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Goodale E, Magrath RD. Species diversity and interspecific information flow. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc 2024; 99:999-1014. [PMID: 38279871 DOI: 10.1111/brv.13055] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/02/2023] [Revised: 01/14/2024] [Accepted: 01/15/2024] [Indexed: 01/29/2024]
Abstract
Interspecific information flow is known to affect individual fitness, population dynamics and community assembly, but there has been less study of how species diversity affects information flow and thereby ecosystem functioning and services. We address this question by first examining differences among species in the sensitivity, accuracy, transmissibility, detectability and value of the cues and signals they produce, and in how they receive, store and use information derived from heterospecifics. We then review how interspecific information flow occurs in communities, involving a diversity of species and sensory modes, and how this flow can affect ecosystem-level functions, such as decomposition, seed dispersal or algae removal on coral reefs. We highlight evidence that some keystone species are particularly critical as a source of information used by eavesdroppers, and so have a disproportionate effect on information flow. Such keystone species include community informants producing signals, particularly about predation risk, that influence other species' landscapes of fear, and aggregation initiators creating cues or signals about resources. We suggest that the presence of keystone species means that there will likely be a positive relationship in many communities between species diversity and information through a 'sampling effect', in which larger pools of species are more likely to include the keystone species by chance. We then consider whether the number and relative abundance of species, irrespective of the presence of keystone species, matter to interspecific information flow; on this issue, the theory is less developed, and the evidence scant and indirect. Higher diversity could increase the quantity or quality of information that is used by eavesdroppers because redundancy increases the reliability of information or because the species provide complementary information. Alternatively, there could be a lack of a relationship between species diversity and information if there is widespread information parasitism where users are not sources, or if information sourced from heterospecifics is of lower value than that gained personally or sourced from conspecifics. Recent research suggests that species diversity does have information-modulated community and ecosystem consequences, especially in birds, such as the diversity of species at feeders increasing resource exploitation, or the number of imitated species increasing responses to vocal mimics. A first step for future research includes comprehensive observations of information flow among different taxa and habitats. Then studies should investigate whether species diversity influences the cumulative quality or quantity of information at the community level, and consequently ecosystem-level processes. An applied objective is to conserve species in part for their value as sources of information for other species, including for humans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eben Goodale
- Department of Health and Environmental Science, Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Suzhou, 215123, China
| | - Robert D Magrath
- Division of Ecology and Evolution, Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, 2600, Australia
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2
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Mathot KJ, Arteaga-Torres JD, Besson A, Hawkshaw DM, Klappstein N, McKinnon RA, Sridharan S, Nakagawa S. A systematic review and meta-analysis of unimodal and multimodal predation risk assessment in birds. Nat Commun 2024; 15:4240. [PMID: 38762491 PMCID: PMC11102462 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-48702-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/06/2023] [Accepted: 05/07/2024] [Indexed: 05/20/2024] Open
Abstract
Despite a wealth of studies documenting prey responses to perceived predation risk, researchers have only recently begun to consider how prey integrate information from multiple cues in their assessment of risk. We conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies that experimentally manipulated perceived predation risk in birds and evaluate support for three alternative models of cue integration: redundancy/equivalence, enhancement, and antagonism. One key insight from our analysis is that the current theory, generally applied to study cue integration in animals, is incomplete. These theories specify the effects of increasing information level on mean, but not variance, in responses. In contrast, we show that providing multiple complementary cues of predation risk simultaneously does not affect mean response. Instead, as information richness increases, populations appear to assess risk more accurately, resulting in lower among-population variance in response to manipulations of perceived predation risk. We show that this may arise via a statistical process called maximum-likelihood estimation (MLE) integration. Our meta-analysis illustrates how explicit consideration of variance in responses can yield important biological insights.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kimberley J Mathot
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
- Canada Research Chair in Integrative Ecology, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
| | | | - Anne Besson
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada
- Department of Zoology, University of Otago, Otago, New Zealand
| | - Deborah M Hawkshaw
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada
| | - Natasha Klappstein
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada
- Department of Statistics, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada
| | - Rebekah A McKinnon
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada
| | - Sheeraja Sridharan
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada
| | - Shinichi Nakagawa
- Evolution & Ecology Research Centre and School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia
- Theoretical Sciences Visiting Program, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, Okinawa, Onna, 904-0495, Japan
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3
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Brønnvik H, Nourani E, Fiedler W, Flack A. Experience reduces route selection for conspecifics by the collectively migrating white stork. Curr Biol 2024; 34:2030-2037.e3. [PMID: 38636512 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.03.052] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/12/2023] [Revised: 02/06/2024] [Accepted: 03/25/2024] [Indexed: 04/20/2024]
Abstract
Migration can be an energetically costly behavior with strong fitness consequences in terms of mortality and reproduction.1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11 Migrants should select migratory routes to minimize their costs, but both costs and benefits may change with experience.12,13,14 This raises the question of whether experience changes how individuals select their migratory routes. Here, we investigate the effect of age on route selection criteria in a collectively migrating soaring bird, the white stork (Ciconia ciconia). We perform step-selection analysis on a longitudinal dataset tracking 158 white storks over up to 9 years to quantify how they select their routes based on the social and atmospheric environments and to examine how this selection changes with age. We find clear ontogenetic shifts in route selection criteria. Juveniles choose routes that have good atmospheric conditions and high conspecific densities. Yet, as they gain experience, storks' selection on the availability of social information reduces-after their fifth migration, experienced birds also choose routes with low conspecific densities. Thus, our results suggest that as individuals age, they gradually replace information gleaned from other individuals with information gained from experience, allowing them to shift their migration timing and increasing the timescale at which they select their routes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hester Brønnvik
- Collective Migration Group, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, 78315 Radolfzell, Germany; Department of Migration, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, 78315 Radolfzell, Germany; Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, 78464 Konstanz, Germany.
