1. Social learning and culture Forms Audio-vocal learning Consequences –Rate of transmission –Traditions and culture

2. 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

3. Local enhancement in cliff swallows

4. Social facilitation in ravens

5. Diet transfer in rats Observational learning

6. Diet tradition in Norway rats

7. Imitation in rats?

8. Pine cone learning in rats, a natural example of imitation?

9. “Teaching” to mob

10. Observational conditioning

11. 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

12. Scrounging can interfere with skill acquisition

13. Song learning requires a learned “template”

14. Acquisition of template can be influeced by social experience Live tutor present

15. Dialects in white-crowned sparrows - a cultural tradition?

16. Whistle sharing in bottlenose dolphins Males form alliances that persist for many years Dolphins can imitate sounds Alliance partners share whistle types

17. Greater spear-nosed bats learn group distinctive calls

18. Vervet alarm calls

19. Alarm calls refer to predators

20. Development of vervet alarm calls

21. Vervet infants learn when to call

22. Rate of change depends on form of transfer

23. Observational learning can lead to epidemic rates of change

24. Cream stealing by blue tits

25. Observational learning can create traditions (culture)

26. Evolutionary consequences Transmission typeInstinctImprintingIndividualSocial Transmission speedslowslowmediumfast Environmental trackinglowmediumhighmedium Cost of mistakeshighhighlowlow Error frequencylowlowhighmedium Exploitabilityhighmediumlowmedium