Social Learning Abilities Research Articles

The Social Cognition Ability Evaluation of LLMs: A Dynamic Gamified Assessment and Hierarchical Social Learning Measurement Approach

Large Language Model(LLM) has shown amazing abilities in reasoning tasks, theory of mind(ToM) has been tested in many studies as part of reasoning tasks, and social learning, which is closely related to theory of mind, are still lack of investigation. However, the test methods and materials make the test results unconvincing. We propose a dynamic gamified assessment(DGA) and hierarchical social learning measurement to test ToM and social learning capacities in LLMs. The test for ToM consists of five parts. First, we extract ToM tasks from ToM experiments and then design game rules to satisfy the ToM task requirement. After that, we design ToM questions to match the game’s rules and use these to generate test materials. Finally, we go through the above steps to test the model. To assess the social learning ability, we introduce a novel set of social rules (three in total). Experiment results demonstrate that, except GPT-4, LLMs performed poorly on the ToM test but showed a certain level of social learning ability in social learning measurement.

Metabolic features of adolescent major depressive disorder: A comparative study between treatment-resistant depression and first-episode drug-naive depression

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a psychiatric illness that can jeopardize the normal growth and development of adolescents. Approximately 40% of adolescent patients with MDD exhibit resistance to conventional antidepressants, leading to the development of Treatment-Resistant Depression (TRD). TRD is associated with severe impairments in social functioning and learning ability and an elevated risk of suicide, thereby imposing an additional societal burden. In this study, we conducted plasma metabolomic analysis on 53 adolescents diagnosed with first-episode drug-naïve MDD (FEDN-MDD), 53 adolescents with TRD, and 56 healthy controls (HCs) using hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (HILIC-MS) and reversed-phase liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (RPLC-MS). We established a diagnostic model by identifying differentially expressed metabolites and applying cluster analysis, metabolic pathway analysis, and multivariate linear support vector machine (SVM) algorithms. Our findings suggest that adolescent TRD shares similarities with FEDN-MDD in five amino acid metabolic pathways and exhibits distinct metabolic characteristics, particularly tyrosine and glycerophospholipid metabolism. Furthermore, through multivariate receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis, we optimized the area under the curve (AUC) and achieved the highest predictive accuracy, obtaining an AUC of 0.903 when comparing FEDN-MDD patients with HCs and an AUC of 0.968 when comparing TRD patients with HCs. This study provides new evidence for the identification of adolescent TRD and sheds light on different pathophysiologies by delineating the distinct plasma metabolic profiles of adolescent TRD and FEDN-MDD.

Gaussian Backbone-Based Spherical Evolutionary Algorithm with Cross-search for Engineering Problems

In recent years, with the increasing demand for social production, engineering design problems have gradually become more and more complex. Many novel and well-performing meta-heuristic algorithms have been studied and developed to cope with this problem. Among them, the Spherical Evolutionary Algorithm (SE) is one of the classical representative methods that proposed in recent years with admirable optimization performance. However, it tends to stagnate prematurely to local optima in solving some specific problems. Therefore, this paper proposes an SE variant integrating the Cross-search Mutation (CSM) and Gaussian Backbone Strategy (GBS), called CGSE. In this study, the CSM can enhance its social learning ability, which strengthens the utilization rate of SE on effective information; the GBS cooperates with the original rules of SE to further improve the convergence effect of SE. To objectively demonstrate the core advantages of CGSE, this paper designs a series of global optimization experiments based on IEEE CEC2017, and CGSE is used to solve six engineering design problems with constraints. The final experimental results fully showcase that, compared with the existing well-known methods, CGSE has a very significant competitive advantage in global tasks and has certain practical value in real applications. Therefore, the proposed CGSE is a promising and first-rate algorithm with good potential strength in the field of engineering design.

