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McVey, A.; Wilkinson, A.; Mills, D.S. |
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Title |
Social learning in horses: the effect of using a group leader demonstrator on the performance of familiar conspecifics in a detour task |
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2018 |
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Applied Animal Behaviour Science |
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Equine; Imitation; Leader; Social facilitation; Social learning |
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Learning through the observation of others allows the transfer of information without the costs incurred during individual trial and error learning. Horses (Equus caballus) are a highly social species, which might be expected to be capable of learning from others, but experimental findings are inconsistent, and potentially confounded by social facilitation effects not related directly to the learning of the task. We refined the methods used in previous equine social learning studies, to examine and distinguish specific social influences on learning of a task: we used predefined group leaders rather than agonistically dominant individuals to demonstrate a detour task to familiar conspecific observers; in addition we had two control groups: a non-observer (true control) and a group with the demonstrator simply present at the goal (social facilitation control). 44 socially kept horses were allocated to one of the three test conditions and took part in five trials each. Success rate, latency and detour direction were recorded. There was no significant difference between the three groups in the likelihood of them succeeding in the task nor latency to succeed; however there was a significant difference in the route chosen by the groups, with the true control choosing the side with the entrance gate significantly more than either the observer group or social facilitation group. Both of the latter two groups chose to go in the same direction relative to themselves, regardless of which side the gate was. Seven out of nine horses in the observer group chose the same direction as their demonstrator every time. Our results show a significant role of social facilitation on detour behaviour and highlight the importance of including adequate controls for simpler cognitive influences on behaviour before claims can be made about the specific learning of motor actions or goal directed behaviour. Social cues may be important to horses if the task is sufficiently challenging and motivationally important, so future work should consider more demanding, but ecologically relevant situations, in order to maximise the potential revelation of social learning effects which do not depend on simple local or stimulus enhancement effects. |
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0168-1591 |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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6395 |
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Pongrácz, P.; Miklósi, Á.; Vida, V.; Csányi, V. |
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Title |
The pet dogs ability for learning from a human demonstrator in a detour task is independent from the breed and age |
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Year |
2005 |
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Applied Animal Behaviour Science |
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Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci. |
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90 |
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3 |
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309-323 |
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Dog; Breed differences; Social learning |
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There are many indications and much practical knowledge about the different tasks which various breeds of dogs are selected for. Correspondingly these different breeds are known to possess different physical and mental abilities. We hypothesized that commonly kept breeds will show differences in their problem solving ability in a detour task around a V-shaped fence, and also, that breed differences will affect their learning ability from a human demonstrator, who demonstrates a detour around the fence. Subjects were recruited in Hungarian pet dog schools. We compared the results of the 10 most common breeds in our sample when they were tested in the detour task without human demonstration. There was no significant difference between the latencies of detour, however, there was a trend that German Shepherd dogs were the quickest and Giant Schnauzers were the slowest in this test. For testing the social learning ability of dogs we formed three breed groups (“utility”, “shepherd” and “hunting”). There were no significant differences between these, all the breed groups learned equally well from the human demonstrator. However, we found that dogs belonging to the “shepherd” group looked back more frequently to their owner than the dogs in the “hunting” group. Further, we have found that the age of pet dogs did not affect their social learning ability in the detour task. Our results showed that the pet status of a dog has probably a stronger effect on its cognitive performance and human related behaviour than its age or breed. These results emphasize that socialization and common activities with the dog might overcome the possible breed differences, if we give the dogs common problem solving, or social learning tasks. |
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0168-1591 |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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6584 |
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Anderson, J.R.; Fornasieri, I.; Ludes, E.; Roeder, J.-J. |
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Title |
Social processes and innovative behaviour in changing groups of lemur fulvus |
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Journal Article |
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1992 |
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Behavioural Processes |
Abbreviated Journal |
Behav. Process. |
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27 |
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2 |
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101-112 |
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Social learning; Lemur fulvus; Dominance; Individual differences |
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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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refbase @ user @ |
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576 |
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Author |
Lefebvre, L. |
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Title |
Ecological correlates of social learning: problems and solutions for the comparative method |
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Journal Article |
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1995 |
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Behavioural Processes |
Abbreviated Journal |
Behav. Process. |
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35 |
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1-3 |
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163-171 |
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Adaptive specialization; Social learning; Comparative method |
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Interspecific variation in learning and cognition is often accounted for by adaptive specialization, an ecological framework where variation between species in the environmental problems they face is thought to select for quantitatively and/or qualitatively different abilities. Adaptive specialization theory relies on the comparative method for testing its hypotheses and assumes a naturally selected basis for the predicted differences. This review examines social learning as a specialization to group-living and scramble feeding competition. It points out one important problem with current studies in the area, the lack of quantitative controls for confounding variables that may cause type 1 or 2 error in comparative tests. A linear regression technique is proposed to measure and remove interspecific differences on control tests for which there is no predicted adaptive specialization; as in other areas of comparative biology, the adaptive prediction is then made on the residual deviation from the regression of these confounding variables. Examples are given from research on opportunistic Columbids, the group-living feral pigeon Columbia livia, and the territorial Zenaida dove, Zenaida aurita. |
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refbase @ user @ |
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843 |
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Author |
Griffin, A.S. |
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Title |
Socially acquired predator avoidance: Is it just classical conditioning? |
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Journal Article |
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2008 |
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Brain Research Bulletin |
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Special Issue:Brain Mechanisms, Cognition and Behaviour in Birds |
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76 |
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3 |
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264-271 |
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Learning; Classical (Pavlovian) conditioning; Social learning; Ecological specialization; General process theory; Ecology; Predation; Backward conditioning |
