Social Learning

Question 1

Definition of learning

Answer 1

Learning that influenced by observation of, or interaction with another animal
- requires an observer and a demonstrator
- demonstrator performs the behaviour later reproduced by the observer
- to qualify for social learning rather than social elicited or facilitated behaviour the observers performance must take place at a later time away from direct influence of the demonstrator (Shettleworth, p.467)

Question 1

what is social facilitation?

Answer 1

• type of social influence
• Increase in behaviour due to presence of other performing that behaviour (e.g. humans yawning, budgerigars tretching (Gallup et al., 2017) migrating of sea turtle hatchlings, herd behaviour)

Question 2

what is stimulus enhancement?

Answer 2

• type of social influence
• Increase in tendency to interact with object because of presence/actions of others

Question 3

what is local enhancement?

Answer 3

• type of social influence
• Increase in tendency to approach location because of presence/actions of others.

Question 4

what is affordance learning?

Answer 4

• type of social influence
• Learning about what can be done with objects or the environment, not necessary to have observed from another.

Question 5

Food preference, Wrenn et al., (2003)

Answer 5

• mice ate cinnamon or cocoa flavoured food
• then placed in a cage with another mouse
• 24hrs later observer given a choice of food
• observer mouse ate more of the cued food than the novel food
• amount consumed correlated with number of sniffs

Question 6

Fear of predators, Mineka and cook (1988)

Answer 6

• tested monkeys fear of snakes using observational conditioning
• laboratory-reared monkeys observed a wild-reared monkey’s reaction to a real snake (boa constrictor), a model snake, and a toy snake
• after the observation, the observer monkeys displayed more avoidance and fear behaviours than before observation

Question 7

what is imitation?

Answer 7

• copying behaviour
• copying another’s behaviour exactly to reach the same goal

Question 7

what is emulation?

Answer 7

extract actions not reproduced by observer but aims for same goal. Or actions are reproduced but for a different goal

Question 8

Bidirectional task, Heyes and Dawson (1990)

Answer 8

aquisition
- Observation: Rats observe demonstrator pushing to left or right side.
- Test: placed in demonstrator box. Any response reinforced.
- Results: Left observers made more left pushes than Right observers

Reversal (after acquisition)
- Training (4 days): push left reinforced or right reinforced
- Demonstration: new (direction reinforced on test) or old (direction reinforced during training)
Test: response reinforced in OPPOSITE direction to training
Results: New learnt faster than old. Mean responses to criterion for New = 87.5 and for Old = 133.7

• conclusion: response-reinforcer learning occurs via social means

Question 9

Two-action procedure, Atkins and Zentall (1996)

Answer 9

• trained Japanese quail to manipulate a treadle for a food reward
• peck with beak or step with foot
• observers made more responses with the same part of their body as used by the demonstrator
• no stimulus enhancement
• Also, quail more likely to copy behaviour if they observed the demonstrator get a reward

Question 9

Chimpanzees & children, Horner and Whiten (2005)

Answer 9

• Chimpanzees and young human children shown demonstrations of how to open a puzzle box
• Demonstrations included unnecessary behaviours
• When box was opaque, chimpanzees and children imitate sequence
• When box was transparent, only children imitated. However, chimpanzees didn’t perform the unnecessary behaviours

Question 10

Dogs, Huber et al. (2020)

Answer 10

found dogs performed irrelevant actions more when owner was the demonstator

Question 11

Definition of teaching, Caro and Hauser (1992)

Answer 11

• Teacher must modify its behaviour in the presence of naïve observer.
• There is a cost to the teacher (or no immediate benefit).
• The pupil acquires knowledge or learns a skill earlier or faster or more efficiently than it otherwise would have/not learn at all

Question 12

Teaching in ants, Franks and Richardson (2006), Richardson et al. (2007)

Answer 12

• Tandem running in temnothorax albipennis
• ants show naïve ants where food is located
• teacher modifies behaviour: runs slowly
• cost to teacher: runs are much slower (x4 slower)
• pupil learns skills: route is learned (but need more direct evidence)

Question 12

How do Meerkats demonstrate teaching?

Answer 12

• by showing the young how to catch scorpions and remove the sting