Social Learning Strategies Research Articles

Inferential power in identifying frequency-dependent social learning strengthened by increasing behavioural options.

Two-option choice experimental designs are the most commonly employed framework for identifying evidence of social learning or social learning strategies in captive and wild populations. In nature, however, animals often choose from more than two behaviours, and multiple innovations may arise simultaneously. Studies of animal social learning are often constrained by small sample sizes, which limit researchers' ability to convincingly identify the proposed social learning strategy responsible for behavioural choice. In this study, I examine whether expanding behavioural options from k=2 to k > 2 and increasing sample size affects inferential power in identifying social learning strategies. I focus on three frequency-dependent learning strategies: conformist transmission, unbiased transmission and anti-conformist transmission. I simulate 100 datasets for 72 parameter combinations, yielding 7200 simulations. I evaluate number of options (k=2, 3, 4, 5), population size (n=5, 10, 25, 50, 100, 250) and the logarithmic strength of frequency dependence (log(f)=log(1∕3), log(1), log(3)). I then fit a Bayesian social learning model to simulated data to evaluate the percent of the posterior consistent with type of frequency dependence, posterior standard deviations, highest posterior density intervals and posterior medians relative to the true simulated value of log(f). I show that increasing the number of options an animal can choose from increases the accuracy and certainty of identifying the type and magnitude of frequency-dependent social learning. These effects are particularly pronounced at small to intermediate sample sizes, which are common in empirical studies of animal social learning. These findings suggest that knowing what an animal did not choose is equally important as knowing what an animal did choose when identifying social learning strategies. By strategically increasing the number of behaviours from which an animal can choose, researchers can increase inferential power in identifying social learning strategies without increasing sample size, that is, adding additional animals or collecting more data.

Quantifying effects of tasks on group performance in social learning

Social learning is a learning process in which new behaviors can be acquired by observing and imitating others. It is the key to cultural evolution because individuals can exchange profitable information culturally within the group. Recent studies have over-focused on social learning strategies but paid rare attention to the learning tasks. In particular, in these studies, individuals rely on perfect imitation, directly copying the solutions of others, to improve their performance. However, imperfect imitation, a prevalent form of social learning in cultural evolution, has received little discussion. In this paper, the effects of three task features (task types, task complexity, and task granularity) on group performance are simulated with an agent-based model and quantified with decision trees. In the proposed model, individuals in a network learn from others via imperfect imitation, which means individuals make a trade-off between their solutions and socially acquired solutions. Here, status quo bias is introduced to represent the degree to which individuals adhere to their solutions. Results show that the performance of a group is not affected by task complexity in hard-to-easy tasks but declines with the task complexity rising in easy-to-hard tasks. Besides, groups usually perform better in fine-grained tasks than in coarse-grained ones. The main reason is that in coarse-grained tasks, conservative individuals encounter learning bottlenecks that prevent them from exploring superior solutions further. Interestingly, increasing task granularity can mitigate this disadvantage for conservative individuals. Most strikingly, the importance scores given by decision trees suggest that tasks play a decisive role in social learning. These findings provide new insights into social learning and have broad implications for cultural evolution.

Cultural diffusion dynamics depend on behavioural production rules.

Culture is an outcome of both the acquisition of knowledge about behaviour through social transmission, and its subsequent production by individuals. Acquisition and production are often discussed or modelled interchangeably, yet to date no study has explored the consequences of their interaction for cultural diffusions. We present a generative model that integrates the two, and ask how variation in production rules might influence diffusion dynamics. Agents make behavioural choices that change as they learn from their productions. Their repertoires may also change, and the acquisition of behaviour is conditioned on its frequency. We analyse the diffusion of a novel behaviour through social networks, yielding generalizable predictions of how individual-level behavioural production rules influence population-level diffusion dynamics. We then investigate how linking acquisition and production might affect the performance of two commonly used inferential models for social learning; network-based diffusion analysis, and experience-weighted attraction models. We find that the influence that production rules have on diffusion dynamics has consequences for how inferential methods are applied to empirical data. Our model illuminates the differences between social learning and social influence, demonstrates the overlooked role of reinforcement learning in cultural diffusions, and allows for clearer discussions about social learning strategies.