Statistical analysis of methylation reveals epigenetic biomarkers for high- functioning autism spectrum disorder

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurological disorder that affects social behavior and learning ability. Although studies have identified certain regions of the genome (22q13.33) linked to the increased risk of ASD, there is no clear etiology, which is why psychologists theorize that ASD is a complex interaction between genetic and environmental factors. The current study was designed to identify genes with a positive correlation toward the diagnosis of high-function autism spectrum disorder (HF-ASD). Samples were obtained from National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) containing 450K CpG methylation from 69 subjects diagnosed as HF-ASD or typically developing (TD). We applied Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and further utilized two sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov test (KS-test) to obtain the p-values for each patient. False Discovery Rate (FDR Correction) is computed by Benjamini-Hochberg Procedure. Based on the output of the FDR method, we identified the top ten genes that have CpGs with statistically differentially methylated. Such potential epigenetic biomarker includes WBP11, LDHB, DHX29, NUB1, C2orf67, SNAI2, MTOR, CLCN3, SYNJ2BP, and TTK. Two sample KS test and FDR Correction code is available at: https://www.kaggle.com/code/aaravsharma123/gse109905-fdr-pvalues/notebook.

Lasting mesothalamic dopamine imbalance and altered exploratory behavior in rats after a mild neonatal hypoxic event.

Adversities during the perinatal period can decrease oxygen supply to the fetal brain, leading to various hypoxic brain injuries, which can compromise the regularity of brain development in different aspects. To examine the catecholaminergic contribution to the link between an early-life hypoxic insult and adolescent behavioral aberrations, we used a previously established rat model of perinatal hypoxia but altered the hypobaric to normobaric conditions. Exploratory and social behavior and learning abilities were tested in 70 rats of both sexes at adolescent age. Inherent vertical locomotion, sensory-motor functions and spatial learning abilities were explored in a subset of animals to clarify the background of altered exploratory behavior. Finally, the concentrations of dopamine (DA) and noradrenaline in midbrain and pons, and the relative expression of genes for DA receptors D1 and D2, and their down-stream targets (DA- and cAMP-regulated phosphoprotein, Mr 32 kDa, the regulatory subunit of protein kinase A, and inhibitor-5 of protein phosphatase 1) in the hippocampus and thalamus were investigated in 31 rats. A lesser extent of alterations in exploratory and cognitive aspects of behavior in the present study suggests that normobaric conditions mitigate the hypoxic injury compared to the one obtained under hypobaric conditions. Increased exploratory rearing was the most prominent consequence, with impaired spatial learning in the background. In affected rats, increased midbrain/pons DA content, as well as mRNA levels for DA receptors and their down-stream elements in the thalamus, but not the hippocampus, were found. We can conclude that a mild hypoxic event induced long-lasting disbalances in mesothalamic DA signaling, contributing to the observed behavioral alterations. The thalamus was thereby indicated as another structure, besides the well-established striatum, involved in mediating hypoxic effects on behavior through DA signaling.

No evidence of social learning in a socially roosting butterfly in an associative learning task.

Insects may acquire social information by active communication and through inadvertent social cues. In a foraging setting, the latter may indicate the presence and quality of resources. Although social learning in foraging contexts is prevalent in eusocial species, this behaviour has been hypothesized to also exist between conspecifics in non-social species with sophisticated behaviours, including Heliconius butterflies. Heliconius are the only butterfly genus with active pollen feeding, a dietary innovation associated with a specialized, spatially faithful foraging behaviour known as trap-lining. Long-standing hypotheses suggest that Heliconius may acquire trap-line information by following experienced individuals. Indeed, Heliconius often aggregate in social roosts, which could act as 'information centres', and present conspecific following behaviour, enhancing opportunities for social learning. Here, we provide a direct test of social learning ability in Heliconius using an associative learning task in which naive individuals completed a colour preference test in the presence of demonstrators trained to feed randomly or with a strong colour preference. We found no evidence that Heliconius erato, which roost socially, used social information in this task. Combined with existing field studies, our results add to data which contradict the hypothesized role of social learning in Heliconius foraging behaviour.

Improving Social Science Learning Ability Using Demonstration Methods for Grade VI Students of Public Elementary School 014 Rambah Hilir

Demonstration Method is a way of demonstrating objects or tools used by teachers in teaching and learning activities with the aim of making it easier for students to receive teaching materials or subject matter. The better the method, the more effective the attainment of the goal, because it requires a benchmark that comes from several factors to determine the intended goal. This method can improve the social science learning abilities of Grade VI students at SD Negeri 014 Rambah downstream, with this method children are interested in learning, and creativity emerges in learning. With this method the authors still consider the time, the circumstances of the children, and the problems identified before conducting classroom action research, so that they are right in taking action. There is evidence of an increase from cycle I to cycle II of successful learning. This method is carried out by identifying problems, formulating problems and carrying out actions and evaluating. So that with this method can improve student achievement

