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Author Brilot, B.O.; Johnstone, R.A.
Title The limits to cost-free signalling of need between relatives Type Journal Article
Year 2003 Publication Proceedings. Biological sciences / The Royal Society Abbreviated Journal Proc Biol Sci
Volume 270 Issue 1519 Pages 1055-1060
Keywords *Animal Communication; Animals; Birds/physiology; Models, Biological; *Social Behavior
Abstract Theoretical models have demonstrated the possibility of stable cost-free signalling of need between relatives. The stability of these cost-free equilibria depends on the indirect fitness cost of cheating and deceiving a donor into giving away resources. We show that this stability is highly sensitive to the distribution of need among signallers and receivers. In particular, cost-free signalling is likely to prove stable only if there is very large variation in need (such that the least-needy individuals stand to gain much less than the most-needy individuals from additional resources). We discuss whether these conditions are likely to be found in altricial avian breeding systems--the most intensively studied instance of signalling of need between relatives. We suggest that cost-free signalling is more likely to prove stable and will provide parents with more information during the earlier phases of chick growth, when parents can more easily meet the demands of a brood (and chicks are more likely to reach satiation). Later, informative yet cost-free signalling is unlikely to persist.
Address Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK. bob21@cam.ac.uk
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ISSN 0962-8452 ISBN Medium
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Notes PMID:12803895 Approved (up) no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 558
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Author Nicol, C.J.
Title How animals learn from each other Type Journal Article
Year 2006 Publication Applied Animal Behaviour Science Abbreviated Journal Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci.
Volume 100 Issue 1-2 Pages 58-63
Keywords Social learning; Chickens; Demonstrators; Dominance
Abstract This paper explores ways by which animals may learn from one another, using examples drawn mostly from the chicken, an animal for which social learning is likely to be less dangerous than individual learning. In early life, the behaviour of the hen is important in encouraging chicks to peck at edible items. Maternal display not only attracts chicks to profitable food items, but also redirects their attention away from harmful or non-profitable items. Older chicks can enhance their foraging success by observing the behaviour of conspecifics within their own social group. Hens have been trained to perform a novel behaviour (key-pecking for food) by observation of a trained demonstrator bird. Moreover, observers learnt most from watching dominant demonstrators. Thus the ability to learn from others is not `fixed', but depends on the context and the social identity of both the observer and the demonstrator.
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Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 564
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Author Chalmeau, R.; Gallo, A.
Title Social constraints determine what is learned in the chimpanzee Type Journal Article
Year 1993 Publication Behavioural Processes Abbreviated Journal Behav. Process.
Volume 28 Issue 3 Pages 173-179
Keywords Operant conditioning; Social influence; Individual strategy; Chimpanzee
Abstract A group of six chimpanzees was placed in a social learning situation, without training. The learning task was an operant conditioning situation; that is, a subject had to pull two handles simultaneously to cause a piece of fruit to fall into the cage. Only three individuals acquired the operant behaviour. For the operant individuals, social influences on the expression of the learning task were then examined; the dominant chimpanzee during feeding had an inhibiting effect when close to the operant subjects. Depending on the subject, social factors may influence not only the specific expression of what is learnt, but also the nature of what is learnt. Chimpanzees appear to experience situations differently: they develop an individual problem-solving strategy according to their social relationships even if the experimental procedure is the same for all.
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Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 569
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Author Griffin, A.S.
Title Social learning in Indian mynahs, Acridotheres tristis: the role of distress calls Type Journal Article
Year 2008 Publication Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.
Volume 75 Issue 1 Pages 79-89
Keywords Acridotheres tristis; distress vocalizations; head saccades; Indian mynah; predator avoidance learning; social learning
Abstract Socially acquired predator avoidance is a phenomenon in which individuals acquire an avoidance response towards an initially neutral stimulus after they have experienced it together with the antipredator signals of social companions. Earlier research has established that alarm calls used for intraspecific communication are effective stimuli for triggering acquisition. However, animals produce a large range of other antipredator responses that might engage antipredator learning. Here, I examine the effects of conspecific distress calls, a signal that is produced by birds when restrained by a predator, and that appears to be directed towards predators, rather than conspecifics, on predator avoidance learning in Indian mynahs, Acridotheres tristis. Distress calls reflect high levels of alarm in the caller and should, therefore, mediate robust learning. Experiment 1 revealed that subjects performed higher rates of head movements in response to a previously unfamiliar avian mount after it had been presented simultaneously with playbacks of conspecific distress vocalizations. Experiment 2 revealed that increased rates of head saccades resembled the spontaneous response evoked by a novel stimulus more closely than it resembled the response evoked by a perched raptor, suggesting that distress calls inculcated a visual exploratory response, rather than an antipredator response. While it is usually thought that the level of acquisition in learners follows a simple relationship with the level of alarm shown by demonstrators, the present results suggest that this relationship may be more complex. Antipredator signals with different functions may have differential effects on learners.