Partial copying and the role of diversity in social learning performance

One major way that people engage in adaptive problem solving is by imitating others’ solutions. Prominent simulation models have found imperfect imitation advantageous, but the interactions between copying amount and other prevalent aspects of social learning strategies have been underexplored. Here, we explore the consequences for a group when its members engage in strategies with different degrees of copying, solving search problems of varying complexity, in different network topologies that affect the solutions visible to each member. Using a computational model of collective problem solving, we demonstrate that the advantage of partial copying is robust across these conditions, arising from its ability to maintain diversity. Partial copying delays convergence generally but especially in globally connected networks, which are typically associated with diversity loss, allowing more exploration of a problem space. We show that a moderate amount of diversity maintenance is optimal and strategies can be adjusted to find that sweet spot.

Pre-service teachers’ negotiation of meaning in their Physical Education Teacher Education programme: a two-year follow-up ethnography

ABSTRACT Background: Research demonstrates the benefits of communities of practice (CoP) for teachers’ professional learning in Physical Education (PE). However, much less is known about how CoPs can be used to understand pre-service teachers’ (PSTs) professional learning in their Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) programmes. Negotiation of meaning (NofM) is a crucial concept regarding learning inside of a CoP. Hence, understand how meaning is negotiated in initial teacher professional development might allow the enhancement of the social learning strategies in PETE programmes. Purpose: This article draws on the CoP theoretical framework, and specifically the concept of NofM to understand how PSTs negotiated meaning during a two-year PETE programme. In particular, the focus is on the challenges faced by PSTs throughout the PETE social interactive process. Participants and settings: The setting was a PETE programme in Portugal. In year one, the participants were three university teacher educators (TE) and 25 PSTs. In year two, the participants were three PSTs from year one who were in their school placement, a university supervisor (US) and one cooperating teacher (CT). Data collection and analysis: This study was an ethnography with a two-year longitudinal design. Data were collected through the ethnographer’s participant-observations (first author), meetings of the PSTs with the mentoring team (TEs, US, CT), and the ethnographer’s field diary, reflexive log, and audio-recordings. Data analysis involved the constant-comparative grounded theory method. Findings: Analysis resulted in the identification of three key challenges during the course units, for PSTs in the first year of their PETE programme: (a) the diversity and disconnections within the course units; (b) (the lack of) membership; and (c) the absence of democratic spaces in PETE class discussions. In the year two of PETE during the school placement, three challenges were identified for the negotiation of meaning (NofM): (a) the lack of dialogue with and focus on pedagogical practice by the cooperating teacher; (b) working together and the pressure to individualise PSTs’ education process; and (c) unreachable support and supervision from the university. Implications: We suggest that PETE programmes should emphasise pedagogical strategies that create spaces for the cultivation of CoPs. For instance, we suggest PST engagement in continuous and planned group work across curricular years (e.g. peer-teaching and micro-teaching experiences) to increase work group membership. We recommend the emphasis on discussion sessions mediated by a facilitator (e.g. TEs, CTs, or US) where the different working groups could share their repertoire of learning experiences as a CoP. Moreover, we suggest optimisation of a base of pedagogical knowledge regarding course units’ integration between the TEs of the PETE to systematise the process and also, an increased connection between the university and the host school. Additionally, we propose continuous professional development by the CTs to facilitate the requirements of the PETE programme.

Farmer-led education on the Colombian Andes: Escuelas Campesinas de Agroecología as a social learning approach for post-conflict reconstruction

ABSTRACT In Colombia, nearly six decades of war have devastated the countryside and induced land-related issues that perpetuate marginalization of rural people. Although the Peace Agreement of 2016 and the Integral Rural Reform offer new prospects for resolving legacies of conflict, the reconstruction of the countryside requires participation of rural communities. Social movements advance agroecology as a suitable territorial management approach for enabling the socio-ecological reconstruction of rural areas. Escuelas Campesinas de Agroecología (ECAs) are farmer-led formative initiatives that emerge around productive, market, and political processes aimed at scaling agroecology by developing new knowledge and learning systems. This qualitative study investigates the potentialities of ECAs as a social learning strategy for empowering farmer communities confronting current post-conflict challenges. Through a systematization of experiences, the work of seven ECAs is analyzed in relation to three phenomena – problematization, social networking, and critical thinking. The different pedagogies are then scrutinized based on identity frameworks. Results evidence that the context-specific approaches of ECAs enable communities to integrate diverse epistemological knowledge into collective learning systems and move it to a broader social context through social networks. We conclude that ECAs represent a suitable approach for transforming postwar environments while facilitating the achievement of peacebuilding goals.