Hybrid Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm Based on the Theory of Reinforcement Learning in Psychology

To more effectively solve the complex optimization problems that exist in nonlinear, high-dimensional, large-sample and complex systems, many intelligent optimization methods have been proposed. Among these algorithms, the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm has attracted scholars’ attention. However, the traditional PSO can easily become an individual optimal solution, leading to the transition of the optimization process from global exploration to local development. To solve this problem, in this paper, we propose a Hybrid Reinforcement Learning Particle Swarm Algorithm (HRLPSO) based on the theory of reinforcement learning in psychology. First, we used the reinforcement learning strategy to optimize the initial population in the population initialization stage; then, chaotic adaptive weights and adaptive learning factors were used to balance the global exploration and local development process, and the individual optimal solution and the global optimal solution were obtained using dimension learning. Finally, the improved reinforcement learning strategy and mutation strategy were applied to the traditional PSO to improve the quality of the individual optimal solution and the global optimal solution. The HRLPSO algorithm was tested by optimizing the solution of 12 benchmarks as well as the CEC2013 test suite, and the results show it can balance the individual learning ability and social learning ability, verifying its effectiveness.

Long-term changes of parvalbumin- and somatostatin-positive interneurons of the primary motor cortex after chronic social defeat stress depend on individual stress-vulnerability.

Chronic stress is a major risk factor for developing mental illnesses and cognitive deficiencies although stress-susceptibility varies individually. In a recent study, we established the connection between chronic social defeat stress (CSDS) and impaired motor learning abilities accompanied by chronically disturbed structural neuroplasticity in the primary motor cortex (M1) of mice. In this study, we further investigated the long-term effects of CSDS exposure on M1, focusing on the interneuronal cell population. We used repeated CSDS to elicit effects across behavioral, endocrinological, and metabolic parameters in mice. Susceptible and resilient phenotypes were discriminated by symptom load and motor learning abilities were assessed on the rotarod. Structural changes in interneuronal circuits of M1 were studied by immunohistochemistry using parvalbumin (PV+) and somatostatin (SST+) markers. Stress-susceptible mice had a blunted stress hormone response and impaired motor learning skills. These mice presented reduced numbers of both interneuron populations in M1 with layer-dependent distribution, while alterations in cell size and immunoreactivity were found in both susceptible and resilient individuals. These results, together with our previous data, suggest that stress-induced cell loss and degeneration of the GABAergic interneuronal network of M1 could underlay impaired motor learning, due to their role in controlling the excitatory output and spine dynamics of principal neurons required for this task. Our study further highlights the importance of long-term outcomes of chronically stressed individuals which are translationally important due to the long timecourses of stress-induced neuropsychiatric disorders.

Multi-agent learning mechanism design and simulation of multi-echelon supply chain

A supply chain multi-agent learning mechanism based on the Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm is designed. The manufacturer’s profit and the product utility are taken as objective functions to explore the influences of social learning ability and self-learning ability on the manufacturer’s optimal price, optimal advertising investment, optimal profit, product utility, and supply chain competition. This research demonstrates the influences of different learning abilities on the evolution of the supply chain. The simulation results show that the most appropriate social learning ability can enhance competition between manufacturers and improve product utility. With the enhancement of self-learning ability, manufacturers have a wider range of pricing, products are more diverse, and consumers have a wider choice of goods. This study shows certain guiding significance for the scientific management of the supply chain and the optimization of the competitive strategy of the enterprises on the chain.

Experimental investigation of orangutans' lithic percussive and sharp stone tool behaviours.

Early stone tools, and in particular sharp stone tools, arguably represent one of the most important technological milestones in human evolution. The production and use of sharp stone tools significantly widened the ecological niche of our ancestors, allowing them to exploit novel food resources. However, despite their importance, it is still unclear how these early lithic technologies emerged and which behaviours served as stepping-stones for the development of systematic lithic production in our lineage. One approach to answer this question is to collect comparative data on the stone tool making and using abilities of our closest living relatives, the great apes, to reconstruct the potential stone-related behaviours of early hominins. To this end, we tested both the individual and the social learning abilities of five orangutans to make and use stone tools. Although the orangutans did not make sharp stone tools initially, three individuals spontaneously engaged in lithic percussion, and sharp stone pieces were produced under later experimental conditions. Furthermore, when provided with a human-made sharp stone, one orangutan spontaneously used it as a cutting tool. Contrary to previous experiments, social demonstrations did not considerably improve the stone tool making and using abilities of orangutans. Our study is the first to systematically investigate the stone tool making and using abilities of untrained, unenculturated orangutans showing that two proposed pre-requisites for the emergence of early lithic technologies-lithic percussion and the recognition of sharp-edged stones as cutting tools-are present in this species. We discuss the implications that ours and previous great ape stone tool experiments have for understanding the initial stages of lithic technologies in our lineage.

