing over tools

Young’s termite-fishing efficiency temporarily increased when they receive adult tools

63
Q

What is unclear about teaching of tool use in chimps

A

If this helps them with learning in the long run

64
Q

What are the three proposed contexts in which teaching may be beneficial

A

High relatedness
High risk
High utility

65
Q

Why is high relatedness important in teaching?

A

Teachers invest time and energy into teaching- should benefit them at least indirectly by promoting offspring survival

66
Q

Why is high risk important in teaching?

A

Learning alone by trial-and-error can be too dangerous

67
Q

Why is high utility important in teaching?

A

Some tasks have high rewards but are difficult to learn alone

68
Q

What are two benefits to social learning?

A

Help avoid negative effects of trying things themselves

Novel adaptive behaviors can spread quickly

69
Q

What are two drawbacks to social learning

A

Can impair individual learning

Learner may acquire wrong/outdated info

70
Q

How can social learning impair individual learning

A

Reliance on others may lead to excessive neophobia and/or lower attention to environmental cues

71
Q

How can social learning cause aquisition of wrong/outdated info

A

Needs mechanism for regulating who/what/when to copy

72
Q

What should social learning not be and why

A

Shouldnt be indiscriminate - risks learning wrong/outdated info

73
Q

What can social learning strategies help with?

A

Targeting learner’s attention towards individuals/behaviors most likely to be useful

74
Q

What three questions should you ask about social learning

A

Who should you copy?
What should you copy?
When should you copy?

Animal Minds (17 decks)

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