| | - Elham Nourani
- Department of Migration, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, 78315 Radolfzell, Germany; Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, 78464 Konstanz, Germany; Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour, University of Konstanz, 78468 Konstanz, Germany
| | - Wolfgang Fiedler
- Department of Migration, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, 78315 Radolfzell, Germany; Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, 78464 Konstanz, Germany
| | - Andrea Flack
- Collective Migration Group, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, 78315 Radolfzell, Germany; Department of Migration, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, 78315 Radolfzell, Germany; Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour, University of Konstanz, 78468 Konstanz, Germany.
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Ekanayake‐Weber M, Mathew N, Cunha D, Payen N, Grimm V, Koenig A. It's about time: Feeding competition costs of sociality are affected more by temporal characteristics than spatial distribution. Ecol Evol 2024; 14:e11209. [PMID: 38628923 PMCID: PMC11019304 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.11209] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/15/2024] [Revised: 03/14/2024] [Accepted: 03/18/2024] [Indexed: 04/19/2024] Open
Abstract
For most herbivorous animals, group-living appears to incur a high cost by intensifying feeding competition. These costs raise the question of how gregariousness (i.e., the tendency to aggregate) could have evolved to such an extent in taxa such as anthropoid primates and ungulates. When attempting to test the potential benefits and costs, previous foraging models demonstrated that group-living might be beneficial by lowering variance in intake, but that it reduces overall foraging success. However, these models did not fully account for the fact that gregariousness has multiple experiences and can vary in relation to ecological variables and foraging competition. Here, we present an agent-based model for testing how ecological variables impact the costs and benefits of gregariousness. In our simulations, primate-like agents forage on a variable resource landscape while maintaining spatial cohesion with conspecifics to varying degrees. The agents' energy intake rate, daily distance traveled, and variance in energy intake were recorded. Using Morris Elementary Effects sensitivity analysis, we tested the sensitivity of 10 model parameters, of which 2 controlled gregarious behavior and 8 controlled food resources, including multiple aspects of temporal and spatial heterogeneity. We found that, while gregariousness generally increased feeding competition, the costs of gregariousness were much lower when resources were less variable over time (i.e., when calorie extraction was slow and resource renewal was frequent). We also found that maintaining proximity to other agents resulted in lower variance in energy intake when resources were more variable over time. Thus, it appears that the costs and benefits of gregariousness are strongly influenced by the temporal characteristics of food resources, giving insight into the pressures that shaped the evolution of sociality and group living, including in our own lineage.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marcy Ekanayake‐Weber
- Department of AnthropologyStony Brook UniversityStony BrookNew YorkUSA
- Interdepartmental Doctoral Program in Anthropological SciencesStony Brook UniversityStony BrookNew YorkUSA
| | - Namita Mathew
- Department of Computer ScienceStony Brook UniversityStony BrookNew YorkUSA
| | - Deanna Cunha
- Department of AnthropologyStony Brook UniversityStony BrookNew YorkUSA
| | - Nathanael Payen
- Department of Computer ScienceStony Brook UniversityStony BrookNew YorkUSA
| | - Volker Grimm
- Department of Ecological ModelingHelmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZLeipzigGermany
| | - Andreas Koenig
- Department of AnthropologyStony Brook UniversityStony BrookNew YorkUSA
- Interdepartmental Doctoral Program in Anthropological SciencesStony Brook UniversityStony BrookNew YorkUSA
- Graduate Program in Ecology and EvolutionStony Brook UniversityStony BrookNew YorkUSA
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5
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Friston KJ, Parr T, Heins C, Constant A, Friedman D, Isomura T, Fields C, Verbelen T, Ramstead M, Clippinger J, Frith CD. Federated inference and belief sharing. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2024; 156:105500. [PMID: 38056542 PMCID: PMC11139662 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105500] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/04/2023] [Revised: 11/08/2023] [Accepted: 12/01/2023] [Indexed: 12/08/2023]
Abstract