The Use of Metacognitive and Social Language Learning Strategies in Improving Speaking Skills among Upper Secondary Students

The Ministry of Education Malaysia has highlighted 4 skills in acquiring the English language namely listening, speaking, reading and writing. While the other skills soar in students’ acquisition of the language, it appears that students do not perform as well in their speaking as compared to the other skills. This study aimed to find out the extent of metacognitive and social language learning strategies in improving speaking skills among students. The study was carried out in two secondary schools in Kuching, Sarawak. A total of 85 students from upper secondary; Form 4 and Form 5, were chosen as respondents. A Likert style questionnaire based on the adaptation from Language Strategy Used Inventory and SILL was sent to the students in the form of Google Form to obtain the data needed. Findings revealed that students did employ both metacognitive and social strategies in order to improve their speaking. Hence, proving both strategies mentioned were exploited well by students in acquiring the targeted language.

What is the extent of a frequency-dependent social learning strategy space?

Models of frequency-dependent social learning posit that individuals respond to the commonality of behaviours without additional variables modifying this. Such strategies bring important trade-offs, e.g. conformity is beneficial when observing people facing the same task but harmful when observing those facing a different task. Instead of rigidly responding to frequencies, however, social learners might modulate their response given additional information. To see, we ran an incentivised experiment where participants played either a game against nature or a coordination game. There were three types of information: (a) choice frequencies in a group of demonstrators; (b) an indication of whether these demonstrators learned in a similar or different environment; and (c) an indication about the reliability of this similarity information. Similarity information was either reliably correct, uninformative or reliably incorrect, where reliably correct and reliably incorrect treatments provided participants with equivalent earning opportunities. Participants adjusted their decision-making to all three types of information. Adjustments, however, were asymmetric, with participants doing especially well when conforming to demonstrators who were reliably similar to them. The overall response, however, was more fluid and complex than this one case. This flexibility should attenuate the trade-offs commonly assumed to shape the evolution of frequency-dependent social learning strategies.

Improving Literacy for Students With Emotional and Behavioral Disorders: An Innovative Approach

Most students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) have significant reading difficulties, but educators have few in-service professional learning opportunities geared to reading instruction for these students. The Integrated Literacy Study Group was developed as an online professional development program to prepare elementary teachers to meet the literacy needs of students with or at risk of EBD. In this study, the authors use a within-subjects design to evaluate the feasibility of the 10-week digital program with 13 elementary teachers. From pretest to posttest, teachers made statistically and educationally significant gains in knowledge of evidence-based social and emotional learning and reading strategies for students with EBD, as well as significant improvements in general teacher self-efficacy, reading self-efficacy, and social and emotional self-efficacy. Pretest-to-posttest change in teacher burnout and classroom management was educationally significant, but statistically nonsignificant. Most teachers perceived the program content as relevant to their needs and those of their students.

Children transition from simple associations to explicitly reasoned social learning strategies between age four and eight

To differentiate the use of simple associations from use of explicitly reasoned selective social learning, we can look for age-related changes in children’s behaviour that might signify a switch from one social learning strategy to the other. We presented 4- to 8-year-old children visiting a zoo in Scotland (N = 109) with a task in which the perceptual access of two informants was determined by the differing opacity of two screens of similar visual appearance during a hiding event. Initially success could be achieved by forming an association or inferring a rule based on salient visual (but causally irrelevant) cues. However, following a switch in the scenario, success required explicit reasoning about informants’ potential to provide valuable information based on their perceptual access. Following the switch, older children were more likely to select a knowledgeable informant. This suggests that some younger children who succeeded in the pre-switch trials had inferred rules or formed associations based on superficial, yet salient, visual cues, whereas older children made the link between perceptual access and the potential to inform. This late development and apparent cognitive challenge are consistent with proposals that such capacities are linked to the distinctiveness of human cumulative culture.

Meta-control of social learning strategies.