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ISSN 0003-3472 ISBN Medium
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Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4696
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Author Choleris, E.; Kavaliers, M.
Title Social Learning in Animals: Sex Differences and Neurobiological Analysis Type Journal Article
Year 1999 Publication Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior Abbreviated Journal Pharmacol. Biochem. Behav.
Volume 64 Issue 4 Pages 767-776
Keywords Observational learning; Social learning; Individual learning; Imitation; Social constraints; Social facilitation; male-female differences; Gender differences
Abstract Social learning where an “individual's behavior is influenced by observation of, or interaction with, another animal or its products” has been extensively documented in a broad variety of species, including humans. Social learning occurs within the complex framework of an animal's social interactions that are markedly affected by factors such as dominance hierarchies, family bonds, age, and sex of the interacting individuals. Moreover, it is clear that social learning is influenced not only by important sexually dimorphic social constraints but also that it involves attention, motivational, and perceptual mechanisms, all of which exhibit substantial male-female differences. Although sex differences have been demonstrated in a wide range of cognitive and behavioral processes, investigations of male-female differences in social learning and its neurobiological substrates have been largely neglected. As such, sex differences in social learning and its neurobiological substrates merit increased attention. This review briefly considers various aspects of the study of social learning in mammals, and indicates where male-female differences have either been described, neglected and, or could have a potential impact. It also describes the results of neurobiological investigations of social learning and considers the relevance of these findings to other sexually dimorphic cognitive processes.
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Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 575
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Author Anderson, J.R.; Fornasieri, I.; Ludes, E.; Roeder, J.-J.
Title Social processes and innovative behaviour in changing groups of lemur fulvus Type Journal Article
Year 1992 Publication Behavioural Processes Abbreviated Journal Behav. Process.
Volume 27 Issue 2 Pages 101-112
Keywords Social learning; Lemur fulvus; Dominance; Individual differences
Abstract A group of brown lemurs was presented with one or two baited food-boxes requiring a specific type of motor response in order to be opened. Subsequently, four groups containing different combinations of experienced individuals from the original group and naive individuals were tested. Solutions to the problem and access to the food were recorded and considered in relation to social factors. In the original group, two adult males learned to open the boxes, with one male increasingly preventing the other from approaching. In the second group, with the subordinate male and certain females removed, the dominant male tolerated successful performances by a juvenile female. Group 3 consisted of three passive female participants from the original group and a naive female; one of the three original females now became the sole box-opener. The introduction of the subordinate male from the original group into the all-female group led to a sharing of box-opening by this subject and the skilled female. In the final group, intense aggression toward the skilled female by a new, naive adult male resulted in two previously passive females succeeding on some occasions. In lemurs, at least some `scroungers' appear able to learn to perform a new act when the social context permits.
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Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 576
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Author Nicol, C.J.
Title The social transmission of information and behaviour Type Journal Article
Year 1995 Publication Applied Animal Behaviour Science Abbreviated Journal Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci.
Volume 44 Issue 2-4 Pages 79-98
Keywords Social learning; Imitation; Social facilitation; Cultural transmission; Stereotypies
Abstract Social influences on established behaviour and on the acquisition of new information and behaviour are reviewed. Distinctions between social facilitation and contagious behaviour are drawn and suggestions for further research on contagious behaviour are made. Socially derived visual, olfactory and auditory cues are considered as important influences on behaviour and subsequent learning. The evidence supporting two potential mechanisms of social learning, i.e. stimulus enhancement followed by individual learning, and imitation, is reviewed in detail. It is argued that the functions of social learning are similarly heterogeneous and include motor skill acquisition, gathering of environmental information, and social conformity. Factors affecting the spread of socially acquired skills, including the social relationship between demonstrator and observer, are highlighted. Lastly, the few studies of social learning that have been conducted with domestic species are reviewed and potential applied goals that could stimulate further research in this area are suggested.
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Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 577
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Author Pepperberg, I.M.