Learning through Online Synchronous and Asynchronous Communication among Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Conceptual Discourse

This is a conceptual paper on the review of literature related to adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), online learning, and online synchronous and asynchronous communication for the use of future studies. It recognizes that social communication is essential in developing human relationships – and is needed for people with ASD to gain independence and acceptance into society, yet represents one of their most significant impairments, thus affecting the learning of other life skills. Online synchronous and asynchronous communication, along with technological advancement and modern trends, including various new online communication platforms (like Facebook and Discord) may offer alternative ways to support the learning experiences of people with ASD. However, there appears to be gaps in our understanding of how online communication benefits or supports those with ASD in a learning context, despite people with ASD having shown improved interest and motivation in interacting with one another in gaming and dating platforms. As adolescents with ASD often use online communication but lack skills that negatively affect their learning experience, this conceptual paper intends to provide new insights by compiling and discussing the review of past literatures and theories in hopes of supporting them in future. The discussions in this research paper are meant to supplement the literature of academics as reference for their research and attempts to extend the findings of past research studies. It also intends to extend the theory of social constructivist learning and apply it to the context of learning through online synchronous and asynchronous communication among adolescents with ASD. Hence, the creation of a new conceptual framework designed for reference in future studies. With the rising trend of online and hybrid learning modalities, continued research on the use of online communication, especially in an academic setting, could better support people with ASD and strengthen their communication abilities to improve their social connection and learning ability as the flexibility of the learning environment offered by online and hybrid learning modalities may lead to more powerful social connections while enhancing their learning.

Implementing long‐term baselines into primate tool‐use studies

Studies on primate tool-use often involve the use of baseline conditions, as they allow for the examination of any differences in the subjects' behavior before and after the introduction of a tool-use task. Whilethese baseline conditions can be powerful for identifying the relative contributions of individual and social learning for the acquisition of tool-use behaviors in naïve (usually captive) subjects, many have criticized them for being too short, and not allowing enough time for the behavior to develop spontaneously. Furthermore, some wild tool-use behaviors such as chimpanzee nut-cracking require animals to manipulate and familiarize themselves with the materials of the behavior within a "sensitive learning period"before it develops later on in life. One solution to this problem is to implement long-term baselines, in which, with collaboration with zoological institutions, the materials of the behavior are left in the enclosure for an extended period. The keepers would then be asked not to demonstrate or train the animals in the target behavior, but to report back to the researchers if they observe the behavior emerge during this extended period. Alongside keeper reports, video cameras could be installed in the enclosure to minimize the chance of false negatives and to allow for coding and inter-rater reliability to be carried out on the videos. These long-term baselines therefore provide extended enrichment opportunities for the animals, alongside allowing the zoological institution to publicize their involvement with the study and guests to observe animals interacting with different testing apparatuses and tools. Finally, long-term baselines can provide invaluable insight on the individual and social learning abilities of primates as well as the potential development stages and sensitive learning periods required for specific behaviors.

Environmental and life history factors, but not age, influence social learning about food: a meta-analysis

Social learning is widespread across the animal kingdom and used by individuals to acquire adaptive behaviour across a range of contexts, from mate choice to migration. However, while multiple studies have demonstrated the presence of social learning in different species across several taxa, less attention has been paid to explaining variation in this phenomenon between populations or individuals. Theoretical modelling has suggested age should be important, with social learning most adaptive during the juvenile phase. Yet, empirical studies testing the interaction between age and social learning are equivocal and scattered in the literature. Accordingly, we present here what we believe to be the first meta-analytical review of this body of work. Collating 57 experimental studies that tested social learning in a foraging context, we conducted a two-fold analysis. First, we examined whether learning success or rates were correlated with five possible variables: phylogeny, dispersal system, age at first reproduction (a conservative measure of extended juvenile periods), type of task or testing condition (captive individuals, wild individuals or wild individuals brought into captivity for testing). Second, we tested for interactions between age and these variables (28 studies). Our results did not support a clear direct relationship between age and social learning abilities. However, life history factors indirectly related to age (age at first reproduction and dispersal system) affected social learning propensity. Finally, social learning success was also correlated with factors related to the experiment itself (captive or wild origin of the animals and the type of task used to assess social learning).

