Social learning in animals
[1] Social learning has been observed in a variety of animal taxa,[2][3] such as insects,[4] fish,[5] birds,[6] reptiles, amphibians[7] and mammals (including primates[8]).
[1] One seminal study with guppies (Poecilia reticulata) demonstrated how local enhancement influenced foraging behavior.
[13] Untrained adult female guppies (observers) were given five days of experience swimming with demonstrator fish trained to take one of two equivalent routes to food.
[3] Opportunity providing is a social learning mechanism in which the experienced individual puts the observer in a situation that facilitates the acquisition of knowledge or a new skill.
One pilot study determined that black rats living in the forests of Palestine preferentially fed on pine cones instead of other fresh fruits and vegetation nearby.
[14] To determine how these food preferences developed, researchers provided naive adult black rats with fresh pine cones in captivity and observed their behavior.
[15] In further experiments, the rats were allowed to observe experienced individuals opening the pine cones but were still unable to pick up the skill of pinecone stripping.
[1] A study investigating stimulus enhancement in greylag geese (Anser anser) found that individuals that had previously observed a human opening a box preferentially spent more time investigating the box and attempting to open it via trial and error.
[18] Another example of this is how blackbirds learn to identify predators; they observe other birds mobbing unfamiliar objects they haven't seen before.
Much of the research that has been conducted on imitation and emulation in animals has centered around primates due to their advanced cognitive capacities and evolutionary proximity to humans.
The researchers suggest that this study may provide insight into how behaviors learned through imitation can still be selected for due to level of performance.
Sewall explored the variation in learned bird songs in relation to social and genetic intermixing of families of red crossbills (Loxia curvirostra).
[26] He suggests that while many studies have shown that several species of songbirds prefer the song dialect of their local area, current data is lacking in explaining why this is so.
Roberts et al. performed research on zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) that explored the importance of neural motor circuitry on birdsong learning.
Images of a finch undergoing various neural manipulations showed that premotor circuits aid in encoding information about songs.
[33] Observational learning, then, only becomes social when perceptual, attentional, and motivational factors are focused on other organisms by genetic or developmental forces.
In considering imitation and emulation in non-human animals, much of the research has centered around the presence or absence of these abilities in primates.
[85] Many of the mechanisms involved in inadvertent social learning are also employed during teaching; the distinction is drawn based upon the role of the demonstrator.
[12] Most identified examples have still not been conclusively proven to meet all criteria and primarily serve to suggest that teaching may occur while acknowledging that further research is needed.
Pups are initially unable to find and consume any of their own prey and more rapidly gain predatory abilities through learning experiences from a “teacher”, suggesting that adult teaching facilitates both the speed and efficiency of skill acquisition.
[12] Tandem running in ants provides evidence that teaching can occur even without a large brain with complex cognitive abilities.
But the benefit is clear: evidence suggests that followers find food much more quickly through tandem running than from searching alone.
This social learning method has been shown in group mobbing behavior in the common blackbird (Turdus merula).
Birds can actively defend themselves against brood parasitism from cuckoos and cowbirds via a variety of behaviors, including mobbing, and these too can be socially learned.
[3] The Norway rat (Rattus norvegicus) also utilizes social learning behaviors to find food sources.
Mature rats leave sensory trails to and from food sources that are preferentially followed by naive pups.
[96] Norway rats have been shown to abandon previously individually learned habits due to the actions of conspecifics.
[98][99] When many individuals residing within the same area employ social learning, local traditions can be formed and cultural transmission can occur.
[100] Even "alien" syllable types not produced by their biological parents can be learned by finches raised by foster canaries in the lab.
[100] If copying errors are common, or if each observer adds individually learned modifications to a new behavior pattern, stable traditions are unlikely to develop and persist over time.
