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Author (up) Boogert, N.J.; Reader, S.M.; Hoppitt, W.; Laland, K.N. url  doi
openurl 
  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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  ISSN 0003-3472 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 6036  
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Author (up) Boogert, N.J.; Reader, S.M.; Laland, K.N. url  doi
openurl 
  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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  Notes Approved yes  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ room B 3.029 Serial 2074  
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Author (up) Laland, K.N.; Reader, S.M. doi  openurl
  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.  
  Address Sub-Department of Animal Behaviour, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge  
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  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
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  ISSN 0003-3472 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes PMID:10049472 Approved no  
  Call Number Serial 2151  
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Author (up) Lefebvre, L.; Reader, S.M.; Sol, D. doi  openurl
  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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  ISSN 0006-8977 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4738  
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Author (up) Reader, S. M.; Laland, K.N. openurl 
  Title Animal Innovation Type Book Whole
  Year 2003 Publication Abbreviated Journal  
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  Publisher Oxford University Press Place of Publication Oxford Editor  
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  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 6531  
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Author (up) Reader, S. M.; MacDonald, K. openurl 
  Title Environmental variability and primate behavioural flexibiity Type Book Chapter
  Year 2003 Publication Animal Innovation Abbreviated Journal  
  Volume Issue Pages 83-116  
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  Publisher Oxford University Press Place of Publication Oxford Editor Reader, S. M.; Laland, K. L.  
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  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 6548  
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Author (up) Reader, S.; Laland, K. doi  openurl
  Title Primate Innovation: Sex, Age and Social Rank Differences Type Journal Article
  Year 2001 Publication International Journal of Primatology Abbreviated Journal Int. J. Primatol.  
  Volume 22 Issue 5 Pages 787-805  
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  Abstract Analysis of an exhaustive survey of primate behavior collated from the published literature revealed significant variation in rates of innovation among individuals of different sex, age and social rank. We searched approximately 1,000 articles in four primatology journals, together with other relevant databases, for examples of innovation. The reported incidence of innovation is higher in males and adults, and lower in females and nonadults, than would be expected by chance given the estimated relative proportions of these groups. Amongst chimpanzees, the only species for which there are sufficient data to consider alone, there is a similar sex difference in the propensity to innovate, but no effect of age. Chimpanzees of low social rank are reported as innovators more frequently than high-ranking chimpanzees are. Male chimpanzees innovate more often than females in sexual, courtship, mating and display contexts; that is, in contexts likely to increase access to mates. The largest number of recorded observations are in the foraging context, wherein contrary to expectations, there is no evidence for female chimpanzees exhibiting more innovation than males. The study is the first extensive investigation of behavioral innovation in primates and provides evidence that much individual variation in the propensity to innovate can be explained in terms of sex, age, and social rank.  
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  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Serial 2152  
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Author (up) Reader, S.M. doi  openurl
  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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  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 3395  
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Author (up) Reader, S.M.; Kendal, J.R.; Laland, K.N. url  doi
openurl 
  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  
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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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  ISSN 0003-3472 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 6163  
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Author (up) Reader, S.M.; Laland, K.N. isbn  openurl
  Title Animal Innovation Type Book Whole
  Year 2009 Publication Abbreviated Journal  
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  Publisher Oxford University Press Place of Publication Oxford Editor  
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  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN ISBN 978-0-19-852622 Medium  
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  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 6381  
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