This paper concerns the distributed intelligence or federated inference that emerges under belief-sharing among agents who share a common world-and world model. Imagine, for example, several animals keeping a lookout for predators. Their collective surveillance rests upon being able to communicate their beliefs-about what they see-among themselves. But, how is this possible? Here, we show how all the necessary components arise from minimising free energy. We use numerical studies to simulate the generation, acquisition and emergence of language in synthetic agents. Specifically, we consider inference, learning and selection as minimising the variational free energy of posterior (i.e., Bayesian) beliefs about the states, parameters and structure of generative models, respectively. The common theme-that attends these optimisation processes-is the selection of actions that minimise expected free energy, leading to active inference, learning and model selection (a.k.a., structure learning). We first illustrate the role of communication in resolving uncertainty about the latent states of a partially observed world, on which agents have complementary perspectives. We then consider the acquisition of the requisite language-entailed by a likelihood mapping from an agent's beliefs to their overt expression (e.g., speech)-showing that language can be transmitted across generations by active learning. Finally, we show that language is an emergent property of free energy minimisation, when agents operate within the same econiche. We conclude with a discussion of various perspectives on these phenomena; ranging from cultural niche construction, through federated learning, to the emergence of complexity in ensembles of self-organising systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Karl J Friston
- Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, Institute of Neurology, University College London, UK; VERSES AI Research Lab, Los Angeles, CA 90016, USA.
| | - Thomas Parr
- Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, Institute of Neurology, University College London, UK
| | - Conor Heins
- VERSES AI Research Lab, Los Angeles, CA 90016, USA; Department of Collective Behaviour, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, 78457 Konstanz, Germany; Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour, 78457 Konstanz, Germany; Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, 78457 Konstanz, Germany
| | - Axel Constant
- VERSES AI Research Lab, Los Angeles, CA 90016, USA; School of Engineering and Informatics, The University of Sussex, Brighton, UK
| | - Daniel Friedman
- Department of Entomology and Nematology, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, USA; Active Inference Institute, Davis, CA 95616, USA
| | - Takuya Isomura
- Brain Intelligence Theory Unit, RIKEN Center for Brain Science, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan
| | - Chris Fields
- Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University, Medford, MA 02155, USA
| | - Tim Verbelen
- VERSES AI Research Lab, Los Angeles, CA 90016, USA
| | - Maxwell Ramstead
- Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, Institute of Neurology, University College London, UK; VERSES AI Research Lab, Los Angeles, CA 90016, USA
| | | | - Christopher D Frith
- Institute of Philosophy, School of Advanced Studies, University of London, UK
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Tóth Z, Bartók R, Nagy Z, Szappanos VR. The relative importance of social information use for population abundance in group-living and non-grouping prey. J Theor Biol 2023; 575:111626. [PMID: 37758120 DOI: 10.1016/j.jtbi.2023.111626] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/01/2023] [Revised: 09/07/2023] [Accepted: 09/21/2023] [Indexed: 10/03/2023]
Abstract
Predator-prey relationships are fundamental components of ecosystem functioning, within which the spatial consequences of prey social organization can alter predation rates. Group-living (GL) species are known to exploit inadvertent social information (ISI) that facilitates population persistence under predation risk. Still, the extent to which non-grouping (NG) prey can benefit from similar processes is unknown. Here we built an individual-based model to explore and compare the population-level consequences of ISI use in GL and NG prey. We differentiated between GL and NG prey only by the presence or absence of social attraction toward conspecifics that drives individual movement patterns. We found that the extent of the benefits of socially acquired predator information in NG highly depends on the prey's ability to detect nearby predators, prey density and the occurrence of false alarms. Conversely, even moderate probabilities of ISI use and predator detection can lead to maximal population-level benefits in GL prey. This theoretical work provides additional insights into the conditions under which ISI use can facilitate population persistence irrespective of prey social organisation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zoltán Tóth
- Department of Zoology, Plant Protection Institute, Centre for Agricultural Research, HUN-REN, Budapest, Hungary; University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary.