Intuitive invention by summative imitation in children and adults

Humanity's ability to conquer every corner of the planet rests on our inventiveness. But is this inventiveness best explained by individual problem-solving skills or by our species' exceptional social learning abilities? Using a tower-building task, we show that, on average, 3% of 4–6 year old children (n = 180) and adults (n = 192) independently combined tower pieces to produce the most optimal tower possible, confirming that preschool age children and adults alike are poor independent inventors. Yet, after observing one or more models generate tower elements separately, both children and adults reproduced the demonstrated elements and spontaneously combined them, producing a novel (unobserved) tower of optimal height, evidence of intuitive invention by summative imitation. These results challenge folk concepts of innovation and corroborate those from mathematical models showing that our species' inventiveness generally arise from social learning rather than individual insights. So, rather than being sui generis, human inventions are, broadly, communis generis.

Interpersonal brain synchronization with instructor compensates for learner's sleep deprivation in interactive learning

Recent advances shifted the focus on single-brain functioning toward two-brain communication during learning interactions, following the demonstration that interpersonal brain synchronization (IBS) can track instructor-learner information exchange. Here, we investigated (i) whether sleep deprivation (SD) that potentially impacts both social interactions and learning abilities modulates IBS, and (ii) conversely whether and to what extent IBS might compensate for SD-related learning deficits. Instructors (always with regular sleep, RS) were asked to teach numerical reasoning strategies to learners (either SD or RS), during which the activity of both brains was simultaneously recorded using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). SD learners initially performed below their baseline level, worse than RS learners, but learning improvement was comparable between RS and SD conditions after learning with the instructor. IBS within the instructor-learner dyads was higher in the SD (vs. RS) condition in the left inferior frontal cortex. In addition, clustered IBS (estimated by nonnegative matrix factorization) was correlated with performance improvement. Finally, Granger Causality analyses revealed biased causality with higher instructor-to-learner than learner-to-instructor directionality in brain signal processing. Together, these results indicate that SD-related learning deficits can to some extent be compensated via interactions with an instructor, as reflected by increased IBS and preserved learning ability. It suggests an essential role of the instructor in driving synchrony between teaching and SD learning brains during interactions.

Testing the individual and social learning abilities of task-naïve captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes sp.) in a nut-cracking task.

Nut-cracking is often cited as one of the most complex behaviours observed in wild chimpanzees. However, the cognitive mechanisms behind its acquisition are still debated. The current null hypothesis is that the form of nut-cracking behaviour relies on variants of social learning, with some researchers arguing, more precisely, that copying variants of social learning mechanisms are necessary. However, to date, very few experiments have directly investigated the potentially sufficient role of individual learning in explaining the behavioural form of nut-cracking. Despite this, the available data provides some evidence for the spontaneous acquisition of nut-cracking by chimpanzees; later group acquisition was then found to be at least facilitated by (unspecified) variants of social learning. The latter findings are in line with both suggested hypotheses, i.e., that copying social learning is required and that other (non-copying) social learning mechanisms are at play. Here we present the first study which focused (initially) on the role of individual learning for the acquisition of the nut-cracking behavioural form in chimpanzees. We tested task-naïve chimpanzees (N = 13) with an extended baseline condition to examine whether the behaviour would emerge spontaneously. After the baseline condition (which was unsuccessful), we tested for the role of social learning by providing social information in a step-wise fashion, culminating in a full action demonstration of nut-cracking by a human demonstrator (this last condition made it possible for the observers to copy all actions underlying the behaviour). Despite the opportunities to individually and/or socially learn nut-cracking, none of the chimpanzees tested here cracked nuts using tools in any of the conditions in our study; thus, providing no conclusive evidence for either competing hypothesis. We conclude that this failure was the product of an interplay of factors, including behavioural conservatism and the existence of a potential sensitive learning period for nut-cracking in chimpanzees. The possibility remains that nut-cracking is a behaviour that chimpanzees can individually learn. However, this behaviour might only be acquired when chimpanzees are still inside their sensitive learning period, and when ecological and developmental conditions allow for it. The possibility remains that nut-cracking is an example of a culture dependent trait in non-human great apes. Recommendations for future research projects to address this question are considered.

