Records |
Author |
Boogert, N.J.; Reader, S.M.; Laland, K.N. |
Title |
The relation between social rank, neophobia and individual learning in starlings |
Type |
Journal Article |
Year |
2006 |
Publication |
Animal Behaviour. |
Abbreviated Journal |
Anim. Behav. |
Volume |
72 |
Issue |
6 |
Pages |
1229-1239 |
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Abstract |
Researchers with diverse interests in topics ranging from the formation of dominance hierarchies and social intelligence to animal personalities have predicted specific, and often conflicting, relations between social rank, neophobia and learning ability. We investigated the relations between these variables in captive groups of wild-caught starlings, Sturnus vulgaris, adopting a multidimensional approach to social rank and neophobia. Both agonistic and competitive rank orders were determined for each group and we tested individuals in the absence of their groupmates for object neophobia, latency to feed in a novel environment and performance on an extractive foraging task. In each starling group, the fastest learners occupied the highest competitive ranks, supporting the hypothesis that cognitive ability is positively correlated with social dominance. Competitive rank orders, however, did not correlate significantly with agonistic rank orders. Situation-specific foraging neophobia was suggested: individuals showed consistency in their latencies to feed near a variety of novel objects, but no significant correlation was found between this measure of object neophobia and latency to feed in a novel environment. Starlings fastest to feed in the novel environment were fastest in solving the foraging task. We discuss the implications of these findings for researchers studying hierarchy formation in animal groups, social intelligence and animal personalities. |
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yes |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ room B 3.029 |
Serial |
2074 |
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Author |
Reader, S.M. |
Title |
Innovation and social learning: individual variation and brain evolution |
Type |
Journal Article |
Year |
2003 |
Publication |
Animal Biology (formerly Netherlands Journal of Zoology) |
Abbreviated Journal |
Anim. Biol. Leiden. |
Volume |
53 |
Issue |
2 |
Pages |
147-158 |
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Abstract |
This paper reviews behavioural, neurological and cognitive correlates of innovation at the individual, population and species level, focusing on birds and primates. Innovation, new or modified learned behaviour not previously found in the population, is the first stage in many instances of cultural transmission and may play an important role in the lives of animals with generalist or opportunistic lifestyles. Within-species, innovation is associated with low neophobia, high neophilia, and with high social learning propensities. Indices of innovatory propensities can be calculated for taxonomic groups by counting the frequency of reports of innovation in published literature. These innovation rate data provide a useful comparative measure for studies of behavioural flexibility and cognition. Innovation rate is positively correlated with the relative size of association areas in the brain, namely the hyperstriatum ventrale and neostriatum in birds, and the neocortex and striatum in primates. Innovation rate is also positively correlated with the reported variety of tool use, as well as interspecific differences in learning. Current evidence thus suggests similar patterns of cognitive evolution in primates and birds. |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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3395 |
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Author |
Reader, S.M.; Laland, K.N. |
Title |
Animal Innovation |
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Book Whole |
Year |
2009 |
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Oxford University Press |
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Oxford |
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978-0-19-852622 |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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6381 |
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Author |
Reader, S.M.; Laland, K.N. |
Title |
Diffusion of foraging innovations in the guppy |
Type |
Journal Article |
Year |
2000 |
Publication |
Animal Behaviour. |
Abbreviated Journal |
Anim. Behav. |
Volume |
60 |
Issue |
2 |
Pages |
175-180 |
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Abstract |
The way in which novel learned behaviour patterns spread through animal populations remains poorly understood, despite extensive field research and the recognition that such processes play an important role in the behavioural development, social interactions and evolution of many animal species. We conducted a series of controlled diffusions of foraging information in replicate experimental populations of the guppy, Poecilia reticulata. We presented novel foraging tasks over 15 trials to mixed-sex groups, made up of food-deprived and nonfood-deprived adults (experiment 1) or small, young fish and old, large adults (experiment 2). In these diffusions, knowledge of a route to a feeder could spread through the group by subjects learning from others, discovering the route for themselves, or, most likely, by some combination of these social and asocial learning processes. We found a striking sex difference, with novel foraging information spreading at a significantly faster rate through subgroups of females than of males. Females both discovered the goal and learned the route more quickly than males. Food-deprived individuals were faster at completing the tasks over the 15 trials than nonfood-deprived guppies, and there was a significant interaction between sex and size, with a sex difference in adults but not young individuals. There was also an interaction between sex and hunger level, with food deprivation having a stronger effect on male than female performance. We suggest that information may diffuse in a similar nonrandom or 'directed' manner through many natural populations of animals. Copyright 2000 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. |