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7
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Peng HB, Choi CY, Ma Z, Bijleveld AI, Melville DS, Piersma T. Individuals of a group-living shorebird show smaller home range overlap when food availability is low. MOVEMENT ECOLOGY 2023; 11:70. [PMID: 37891665 PMCID: PMC10612227 DOI: 10.1186/s40462-023-00427-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/29/2023] [Accepted: 09/26/2023] [Indexed: 10/29/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Group living animals, such as shorebirds foraging on intertidal mudflats, may use social information about where to find hidden food items. However, flocking also increases intraspecific competition for resources, which may be exacerbated by food scarcity. Therefore, although aggregation may bring benefits, it may also increase the intensity of intraspecific competition. METHODS We examined this trade-off in adult great knots Calidris tenuirostris, a molluscivorous long-distance migrating shorebird species, using interannual variation based on 2 years with different levels of food availability during their northward migratory staging in the northern Yellow Sea, China. We estimated individual home ranges and the extent of spatial overlap of home ranges of individually tagged birds in 2012 and 2015, whilst discounting for possible differences in body size, body mass, sex and migration schedule between years. RESULTS We found that home range size was not associated with body mass, arrival date, body size, or sex of the individual. Despite a significant difference in food availability between the two study years, there was no significant change in the 50% and 95% home range size of great knots in the contrasting situations. However, there was a significantly smaller spatial overlap between individuals in the year when food was less available, suggesting that great knots operated more independently when food was scarce than when it was abundant. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that minimizing intraspecific competition became more important when food was scarce. Where it is impossible to monitor all habitats en route, monitoring the local movements of shorebirds may offer a way to detect changes in habitat quality in real time.
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Affiliation(s)
- He-Bo Peng
- Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences (GELIFES), University of Groningen, P.O. Box 11103, 9700 CC, Groningen, The Netherlands
- Department of Coastal Systems, NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, PO Box 59, 1790 AB, Den Burg, Texel, The Netherlands
- BirdEyes, Centre for Global Ecological Change at Faculties of Science and Engineering and Campus Fryslân, University of Groningen, Zaailand 110, 8911 BN, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands
| | - Chi-Yeung Choi
- Division of Natural and Applied Sciences, Duke Kunshan University, Kunshan, 215316, Jiangsu, China.
- Environmental Research Center, Duke Kunshan University, Kunshan, 215316, Jiangsu, China.
- School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China.
| | - Zhijun Ma
- Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Biodiversity, Science and Ecological Engineering, National Observations and Research Station for Wetland Ecosystems of the Yangtze Estuary, and Institute of Eco-Chongming (SIEC), School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433, China
| | - Allert I Bijleveld
- Department of Coastal Systems, NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, PO Box 59, 1790 AB, Den Burg, Texel, The Netherlands
| | - David S Melville
- Global Flyway Network, c/o 1261 Dovedale Road, RD2 Wakefield, Nelson, 7096, New Zealand
| | - Theunis Piersma
- Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences (GELIFES), University of Groningen, P.O. Box 11103, 9700 CC, Groningen, The Netherlands
- Department of Coastal Systems, NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, PO Box 59, 1790 AB, Den Burg, Texel, The Netherlands
- CEAAF Center for East Asian-Australasian Flyway Studies, Beijing Forestry University, Qinghua East Road 35, Haidian District, Beijing, 100083, China
- BirdEyes, Centre for Global Ecological Change at Faculties of Science and Engineering and Campus Fryslân, University of Groningen, Zaailand 110, 8911 BN, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands
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Cunningham SJ, Hutchison J, Ellis N, Hezelyova I, Wood LA. The cost of social influence: Own-gender and gender-stereotype social learning biases in adolescents and adults. PLoS One 2023; 18:e0290122. [PMID: 37566606 PMCID: PMC10420340 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0290122] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/06/2023] [Accepted: 08/02/2023] [Indexed: 08/13/2023] Open
Abstract
Pervasive gender gaps in academic subject and career choices are likely to be underpinned by social influences, including gender stereotypes of competence in academic and career domains (e.g., men excel at engineering, women excel at care), and model-based social learning biases (i.e., selective copying of particular individuals). Here, we explore the influence of gender stereotypes on social learning decisions in adolescent and adult males and females. Participants (Exp 1: N = 69 adolescents; Exp 2: N = 265 adults) were presented with 16 difficult multiple-choice questions from stereotypically feminine (e.g., care) and masculine (e.g., engineering) domains. The answer choices included the correct response and three incorrect responses paired with a male model, a female model, or no model. Participants' gender stereotype knowledge and endorsement were measured, and adolescents (Exp. 1) listed their academic subject choices. As predicted, there was a bias towards copying answers paired with a model (Exp.1: 74%, Exp. 2: 65% ps < .001). This resulted in less success than would be expected by chance (Exp. 1: 12%, Exp. 2: 16% ps < .001), demonstrating a negative consequence of social information. Adults (Exp 2) showed gender stereotyped social learning biases; they were more likely to copy a male model in masculine questions and a female model in feminine questions (p = .012). However, adolescents (Exp 1) showed no evidence of this stereotype bias; rather, there was a tendency for male adolescents to copy male models regardless of domain (p = .004). This own-gender bias was not apparent in female adolescents. In Exp 1, endorsement of masculine stereotypes was positively associated with selecting more own-gender typical academic subjects at school and copying significantly more male models in the male questions. The current study provides evidence for the first time that decision-making in both adolescence and adulthood is impacted by gender biases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sheila J. Cunningham