Social learning, copying other's behavior without actual experience, offers a cost-effective means of knowledge acquisition. However, it raises the fundamental question of which individuals have reliable information: successful individuals versus the majority. The former and the latter are known respectively as success-based and conformist social learning strategies. We show here that while the success-based strategy fully exploits the benign environment of low uncertainly, it fails in uncertain environments. On the other hand, the conformist strategy can effectively mitigate this adverse effect. Based on these findings, we hypothesized that meta-control of individual and social learning strategies provides effective and sample-efficient learning in volatile and uncertain environments. Simulations on a set of environments with various levels of volatility and uncertainty confirmed our hypothesis. The results imply that meta-control of social learning affords agents the leverage to resolve environmental uncertainty with minimal exploration cost, by exploiting others' learning as an external knowledge base.

Physical home learning environments for digitally-supported learning in academic continuing education during COVID-19 pandemic

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, digital technologies for distance learning have been used in educational institutions worldwide, raising issues about social implications, technological development, and teaching and learning strategies. While disparities regarding access to technical equipment and the internet (‘the digital divide’) have been the subject of previous research, the physical learning environment of learners participating in online learning activities has hardly been investigated. In this study, the physical-spatial conditions of learning environments, including technical equipment for distance learning activities and their influence on adult learners in academic continuing education during initial COVID-19 restrictions, were examined. Data were collected with an online survey sent to all students enrolled in an Austrian continuing education university, together with a small number of semi-structured interviews. A total of 257 students participated in the survey during the 2020 summer semester. Our findings provide insights in two infrequently-studied areas in learning environment research: the physical learning environment for online learning and the learning environment in academic continuing education. The study illustrates that students in academic continuing education have spacious living conditions and almost all the equipment necessary for digitally-supported learning. According to gender and household structure, significant differences were found regarding technical equipment, ergonomic furniture and availability of a dedicated learning place. In their learning sessions during the restrictions, students reported low stress levels and positive well-being. The more that they perceived that their physical learning environment was meeting their needs, the higher were their motivation and well-being and the lower was their stress. Their learning experience was further improved by the extent to which they had a separate and fixed learning place that did not need to be coordinated or shared with others. The study contributes to the literature on creating conducive learning environments for digitally-supported online learning for adult learners.

Implementing SEL in the Classroom: A Practitioner Perspective

The implementation of social and emotional learning (SEL) related tools and strategies is becoming widely used in classrooms within the United States to promote student success. However, teachers may not feel prepared or knowledgeable about the topic which leads to apprehension regarding implementation. It is imperative for educators to understand components of SEL if they would like to begin the implementation process in their schools and classrooms. This manuscript discusses SEL from a current practitioner’s perspective. It discusses the foundations of SEL, common SEL curriculum components, as well as the challenges and benefits of employing SEL in the classroom. Additionally, recommendations and resources are interwoven throughout to support educators in building their SEL knowledge.

The potential for effective reasoning guides children\u2019s preference for small group discussion over crowdsourcing

Communication between social learners can make a group collectively “wiser” than any individual, but conformist tendencies can also distort collective judgment. We asked whether intuitions about when communication is likely to improve or distort collective judgment could allow social learners to take advantage of the benefits of communication while minimizing the risks. In three experiments (n = 360), 7- to 10-year old children and adults decided whether to refer a question to a small group for discussion or “crowdsource” independent judgments from individual advisors. For problems affording the kind of ‘demonstrative’ reasoning that allows a group member to reliably correct errors made by even a majority, all ages preferred to consult the discussion group, even compared to a crowd ten times as large—consistent with past research suggesting that discussion groups regularly outperform even their best members for reasoning problems. In contrast, we observed a consistent developmental shift towards crowdsourcing independent judgments when reasoning by itself was insufficient to conclusively answer a question. Results suggest sophisticated intuitions about the nature of social influence and collective intelligence may guide our social learning strategies from early in development.

Multi-strategy improved salp swarm algorithm and its application in reliability optimization.

To improve the convergence speed and solution precision of the standard Salp Swarm Algorithm (SSA), a hybrid Salp Swarm Algorithm based on Dimension-by-dimension Centroid Opposition-based learning strategy, Random factor and Particle Swarm Optimization's social learning strategy (DCORSSA-PSO) is proposed. Firstly, a dimension-by-dimension centroid opposition-based learning strategy is added in the food source update stage of SSA to increase the population diversity and reduce the inter-dimensional interference. Secondly, in the followers' position update equation of SSA, constant 1 is replaced by a random number between 0 and 1 to increase the randomness of the search and the ability to jump out of local optima. Finally, the social learning strategy of PSO is also added to the followers' position update equation to accelerate the population convergence. The statistical results on ten classical benchmark functions by the Wilcoxon test and Friedman test show that compared with SSA and other well-known optimization algorithms, the proposed DCORSSA-PSO has significantly improved the precision of the solution and the convergence speed, as well as its robustness. The DCORSSA-PSO is applied to system reliability optimization design based on the T-S fault tree. The simulation results show that the failure probability of the designed system under the cost constraint is less than other algorithms, which illustrates that the application of DCORSSA-PSO can effectively improve the design level of reliability optimization.

