Identification of learning mechanisms in a wild meerkat population
| Autor: | Jamie Samson, Kevin N. Laland, Alex Thornton, William Hoppitt |
|---|---|
| Přispěvatelé: | BBSRC, European Research Council, University of St Andrews. School of Biology, University of St Andrews. Scottish Oceans Institute, University of St Andrews. Institute of Behavioural and Neural Sciences, University of St Andrews. Centre for Social Learning & Cognitive Evolution, University of St Andrews. Centre for Biological Diversity |
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2012 |
| Předmět: |
0106 biological sciences
Male lcsh:Medicine Social and Behavioral Sciences 01 natural sciences Behavioral Ecology Psychology lcsh:Science Problem Solving media_common Animal Management education.field_of_study Multidisciplinary Animal Behavior Ecology Behavior Animal 05 social sciences Agriculture Identification (biology) Female Imitation Cognitive psychology Research Article Herpestidae media_common.quotation_subject Foraging Population Stability (learning theory) Biology 010603 evolutionary biology Learning Animals 0501 psychology and cognitive sciences 050102 behavioral science & comparative psychology education Social Behavior Probability Emulation QL Evolutionary Biology Stochastic Processes lcsh:R Cognitive Psychology Feeding Behavior QL Zoology Models Theoretical Social learning Veterinary Science lcsh:Q Collective animal behavior Zoology |
| Zdroj: | PLoS ONE, Vol 7, Iss 8, p e42044 (2012) PLoS ONE |
| ISSN: | 1932-6203 |
| Popis: | Vigorous debates as to the evolutionary origins of culture remain unresolved due to an absence of methods for identifying learning mechanisms in natural populations. While laboratory experiments on captive animals have revealed evidence for a number of mechanisms, these may not necessarily reflect the processes typically operating in nature. We developed a novel method that allows social and asocial learning mechanisms to be determined in animal groups from the patterns of interaction with, and solving of, a task. We deployed it to analyse learning in groups of wild meerkats (Suricata suricatta) presented with a novel foraging apparatus. We identify nine separate learning processes underlying the meerkats' foraging behaviour, in each case precisely quantifying their strength and duration, including local enhancement, emulation, and a hitherto unrecognized form of social learning, which we term `observational perseverance'. Our analysis suggests a key factor underlying the stability of behavioural traditions is a high ratio of specific to generalized social learning effects. The approach has widespread potential as an ecologically valid tool to investigate learning mechanisms in natural groups of animals, including humans. Publisher PDF |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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