- Division of Psychology and Forensic Sciences, School of Applied Sciences Dundee, Dundee, United Kingdom
| | - Jacqui Hutchison
- School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, United Kingdom
| | - Natalie Ellis
- Division of Psychology and Forensic Sciences, School of Applied Sciences Dundee, Dundee, United Kingdom
| | - Ivana Hezelyova
- Division of Psychology and Forensic Sciences, School of Applied Sciences Dundee, Dundee, United Kingdom
| | - Lara A. Wood
- Division of Psychology and Forensic Sciences, School of Applied Sciences Dundee, Dundee, United Kingdom
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9
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Social and individual learners use different pathways to success in an ant minisociety. Anim Behav 2023. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2023.01.014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/22/2023]
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10
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Reina A, Bose T, Srivastava V, Marshall JAR. Asynchrony rescues statistically optimal group decisions from information cascades through emergent leaders. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2023; 10:230175. [PMID: 36938538 PMCID: PMC10014242 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.230175] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/13/2023] [Accepted: 02/21/2023] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
It is usually assumed that information cascades are most likely to occur when an early but incorrect opinion spreads through the group. Here, we analyse models of confidence-sharing in groups and reveal the opposite result: simple but plausible models of naive-Bayesian decision-making exhibit information cascades when group decisions are synchronous; however, when group decisions are asynchronous, the early decisions reached by Bayesian decision-makers tend to be correct and dominate the group consensus dynamics. Thus early decisions actually rescue the group from making errors, rather than contribute to it. We explore the likely realism of our assumed decision-making rule with reference to the evolution of mechanisms for aggregating social information, and known psychological and neuroscientific mechanisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andreagiovanni Reina
- Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies on Artificial Intelligence (IRIDIA), Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels 1050, Belgium
- Department of Computer Science, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S1 4DP, UK
| | - Thomas Bose
- Department of Computer Science, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S1 4DP, UK
| | - Vaibhav Srivastava
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824-1226, USA
| | - James A. R. Marshall
- Department of Computer Science, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S1 4DP, UK
- Opteran Technologies Limited, Sheffield, UK
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Luepold SB, Kokko H, Grendelmeier A, Pasinelli G. Habitat detection, habitat choice copying or mating benefits: What drives conspecific attraction in a nomadic songbird? J Anim Ecol 2023; 92:195-206. [PMID: 36377920 PMCID: PMC10100052 DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.13844] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/15/2021] [Accepted: 10/31/2022] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Conspecific attraction during habitat selection is common among animals, but the ultimate (i.e. fitness-related) reasons for this behaviour often remain enigmatic. We aimed to evaluate the following three hypotheses for conspecific attraction during the breeding season in male Wood Warblers (Phylloscopus sibilatrix): the habitat detection hypothesis, the habitat choice copying hypothesis and the female preference hypothesis. These hypotheses make different predictions with respect to the relative importance of social and nonsocial information during habitat assessment, and whether benefits accrue as a consequence of aggregation. We tested the above hypotheses using a combination of a 2-year playback experiment, spatial statistics and mate choice models. The habitat detection hypothesis was the most likely explanation for conspecific attraction and aggregation in male Wood Warblers, based on the following results: (1) males were attracted to conspecific song playbacks, but fine-scale habitat heterogeneity was the better predictor of spatial patterns in the density of settling males; (2) male pairing success did not increase, but instead slightly decreased, as connectivity with other males (i.e. the number and proximity of neighbouring males) increased. Our study highlights how consideration of the process by which animals detect and assess habitat, together with the potential fitness consequences of resulting aggregations, are important for understanding conspecific attraction and spatially clustered distributions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shannon Buckley Luepold
- Swiss Ornithological Institute, Sempach, Switzerland.,Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Hanna Kokko
- Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland.,Organismal and Evolutionary Biology Research Program, Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | | | - Gilberto Pasinelli
- Swiss Ornithological Institute, Sempach, Switzerland.,Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
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Experimental manipulation of food distribution alters social networks and information transmission across environments in a food-caching bird. Anim Behav 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2022.08.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/01/2022]
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13