Application of Vygotsky’s Social Development Theory

This paper evaluates the application of Vygotsky’s Social Development Theory which states that children gain knowledge, at least complex thought, from social interactions with adults and wiser children. It also completes Vygotsky’s theory. It is necessary to review this theory at this point in time to help continue to fulfil the needs of adaptive learning for parents and educators. The significance is that even after decades of existence and study, Vygotsky’s theory remains an important review in the areas of social development especially in youths. An application of this theory will allow for more effective classroom management, an increased focus on social learning abilities, and will give educators a method of process review in the area of social development. In examination of this theory, classroom management, assessment, lesson preparation, and potential discipline techniques will be discussed. In this, cognitive development theories are principles that focus on a child’s activities toward their environment and the process of thought, reason, and memory that result (Huitt & Hummel, 2003). This theory is especially important to pre-secondary and secondary educators. If an educator attempts to teach at a level that is beneath the students’ attainment level, per the theory, they will become bored and less motivated. The other side of the spectrum is a classroom that challenges the students above their level of capability which can also have adverse effects. Keywords: Vygotsky’s Theory, Developmental Education, Classroom Management, Developmental Cognition DOI : 10.7176/JEP/10-35-01 Publication date: December 31 st 2019

Individual acquisition of "stick pounding" behavior by naïve chimpanzees.

Many studies investigating culture in nonhuman animals tend to focus on the inferred need of social learning mechanisms that transmit the form of a behavior to explain the population differences observed in wild animal behavioral repertoires. This research focus often results in studies overlooking the possibility of individuals being able to develop behavioral forms without requiring social learning. The disregard of individual learning abilities is most clearly observed in the nonhuman great ape literature, where there is a persistent claim that chimpanzee behaviors, in particular, require various forms of social learning mechanisms. These special social learning abilities have been argued to explain the acquisition of the relatively large behavioral repertoires observed across chimpanzee populations. However, current evidence suggests that although low-fidelity social learning plays a role in harmonizing and stabilizing the frequency of behaviors within chimpanzee populations, some (if not all) of the forms that chimpanzee behaviors take may develop independently of social learning. If so, they would be latent solutions-behavioral forms that can (re-)emerge even in the absence of observational opportunities, via individual (re)innovations. Through a combination of individual and low-fidelity social learning, the population-wide patterns of behaviors observed in great ape species are then established and stably maintained. This is the Zone of Latent Solutions (ZLS) hypothesis. The current study experimentally tested the ZLS hypothesis for pestle pounding, a wild chimpanzee behavior. We tested the reinnovation of this behavior in semi-wild chimpanzees at Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage in Zambia, Africa, (N = 90, tested in four social groups). Crucially, all subjects were naïve to stick pounding before testing. Three out of the four tested groups reinnovated stick pounding-clearly demonstrating that this behavioral form does not require social learning. These findings provide support for the ZLS hypothesis alongside further evidence for the individual learning abilities of chimpanzees.

Animal cultures: how we've only seen the tip of the iceberg.

For humans we implicitly assume that the way we do things is the product of social learning and thus cultural. For animals, this conclusion requires proof. Here, we first review the most commonly used procedure for documenting animal culture: the method of exclusion, which charts geographic behavioral variation between populations as evidence for culture. Using published data, we show that, whereas it is an adequate proof of principle, the method of exclusion has major deficiencies when capturing cultural diversity and complexity. Therefore, we propose a new method, namely the direct counting of socially learned skills, which we apply to previously collected data on wild orangutans. This method reveals a far greater cultural repertoire among orangutans, and a different distribution of cultural elements among behavioral domains than found by the method of exclusion, as well as clear ecological correlates for most cultural elements. The widespread occurrence of social learning ability throughout the animal kingdom suggests that these conclusions also apply to many other species. Culture is most likely more widespread and pervasive than commonly thought and an important avenue to local adaptation. The complex and normative dimensions of culture seem unique to our species, but were most likely built upon a very broad, pre-existing cultural capacity that we inherited from our ancestors.