Allison Heschle Hannah Buchan Emily Grupe Social Learning Allison Heschle Hannah Buchan Emily Grupe

What is Social Learning? Social learning is a the individual modification of behavior through the observation of other individuals in a population. It forms the roots of culture, which can be defined as a system of information transfer through social learning. The culture influences the behavior of individuals in a population by altering phenotypes and thus affecting population fitness.

Case Study: Mate Choice Copying Mate-choice copying is a behavior in which individuals in a population copy the mate choice of others. An experiment has been done on guppies Poecilia reticulata. The study showed that the females, in the absence of other females, almost always chose the males with more orange coloration. Control Sample Male guppies with varying degrees of coloration Female guppies prefer males with more orange coloration.

Case Study: Mate Choice Copying To test if the presence of other females affected this behavior, an experiment was set up with other artificial and living females. The females ended up choosing the mates that were associated with another female, regardless of their coloring. Experimental Sample Female model in mock courtship with less orange male Female guppies prefer males that are associated with another female.

Case Study: Mate Choice Copying This demonstrates how the females’ choice of mates is affected by the other females in the population. This experiment showed that the female guppies would copy the other females mate choice by choosing males that they normally would not.

Case Study: Social Learning of Alarm Calls Studies of the vervet monkeys also demonstrated how a behavior could be modified through social learning. Vervet monkeys produce complex alarm calls to signal to other monkeys when they see predators. When one of the vervet monkeys spots a predator, they will begin to signal each other depending on which predator is encroaching. When the other monkeys hear the signals they all join in repeating the specific alarm signals to each other to warn of the upcoming danger. Other monkeys will then respond accordingly to keep track of the nearing predators.

Case Study: Social Learning of Alarm Calls Infant vervet monkeys imitate the older monkeys, for example, by making the alarm call for an eagle spotting every time they see a bird. As they mature and gain more exposure they learn to refine their calls to only the specific eagle species that prey upon the vervet monkeys. They learn from the older monkeys in their population how to fine-tune their calls only in response to a serious danger to the population.

Other Examples Chimpanzees in Gombe National Park use specific blades of grass or twigs to feed on ants and termites depending on what they are eating. In the same park, different chimps from different enclosures vary in their food-retrieval techniques.