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Associative learning theories presume the existence of a general purpose learning process, the structure of which does not mirror the demands of any particular learning problem. In contrast, learning scientists working within an Evolutionary Biology tradition believe that learning processes have been shaped by ecological demands. One potential means of exploring how ecology may have modified properties of acquisition is to use associative learning theory as a framework within which to analyse a particular learning phenomenon. Recent work has used this approach to examine whether socially transmitted predator avoidance can be conceptualised as a classical conditioning process in which a novel predator stimulus acts as a conditioned stimulus (CS) and acquires control over an avoidance response after it has become associated with alarm signals of social companions, the unconditioned stimulus (US). I review here a series of studies examining the effect of CS/US presentation timing on the likelihood of acquisition. Results suggest that socially acquired predator avoidance may be less sensitive to forward relationships than traditional classical conditioning paradigms. I make the case that socially acquired predator avoidance is an exciting novel one-trial learning paradigm that could be studied along side fear conditioning. Comparisons between social and non-social learning of danger at both the behavioural and neural level may yield a better understanding of how ecology might shape properties and mechanisms of learning. |
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0361-9230 |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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4697 |
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Author |
Bouchard, J. |
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Title |
Is social learning correlated with innovation in birds? An inter-and an interspecific test |
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2002 |
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Department of Biology McGill University Montréal, Québec |
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Birds -- Behavior Birds -- Food Columba livia -- Behavior Columba livia -- Food Social learning |
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This thesis focuses on the relationship between innovation and social learning in the foraging context, across and within bird species, using two different sources of data: anecdotal reports from the literature, and experimental tests in the laboratory and the field. In chapter 1, I review the trends in innovation and social learning in the avian literature, and contrast them with trends in mammals, especially primates. In chapter 2, I use anecdotal reports of feeding innovation and social learning in the literature to assess taxonomic trends and to study the relationship between the two traits at the interspecific level. In chapter 3, I investigate the relationship between innovation and social learning at the intraspecific level in captive feral pigeons (Columba livia). Innovation is estimated from the ability to solve an innovative foraging problem, and social learning is measured as the number of trials required to learn a foraging task from a proficient demonstrator. (Abstract shortened by UMI.) |
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Master's thesis |
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Department of Biology McGili University Montréal, Québec |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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4785 |
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Author |
Boyd, R.; Richerson, P.J. |
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Why does culture increase human adaptability? |
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1995 |
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Ethology and Sociobiology |
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Ethol. a. Sociob. |
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16 |
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2 |
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125-143 |
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Social learning; Adaptation; Culture; Sociobiology |
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It is often argued that culture is adaptive because it allows people to acquire useful information without costly learning. In a recent paper Rogers (1989) analyzed a simple mathematical model that showed that this argument is wrong. Here we show that Rogers' result is robust. As long as the only benefit of social learning is that imitators avoid learning costs, social learning does not increase average fitness. However, we also show that social learning can be adaptive if it makes individual learning more accurate or less costly. |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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4196 |
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Leadbeater, E. |
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Title |
What evolves in the evolution of social learning? |
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2015 |
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Journal of Zoology |
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J Zool |
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295 |
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1 |
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4-11 |
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social learning; associative learning; social information use |
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Social learning is fundamental to social life across the animal kingdom, but we still know little about how natural selection has shaped social learning abilities on a proximate level. Sometimes, complex social learning phenomena can be entirely explained by Pavlovian processes that have little to do with the evolution of sociality. This implies that the ability to learn socially could be an exaptation, not an adaptation, to social life but not that social learning abilities have been left untouched by natural selection. I discuss new empirical evidence for associative learning in social information use, explain how natural selection might facilitate the associative learning process and discuss why such studies are changing the way that we think about social learning. |
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1469-7998 |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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6015 |
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Choleris, E.; Kavaliers, M. |
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Title |
Social Learning in Animals: Sex Differences and Neurobiological Analysis |
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1999 |
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Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior |
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Pharmacol. Biochem. Behav. |
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64 |
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4 |
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767-776 |
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Observational learning; Social learning; Individual learning; Imitation; Social constraints; Social facilitation; male-female differences; Gender differences |
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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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refbase @ user @ |
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575 |
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Giraldeau, Luc-Alain; Valone, Thomas, J.; Templeton, Jennifer, J. |
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Title |
Potential disadvantages of using socially acquired information |
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2002 |
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Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |
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Phil. Trans. Biol. Sci. |
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357 |
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1427 |
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1559-1566 |
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Public Information Informational Cascades Social Learning Sampling |
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The acquisition and use of socially acquired information is commonly assumed to be profitable. We challenge this assumption by exploring hypothetical scenarios where the use of such information either provides no benefit or can actually be costly. First, we show that the level of incompatibility between the acquisition of personal and socially acquired information will directly affect the extent to which the use of socially acquired information can be profitable. When these two sources of information cannot be acquired simultaneously, there may be no benefit to socially acquired information. Second, we assume that a solitary individual's behavioural decisions will be based on cues revealed by its own interactions with the environment. However, in many cases, for social animals the only socially acquired information available to individuals is the behavioural actions of others that expose their decisions, rather than the cues on which these decisions were based. We argue that in such a situation the use of socially acquired information can lead to informational cascades that sometimes result in sub-optimal behaviour. From this theory of informational cascades, we predict that when erroneous cascades are costly, individuals should pay attention only to socially generated cues and not behavioural decisions. We suggest three scenarios that might be examples of informational cascades in nature. |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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4197 |
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