Title In search of king Solomon's ring: cognitive and communicative studies of Grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus) Type Journal Article
Year 2002 Publication Brain, behavior and evolution Abbreviated Journal Brain Behav Evol
Volume 59 Issue 1-2 Pages 54-67
Keywords *Animal Communication; Animals; Attention/physiology; Cognition/*physiology; Cues; Form Perception/physiology; Humans; Intelligence; Learning/physiology; Male; Models, Psychological; Parrots/*physiology; Psychomotor Performance/physiology; Reward; Social Behavior
Abstract During the past 24 years, I have used a modeling technique (M/R procedure) to train Grey parrots to use an allospecific code (English speech) referentially; I then use the code to test their cognitive abilities. The oldest bird, Alex, labels more than 50 different objects, 7 colors, 5 shapes, quantities to 6, 3 categories (color, shape, material) and uses 'no', 'come here', wanna go X' and 'want Y' (X and Y are appropriate location or item labels). He combines labels to identify, request, comment upon or refuse more than 100 items and to alter his environment. He processes queries to judge category, relative size, quantity, presence or absence of similarity/difference in attributes, and show label comprehension. He semantically separates labeling from requesting. He thus exhibits capacities once presumed limited to humans or nonhuman primates. Studies on this and other Greys show that parrots given training that lacks some aspect of input present in M/R protocols (reference, functionality, social interaction) fail to acquire referential English speech. Examining how input affects the extent to which parrots acquire an allospecific code may elucidate mechanisms of other forms of exceptional learning: learning unlikely in the normal course of development but that can occur under certain conditions.
Address The MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, Mass. 02139, USA. impepper@media.mit.edu
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ISSN 0006-8977 ISBN Medium
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Notes PMID:12097860 Approved (up) no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 579
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Author Hare, B.; Plyusnina, I.; Ignacio, N.; Schepina, O.; Stepika, A.; Wrangham, R.; Trut, L.
Title Social cognitive evolution in captive foxes is a correlated by-product of experimental domestication Type Journal Article
Year 2005 Publication Current biology : CB Abbreviated Journal Curr Biol
Volume 15 Issue 3 Pages 226-230
Keywords Animals; *Animals, Domestic; Cognition/*physiology; *Cues; *Evolution; Foxes/*physiology; *Selection (Genetics); Social Behavior; Species Specificity
Abstract Dogs have an unusual ability for reading human communicative gestures (e.g., pointing) in comparison to either nonhuman primates (including chimpanzees) or wolves . Although this unusual communicative ability seems to have evolved during domestication , it is unclear whether this evolution occurred as a result of direct selection for this ability, as previously hypothesized , or as a correlated by-product of selection against fear and aggression toward humans--as is the case with a number of morphological and physiological changes associated with domestication . We show here that fox kits from an experimental population selectively bred over 45 years to approach humans fearlessly and nonaggressively (i.e., experimentally domesticated) are not only as skillful as dog puppies in using human gestures but are also more skilled than fox kits from a second, control population not bred for tame behavior (critically, neither population of foxes was ever bred or tested for their ability to use human gestures) . These results suggest that sociocognitive evolution has occurred in the experimental foxes, and possibly domestic dogs, as a correlated by-product of selection on systems mediating fear and aggression, and it is likely the observed social cognitive evolution did not require direct selection for improved social cognitive ability.
Address Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. hare@eva.mpg.de
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ISSN 0960-9822 ISBN Medium
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Notes PMID:15694305 Approved (up) no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 594
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Author Hare, B.; Brown, M.; Williamson, C.; Tomasello, M.
Title The domestication of social cognition in dogs Type Journal Article
Year 2002 Publication Science (New York, N.Y.) Abbreviated Journal Science
Volume 298 Issue 5598 Pages 1634-1636
Keywords Animals; *Animals, Domestic; *Behavior, Animal; *Cognition; *Cues; *Dogs; Food; Humans; Memory; Pan troglodytes; *Social Behavior; Species Specificity; Vision; Wolves
Abstract Dogs are more skillful than great apes at a number of tasks in which they must read human communicative signals indicating the location of hidden food. In this study, we found that wolves who were raised by humans do not show these same skills, whereas domestic dog puppies only a few weeks old, even those that have had little human contact, do show these skills. These findings suggest that during the process of domestication, dogs have been selected for a set of social-cognitive abilities that enable them to communicate with humans in unique ways.
Address Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. bhare@fas.harvard.edu
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ISSN 1095-9203 ISBN Medium
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Notes PMID:12446914 Approved (up) no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 595
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