Social learning and culture Forms Audio-vocal learning Consequences –Rate of transmission –Traditions and culture
Forms of social learning Local enhancement –Locate foraging sites by attending to others Social facilitation –Animals feed faster in a group Observational learning (copying) –Observer modifies behavior after demonstrator Imitation –Observer matches behavioral action and goal Teaching –Demonstrator performs behavior only to naïve observer
Local enhancement in cliff swallows
Social facilitation in ravens
Diet transfer in rats Observational learning
Diet tradition in Norway rats
Imitation in rats?
Pine cone learning in rats, a natural example of imitation?
“Teaching” to mob
Observational conditioning
Social learning dilemma Observational learning reduces costs by minimizing errors. Do we expect everyone in a population to use observational learning? No, because someone has to figure out the correct behavior first. Asocial learners = producers, social learners = scroungers Expect social learning to be used selectively
Scrounging can interfere with skill acquisition
Song learning requires a learned “template”
Acquisition of template can be influeced by social experience Live tutor present
Dialects in white-crowned sparrows - a cultural tradition?
Whistle sharing in bottlenose dolphins Males form alliances that persist for many years Dolphins can imitate sounds Alliance partners share whistle types
Greater spear-nosed bats learn group distinctive calls
Vervet alarm calls
Alarm calls refer to predators
Development of vervet alarm calls
Vervet infants learn when to call
Rate of change depends on form of transfer
Observational learning can lead to epidemic rates of change
Cream stealing by blue tits
Observational learning can create traditions (culture)
Evolutionary consequences Transmission typeInstinctImprintingIndividualSocial Transmission speedslowslowmediumfast Environmental trackinglowmediumhighmedium Cost of mistakeshighhighlowlow Error frequencylowlowhighmedium Exploitabilityhighmediumlowmedium