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Memory and the value of social information in foraging bumble bees. Learn Behav 2022; 50:317-328. [DOI: 10.3758/s13420-022-00528-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 05/10/2022] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
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14
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Garg K, Kello CT, Smaldino PE. Individual exploration and selective social learning: balancing exploration-exploitation trade-offs in collective foraging. J R Soc Interface 2022; 19:20210915. [PMID: 35472271 PMCID: PMC9042579 DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2021.0915] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Search requires balancing exploring for more options and exploiting the ones previously found. Individuals foraging in a group face another trade-off: whether to engage in social learning to exploit the solutions found by others or to solitarily search for unexplored solutions. Social learning can better exploit learned information and decrease the costs of finding new resources, but excessive social learning can lead to over-exploitation and too little exploration for new solutions. We study how these two trade-offs interact to influence search efficiency in a model of collective foraging under conditions of varying resource abundance, resource density and group size. We modelled individual search strategies as Lévy walks, where a power-law exponent (μ) controlled the trade-off between exploitative and explorative movements in individual search. We modulated the trade-off between individual search and social learning using a selectivity parameter that determined how agents responded to social cues in terms of distance and likely opportunity costs. Our results show that social learning is favoured in rich and clustered environments, but also that the benefits of exploiting social information are maximized by engaging in high levels of individual exploration. We show that selective use of social information can modulate the disadvantages of excessive social learning, especially in larger groups and when individual exploration is limited. Finally, we found that the optimal combination of individual exploration and social learning gave rise to trajectories with μ ≈ 2 and provide support for the general optimality of such patterns in search. Our work sheds light on the interplay between individual search and social learning, and has broader implications for collective search and problem-solving.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ketika Garg
- Department of Cognitive and Information Sciences, University of California, Merced, CA, USA
| | - Christopher T Kello
- Department of Cognitive and Information Sciences, University of California, Merced, CA, USA
| | - Paul E Smaldino
- Department of Cognitive and Information Sciences, University of California, Merced, CA, USA
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15
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Lamm E, Kolodny O. Distributed Adaptations: Can a Species Be Adapted While No Single Individual Carries the Adaptation? Front Ecol Evol 2022. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2022.791104] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Species’ adaptation to their environments occurs via a range of mechanisms of adaptation. These include genetic adaptations as well as non-traditional inheritance mechanisms such as learned behaviors, niche construction, epigenetics, horizontal gene transfer, and alteration of the composition of a host’s associated microbiome. We propose to supplement these with another modality of eco-evolutionary dynamics: cases in which adaptation to the environment occurs via what may be called a “distributed adaptation,” in which the adaptation is not conferred via something carried by an individual of the adapted species (as with genes, behavior, or associated microbes), but by some structural or compositional aspect of the population. Put differently, the adaptively relevant information cannot be reduced to information possessed by a single individual, whether genetic or otherwise. Rather, the adaptively relevant information is distributed, and is found strictly at the population level. While human culture is presumably such a case, as may be cases found in social insects, we want to suggest that there are other cases that belong to this category and to explore its evolutionary implications. In particular, we discuss the factors that affect whether adaptive information is stored in a distributed way, to what degree, and what kinds of adaptive information are most likely to be found in this modality of adaptation.
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16
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Tait C, Naug D. Interindividual variation in the use of social information during learning in honeybees. Proc Biol Sci 2022; 289:20212501. [PMID: 35078365 PMCID: PMC8790335 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2021.2501] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/16/2021] [Accepted: 01/04/2022] [Indexed: 01/28/2023] Open
Abstract
Slow-fast differences in cognition among individuals have been proposed to be an outcome of the speed-accuracy trade-off in decision-making. Based on the different costs associated with acquiring information via individual and social learning, we hypothesized that slow-fast cognitive differences would also be tied to the adoption of these different learning modes. Since foragers in honeybee colonies likely have both these information acquisition modes available to them, we chose to test them for interindividual differences in individual and social learning. By measuring performance on a learning task with and without a social cue and quantifying learning rate and maximum accuracy in these two tasks, our results show the existence of a speed-accuracy trade-off in both the individual and the social learning contexts. However, the trade-off is steeper during individual learning, which was slower than social learning but led to higher accuracy. Most importantly, our results also show that bees that attained high accuracy on the individual learning task had low accuracy on the social learning task and vice versa. We discuss how these two information acquisition strategies tie to slow-fast differences in cognitive phenotypes and how they might contribute to division of labour and social behaviour.
