Social learning strategies |
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Authors: | Email author" target="_blank">Kevin?N?LalandEmail author |
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Institution: | (1) Centre for the Coevolution of Biology and Culture, Department of Anthropology, Durham University, DH1 3LE Durham, England;(2) Goldsmiths, University of London, London, England;(3) Zoo Atlanta, Atlanta, Georgia;(4) University of Antananarivo, Antananarivo, Madagascar |
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Abstract: | In most studies of social learning in animals, no attempt has been made to examine the nature of the strategy adopted by animals
when they copy others. Researchers have expended considerable effort in exploring the psychological processes that underlie
social learning and amassed extensive data banks recording purported social learning in the field, but the contexts under
which animals copy others remain unexplored. Yet, theoretical models used to investigate the adaptive advantages of social
learning lead to the conclusion that social learning cannot be indiscriminate and that individuals should adopt strategies
that dictate the circumstances under which they copy others and from whom they learn. In this article, I discuss a number
of possible strategies that are predicted by theoretical analyses, includingcopy when uncertain,copy the majority, andcopy if better, and consider the empirical evidence in support of each, drawing from both the animal and human social learning literature.
Reliance on social learning strategies may be organized hierarchically, their being employed by animals when unlearned and
asocially learned strategies prove ineffective but before animals take recourse in innovation. |
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