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Sub-Department of Animal Behaviour, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge |
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0003-3472 |
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PMID:10973718 |
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no |
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Serial |
2150 |
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Author |
Laland, K.N.; Reader, S.M. |
Title |
Foraging innovation in the guppy |
Type |
Journal Article |
Year |
1999 |
Publication |
Animal Behaviour. |
Abbreviated Journal |
Anim. Behav. |
Volume |
57 |
Issue |
2 |
Pages |
331-340 |
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Abstract |
When novel behaviour patterns spread through animal populations, typically one animal will initiate the diffusion. It is not known whether such 'innovators' are particularly creative individuals, individuals exposed to the appropriate environmental contingencies, or individuals in a particular motivational state. We describe three experiments that investigated the factors influencing foraging innovation in the guppy Poecilia reticulata. We exposed small laboratory populations of fish to novel foraging tasks, which involved exploration and problem solving to locate a novel food source. Experiments 1 and 2 found that (1) females were more likely to innovate than males, (2) food-deprived fish were more likely to innovate than nonfood-deprived subjects, and (3) smaller fish were more likely to innovate than larger fish. We suggest that the sex difference may reflect parental investment asymmetries in males and females. Experiment 3 found that past innovators were more likely to innovate than past noninnovators. Collectively, the results suggest that differences in foraging innovation in guppies are best accounted for by differences in motivational state, but, in addition, guppies may vary in their predisposition to innovate. Copyright 1999 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. |
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Sub-Department of Animal Behaviour, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge |
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0003-3472 |
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PMID:10049472 |
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no |
Call Number |
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Serial |
2151 |
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Author |
Boogert, N.J.; Reader, S.M.; Hoppitt, W.; Laland, K.N. |
Title |
The origin and spread of innovations in starlings |
Type |
Journal Article |
Year |
2008 |
Publication |
Animal Behaviour |
Abbreviated Journal |
Anim. Behav. |
Volume |
75 |
Issue |
4 |
Pages |
1509-1518 |
Keywords |
diffusion dynamics; dominance; foraging; group; innovation; neophobia; social learning; social network; starling; Sturnus vulgaris |
Abstract |
There are numerous reports of novel learned behaviour patterns in animal populations, yet the factors influencing the invention and spread of these innovations remain poorly understood. Here we investigated to what extent the pattern of spread of innovations in captive groups of starlings, Sturnus vulgaris, could be predicted by knowledge of individual and social group variables, including association patterns, social rank orders, measures of neophobia and asocial learning performance. We presented small groups of starlings with a series of novel extractive foraging tasks and recorded the latency for each bird to contact and solve each task, as well as the orders of contacting and solving. We then explored which variables best predicted the observed diffusion patterns. Object neophobia and social rank measures characterized who was the first of the group to contact the novel foraging tasks, and the subsequent spread of contacting tasks was associated with latency to feed in a novel environment. Asocial learning performance, measured in isolation, predicted who was the first solver of the novel foraging tasks in each group. Association patterns did not predict the spread of solving. Contact latency and solving duration were negatively correlated, consistent with social learning underlying the spread of solving. Our findings indicate that we can improve our understanding of the diffusion dynamics of innovations in animal groups by investigating group-dependent and individual variables in combination. We introduce novel methods for exploring predictors of the origin and spread of behavioural innovations that could be widely applied. |
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0003-3472 |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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6036 |
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Author |
Reader, S.M.; Kendal, J.R.; Laland, K.N. |
Title |
Social learning of foraging sites and escape routes in wild Trinidadian guppies |
Type |
Journal Article |
Year |
2003 |
Publication |
Animal Behaviour |
Abbreviated Journal |
Anim. Behav. |
Volume |
66 |
Issue |
4 |
Pages |
729-739 |
Keywords |
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Abstract |