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Affiliation(s)
- Catherine Tait
- Department of Biology, Colorado State University, 1878 Campus Delivery, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA
| | - Dhruba Naug
- Department of Biology, Colorado State University, 1878 Campus Delivery, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA
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17
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Morvai B, Fazekas EA, Miklósi Á, Pogány Á. Genetic and Social Transmission of Parental Sex Roles in Zebra Finch Families. Front Ecol Evol 2022. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2021.799996] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Parental care plays a central, reinforcing role in the evolution of sex roles and its development is often reported to be driven by genetic, rather than environmental effects. Based on these studies, however, genetic inheritance does not account fully for the often-significant phenotypic variability observed within species, a variation that we hypothesized may be explained by social effects from parents. Following a full cross-fostering design, here we aimed at disentangling genetic and social parental effects in the ontogeny of parental behaviours. Clutches of eggs were swapped, and we monitored parental behaviours in two consecutive generations of a captive population of the socially monogamous, biparental zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata). Using nest box cameras, parental behaviour was recorded for 3 h in two reproductive stages: on day 8 of incubation and day 10 post-hatching. These fostered birds, after becoming fully matured, received a pair randomly and we observed parental care of this second generation too, following the same protocol. We then compared various parental behaviours (such as time spent incubating, or number of nest attendances during offspring provisioning) in the second generation to those of their genetic and social parents. Based on the results of our experiment, both genetic and social effects can contribute to intergenerational transmission of specific parental behaviours, with various weights. However, the strongest and most consistent effect that we found is that of the current mate; a social effect that can manifest both in negative and positive directions, depending on the behavioural trait. Our study suggests context-specific and sexually different genetic, social and non-social environmental effects in the ontogeny of parental sex roles and outline the importance of parental negotiation in explaining individual variation of parental behaviour in biparental species.
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18
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19
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Why Do Birds False Alarm Flight? BIRDS 2021. [DOI: 10.3390/birds3010002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
False alarm flighting in avian flocks is common, and has been explained as a maladaptive information cascade. If false alarm flighting is maladaptive per se, then its frequency can only be explained by it being net adaptive in relation to some other benefit or equilibrium. However, I argue that natural selection cannot distinguish between false and true alarm flights that have similar energetic costs, opportunity costs, and outcomes. False alarm flighting cannot be maladaptive if natural selection cannot perceive the difference between true and false alarm flighting. Rather, the question to answer is what false and true alarm flighting both have in common that is adaptive per se. The fire drill hypothesis of alarm flighting posits that false alarm flights are an adaptive investment in practicing escape. The fire drill hypothesis predicts that all individuals can benefit from practicing escape, particularly juveniles. Flighting practice could improve recognition of and response time to alarm flighting signals, could compensate for inter-individual and within-day weight differences, and could aid the development of adaptive escape tactics. Mixed-age flocks with many juveniles are expected to false alarm flight more than adult flocks. Flocks that inhabit complex terrain should gain less from escape practice and should false alarm flight less. Behavioural ecology framings can be fruitfully complemented by other research traditions of learning and behaviour that are more focused on maturation and motor learning processes.
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20
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Montrey M, Shultz TR. Copy the In-group: Group Membership Trumps Perceived Reliability, Warmth, and Competence in a Social-Learning Task. Psychol Sci 2021; 33:165-174. [PMID: 34939477 DOI: 10.1177/09567976211032224] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022] Open
Abstract
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.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Thomas R Shultz
- Department of Psychology, McGill University.,School of Computer Science, McGill University
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21
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Sheppard CE, Heaphy R, Cant MA, Marshall HH. Individual foraging specialization in group-living species. Anim Behav 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2021.10.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
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22
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Social Learning Strategies and Cooperative Behaviour: Evidence of Payoff Bias, but Not Prestige or Conformity, in a Social Dilemma Game. GAMES 2021. [DOI: 10.3390/g12040089] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
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.
