Abstract
BackgroundStudies of natural animal populations reveal widespread evidence for the diffusion of novel behaviour patterns, and for intra- and inter-population variation in behaviour. However, claims that these are manifestations of animal ‘culture’ remain controversial because alternative explanations to social learning remain difficult to refute. This inability to identify social learning in social settings has also contributed to the failure to test evolutionary hypotheses concerning the social learning strategies that animals deploy.Methodology/Principal FindingsWe present a solution to this problem, in the form of a new means of identifying social learning in animal populations. The method is based on the well-established premise of social learning research, that - when ecological and genetic differences are accounted for - social learning will generate greater homogeneity in behaviour between animals than expected in its absence. Our procedure compares the observed level of homogeneity to a sampling distribution generated utilizing randomization and other procedures, allowing claims of social learning to be evaluated according to consensual standards. We illustrate the method on data from groups of monkeys provided with novel two-option extractive foraging tasks, demonstrating that social learning can indeed be distinguished from unlearned processes and asocial learning, and revealing that the monkeys only employed social learning for the more difficult tasks. The method is further validated against published datasets and through simulation, and exhibits higher statistical power than conventional inferential statistics.Conclusions/SignificanceThe method is potentially a significant technological development, which could prove of considerable value in assessing the validity of claims for culturally transmitted behaviour in animal groups. It will also be of value in enabling investigation of the social learning strategies deployed in captive and natural animal populations.
Highlights
Social learning, or learning from others, is of widespread current interest because it potentially provides a means by which animals can acquire adaptive information about their environment rapidly and efficiently
We have introduced a new method, called the option-bias method, for detecting social learning in animal populations
The method is based on a widely applied premise in social learning research, the assumption that - when ecological and genetic differences are accounted for - social learning will generate greater homogeneity in behaviour within groups than expected in its absence
Summary
Learning from others, is of widespread current interest because it potentially provides a means by which animals can acquire adaptive information about their environment rapidly and efficiently. Interest in animal social learning has been fuelled by reports of intra- and inter-population variation in the behavioural repertoires of animal populations, spawning claims of ‘culture’ in apes [7,3,8] cetaceans [4,9], and monkeys [10] Claims that this data demonstrate animal cultures remain controversial in the absence of clear methods for ruling out alternative explanations for the variation, such as genetic differences between populations, or asocial/individual learning in response to differing environmental conditions [11,5]. Studies of natural animal populations reveal widespread evidence for the diffusion of novel behaviour patterns, and for intra- and inter-population variation in behaviour Claims that these are manifestations of animal ‘culture’ remain controversial because alternative explanations to social learning remain difficult to refute. This inability to identify social learning in social settings has contributed to the failure to test evolutionary hypotheses concerning the social learning strategies that animals deploy
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