Can bifocal stance theory explain children's selectivity in active information transmission?

To shed light on the key premise of the bifocal stance theory (BST) that social learners flexibly take instrumental and ritual stances, we focus on developmental origins of child-led information transmission, or teaching, as a core social learning strategy. We highlight children's emerging selectivity in information transmission influenced by epistemic and social factors and call for systematic investigation of proposed stance-taking.

Explainability and Graph Learning From Social Interactions

Social learning algorithms provide models for the formation of opinions over social networks resulting from local reasoning and peer-to-peer exchanges. Interactions occur over an underlying graph topology, which describes the flow of information among the agents. To account for drifting conditions in the environment, this work adopts an adaptive social learning strategy, which is able to track variations in the underlying signal statistics. Among other results, we propose a technique that addresses questions of explainability and interpretability of the results when the graph is hidden. Given observations of the evolution of the beliefs over time, we aim to infer the underlying graph topology, discover pairwise influences between the agents, and identify significant trajectories in the network. The proposed framework is online in nature and can adapt dynamically to changes in the graph topology or the true hypothesis.

Copy the In-group: Group Membership Trumps Perceived Reliability, Warmth, and Competence in a Social-Learning Task

Surprisingly little is known about how social groups influence social learning. Although several studies have shown that people prefer to copy in-group members, these studies have failed to resolve whether group membership genuinely affects who is copied or whether group membership merely correlates with other known factors, such as similarity and familiarity. Using the minimal-group paradigm, we disentangled these effects in an online social-learning game. In a sample of 540 adults, we found a robust in-group-copying bias that (a) was bolstered by a preference for observing in-group members; (b) overrode perceived reliability, warmth, and competence; (c) grew stronger when social information was scarce; and (d) even caused cultural divergence between intermixed groups. These results suggest that people genuinely employ a copy-the-in-group social-learning strategy, which could help explain how inefficient behaviors spread through social learning and how humans maintain the cultural diversity needed for cumulative cultural evolution.

Gender differences learning strategy at English Language Education Department Students University Of Muhammadiyah Malang

Gender difference can be assumed as an individual difference generally existing and catching attention in the foreign language teaching and learning.This research aims at finding out the strategies used by the students in learning English and students’ perspective on the learning strategies based on their gender. The data are gathered through questionnaires and interview which are given to the students of English Language Education Department. This study discovered that male and female students differ in the learning strategy, and the female students score higher in the use of learning strategy than the males. Metacognitive and social learning strategy were highly used by female students. On the other hand, male students score compensation, metacognitive and cognitive learning strategy as their attempts to learn English. The result also found that females use all the strategies more often than males particularly on metacognitive strategy. Moreover, there are differences in the use of other strategies, but the finding is not remarkable.

Social Learning Strategies and Cooperative Behaviour: Evidence of Payoff Bias, but Not Prestige or Conformity, in a Social Dilemma Game

Human cooperation, occurring without reciprocation and between unrelated individuals in large populations, represents an evolutionary puzzle. One potential explanation is that cooperative behaviour may be transmitted between individuals via social learning. Using an online social dilemma experiment, we find evidence that participants’ contributions were more consistent with payoff-biased transmission than prestige-biased transmission or conformity. We also found some evidence for lower cooperation (i) when exposed to social information about peer cooperation levels than without such information, and (ii) in the prisoners’ dilemma game compared to the snowdrift game. A simulation model established that the observed cooperation was more likely to be caused by participants’ general propensity to cooperate than by the effect of social learning strategies employed within the experiment, but that this cooperative propensity could be reduced through selection. Overall, our results support previous experimental evidence indicating the role of payoff-biased transmission in explaining cooperative behaviour, but we find that this effect was small and was overwhelmed by participants’ general propensity for cooperation.