Communication in social insects and how it is shaped by individual experience

Abstract

Communication is the foundation of all social systems, and learning is perhaps the most important cognitive tool. But how do these two critical faculties interact? With social insects being some of the best learners of the invertebrate world, and indisputably the most communicative, we examine the role of learning and experience in social insect communication. Learning plays a major role for both senders and receivers. A sender's experience can modulate what information is available for communication, whether communication is effective and whether individuals are motivated to communicate. Signalling about a resource is often modulated relative to the value of that resource and relative to the value of sharing information about it. The receiver's experience and knowledge can affect which parts of a signal's information content it attends to, how this information is acted on and, indeed, whether it attends to communication at all. Ultimately, while innate responses form the basis of social insect communication, learning is often a critical modulator of communication processes.