Social Learning

• Social learning in animals is defined as learning influenced by observations and interactions with other animals or their products.

  It's less costly and risky than reinforcement learning, and it's also flexible to a species environment
• opening of milk bottle tops and potato washing behavior in Japanese Macaques are examples of?

  Social learning transmissions
• Boyd Richardson's evolutionary strategies for learning highlight three responses species have to their environment?

  • species typical response
  • reinforcement learning
  • and social learning
• Species typical response to their environment includes?

  Automatic, hard-wired behavior that doesn't change based on the environment.
• Reinforcement learning is a flexible form of learning that involves trial and error. It can be time-consuming, energy-draining, and risky in a species environment
• Four key proximate mechanisms for social learning are

  • imitation
  • social facilitation
  • local stimulus enhancement
  • emulation.
• Social facilitation is the mere presence of another makes a task easier reducing fear due to social support
• A group of gazelles grazing together may feel less fear of predators due to the presence of others. The mere presence of the group facilitates a behavior that might be more difficult when alone. This is an example of?

  Mere presence of another....

  A) Social faclilitation

  
• A young wolf watching an older wolf sniff at a particular spot in a field may be drawn to that spot, not necessarily understanding the reason (i.e. the presence of prey), but simply because the older wolf's attention was directed there. This is an example of?

  Demonstrator draws attention to a stimulus or location relevant to performing a task...

  A) Stimulus/ local enhancement

  
• A young dolphin might see an older dolphin flip a fish into the air with its tail and then catch it in its mouth. The young dolphin may not copy the exact tail flip, but it learns that fish can be tossed into the air and caught, leading it to develop its own method. This is an example of?

  Copying the results of an action or series of actions, rather than the actions themselves.

  A) Emulation

  
• A young bird may see its parent gather twigs and arrange them in a specific way to build a nest. The young bird then copies these exact movements to build its own nest, demonstrating a direct imitation of the parent's actions. This is an example of?

  copying motor actions based on visual input...

  A) Imitation

  
• Imitation is the most complex form of social learning as it requires copying and completing a sequence of motor actions based on visual input
• Emulation is less cognitively complex as it requires copying the results of an action or series of actions, rather than the actions themselves for social learning
• Stimulus / local enhancement involves watching a demonstrator draws attention to a stimulus or location relevant to performing a task to facilitate social learning
• Essentially, social learning is a survival strategy, enabling animals to adapt to changes in their environment.
• Animals learn socially to reduce the costs and risks associated with trial and error learning.
• Social learning allows animals to acquire new behaviors or knowledge more quickly and efficiently by observing and interacting with others.
• Essentially, social learning is a it's a survival strategy, enabling animals to adapt to changes in their environment.
• Animals resort to social learning when?

  • changes in the environment occur too fast for genetic evolution to keep up
  • when trial-and-error learning (reinforcement learning) is too costly or risky.
  • This could be due to environmental variability or the presence of immediate threats.
• An example of social facilitation is observed in Chickadees interacting with milk bottle tops. The mere presence of the demonstrating bird influenced how the target bird interacted with the milk bottle, even though the other bird didn't demonstrate the action, showing an increase in the target bird's motivation or a reduction in fear

  
• An example of local stimulus enhancement includes Duck paradigm. The presence or behavior of another individual drew the observer duck's attention to a particular location (stimulus), in this case, a gap in the fence (Lorenz, Social Learning in Ducks)

  
• One example of emulation is seen in Kea birds. The observer Kea learns about the cause and effect relations of an action rather than the exact behaviour itself, focusing on achieving the same result (Boyd & Richardson, Evolutionary Strategies for Learning).

  
• Imitation is copying the exact actions of another individual, replicating their behaviour in detail. And copying the outcome of an action, not the specific actions, as the observer learns the goal of the action and creates their own method to reach the same result is emulation
• The two action-task creates an alternative explanation for imitation in non-humans, as rats were able to imitate con-specifics