We describe two field experiments with wild guppies, Poecilia reticulata, in Trinidad that demonstrated that guppies can acquire foraging and predator escape-response information from conspecifics. In the foraging experiment, subjects were presented with two distinctly marked feeders in their home rivers. One feeder contained a conspecific shoal in a transparent container. Guppies preferred to enter the feeder containing this artificial shoal over the other feeder. In a test phase, the artificial shoal was removed and the feeders replaced at the testing site after a 5-min delay. More guppies entered the feeder that had contained the artificial shoal over the other feeder, a difference that can be explained only by the fish learning the characteristics or location of the feeder during the training phase. We suggest that subjects acquired a foraging patch preference through a propensity to approach feeding conspecifics, a local enhancement process. In the predator escape-response experiment, naive 'observer' guppies could avoid an approaching trawl net by escaping through either a hole to which 'demonstrator' guppies had been trained or through an alternative hole. When the demonstrators were present, the naive observers escaped more often and more rapidly by the demonstrated route than the alternative route. When the demonstrators were removed, observers maintained a route preference according to the training of their demonstrators, which suggests that the observers had learned an escape route through following or observing their more knowledgeable conspecifics. Thus, both experiments reveal that guppies can socially learn in the wild. Copyright 2003 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. |
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0003-3472 |
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no |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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6163 |
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Author |
Lefebvre, L.; Reader, S.M.; Sol, D. |
Title |
Brains, Innovations and Evolution in Birds and Primates |
Type |
Journal Article |
Year |
2004 |
Publication |
Brain, Behavior and Evolution |
Abbreviated Journal |
Brain. Behav. Evol. |
Volume |
63 |
Issue |
4 |
Pages |
233-246 |
Keywords |
Innovation W Brain evolution W Hyperstriatum ventrale W Neostriatum W Isocortex W Birds W Primates W Tool use W Invasion biology |
Abstract |
Abstract
Several comparative research programs have focusedon the cognitive, life history and ecological traits thataccount for variation in brain size. We review one ofthese programs, a program that uses the reported frequencyof behavioral innovation as an operational measureof cognition. In both birds and primates, innovationrate is positively correlated with the relative size of associationareas in the brain, the hyperstriatum ventrale andneostriatum in birds and the isocortex and striatum inprimates. Innovation rate is also positively correlatedwith the taxonomic distribution of tool use, as well asinterspecific differences in learning. Some features ofcognition have thus evolved in a remarkably similar wayin primates and at least six phyletically-independent avianlineages. In birds, innovation rate is associated withthe ability of species to deal with seasonal changes in theenvironment and to establish themselves in new regions,and it also appears to be related to the rate atwhich lineages diversify. Innovation rate provides a usefultool to quantify inter-taxon differences in cognitionand to test classic hypotheses regarding the evolution ofthe brain. |
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0006-8977 |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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4738 |
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Author |
Reader, S.M.; Laland, K.N. |
Title |
Social intelligence, innovation, and enhanced brain size in primates |
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Journal Article |
Year |
2002 |
Publication |
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |
Abbreviated Journal |
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. |
Volume |
99 |
Issue |
7 |
Pages |
4436-4441 |
Keywords |
Animals; Brain/*anatomy & histology; Evolution; *Intelligence; Learning; Primates/*anatomy & histology/*psychology; Social Behavior |
Abstract |
Despite considerable current interest in the evolution of intelligence, the intuitively appealing notion that brain volume and “intelligence” are linked remains untested. Here, we use ecologically relevant measures of cognitive ability, the reported incidence of behavioral innovation, social learning, and tool use, to show that brain size and cognitive capacity are indeed correlated. A comparative analysis of 533 instances of innovation, 445 observations of social learning, and 607 episodes of tool use established that social learning, innovation, and tool use frequencies are positively correlated with species' relative and absolute “executive” brain volumes, after controlling for phylogeny and research effort. Moreover, innovation and social learning frequencies covary across species, in conflict with the view that there is an evolutionary tradeoff between reliance on individual experience and social cues. These findings provide an empirical link between behavioral innovation, social learning capacities, and brain size in mammals. The ability to learn from others, invent new behaviors, and use tools may have played pivotal roles in primate brain evolution. |
Address |
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, High Street, Madingley, Cambridge CB3 8AA, United Kingdom |
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0027-8424 |
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PMID:11891325 |
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2149 |
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