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23
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Nieberding CM, Marcantonio M, Voda R, Enriquez T, Visser B. The Evolutionary Relevance of Social Learning and Transmission in Non-Social Arthropods with a Focus on Oviposition-Related Behaviors. Genes (Basel) 2021; 12:genes12101466. [PMID: 34680861 PMCID: PMC8536077 DOI: 10.3390/genes12101466] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/31/2021] [Revised: 09/15/2021] [Accepted: 09/21/2021] [Indexed: 12/04/2022] Open
Abstract
Research on social learning has centered around vertebrates, but evidence is accumulating that small-brained, non-social arthropods also learn from others. Social learning can lead to social inheritance when socially acquired behaviors are transmitted to subsequent generations. Using oviposition site selection, a critical behavior for most arthropods, as an example, we first highlight the complementarities between social and classical genetic inheritance. We then discuss the relevance of studying social learning and transmission in non-social arthropods and document known cases in the literature, including examples of social learning from con- and hetero-specifics. We further highlight under which conditions social learning can be adaptive or not. We conclude that non-social arthropods and the study of oviposition behavior offer unparalleled opportunities to unravel the importance of social learning and inheritance for animal evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Caroline M. Nieberding
- Evolutionary Ecology and Genetics Group, Earth and Life Institute, UCLouvain, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium; (M.M.); (R.V.)
- Correspondence:
| | - Matteo Marcantonio
- Evolutionary Ecology and Genetics Group, Earth and Life Institute, UCLouvain, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium; (M.M.); (R.V.)
| | - Raluca Voda
- Evolutionary Ecology and Genetics Group, Earth and Life Institute, UCLouvain, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium; (M.M.); (R.V.)
| | - Thomas Enriquez
- Evolution and Ecophysiology Group, Earth and Life Institute, UCLouvain, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium; (T.E.); (B.V.)
| | - Bertanne Visser
- Evolution and Ecophysiology Group, Earth and Life Institute, UCLouvain, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium; (T.E.); (B.V.)
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24
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Rodríguez-Ruiz G, Recio P, López P, Martín J. Foraging decisions of rock lizards may be dependent both on current rival assessment and dear enemy recognition. Behav Processes 2021; 192:104494. [PMID: 34481897 DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2021.104494] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/05/2021] [Revised: 07/27/2021] [Accepted: 08/30/2021] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
Foraging strategies aim to maximize the amount of food obtained while minimizing searching costs. To reduce these costs, animals use different strategies based on the use of personal or social information to exploit food patches. At the same time, the social attraction for food resources could increase competition intensity for them. Prior experiences of animals regarding social risk and the foreknowledge of the competitors might drive the foraging strategies. In this paper, we examined experimentally whether rock lizards used behavioural strategies to reduce the risks of foraging in presence of potential competitors. We measured the foraging behaviour of a lizard resident to a territory (i.e. terrarium), in the presence of both familiar and unfamiliar conspecifics (potential competitors). We considered whether foraging choices between two food sources of different value (i.e. quantity) are influenced by familiarity with the intruder and the evaluation of its competitive ability based on body size differences between lizards. We found differences in the number of attacks performed to the best food source, with more attacks when the intruder was unfamiliar. The results suggest evidence of both dear enemy recognition and current rival assessment modulate the foraging choices depending on the identity and the social relationship with the intruder.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gonzalo Rodríguez-Ruiz
- Department of Evolutionary Ecology, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, CSIC Madrid, Spain.
| | - Pablo Recio
- Department of Evolutionary Ecology, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, CSIC Madrid, Spain
| | - Pilar López
- Department of Evolutionary Ecology, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, CSIC Madrid, Spain
| | - José Martín
- Department of Evolutionary Ecology, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, CSIC Madrid, Spain
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25
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Feyten LEA, Crane AL, Ramnarine IW, Brown GE. Predation risk shapes the use of conflicting personal risk and social safety information in guppies. Behav Ecol 2021. [DOI: 10.1093/beheco/arab096] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/09/2023] Open
Abstract
Abstract
When faced with uncertainty, animals can benefit from using multiple sources of information in order to make an optimal decision. However, information sources (e.g., social and personal cues) may conflict, while also varying in acquisition cost and reliability. Here, we assessed behavioral decisions of Trinidadian guppies (Poecilia reticulata), in situ, when presented with conflicting social and personal information about predation risk. We positioned foraging arenas within high- and low-predation streams, where guppies were exposed to a personal cue in the form of conspecific alarm cues (a known indicator of risk), a novel cue, or a control. At the same time, a conspecific shoal (a social safety cue) was either present or absent. When social safety was absent, guppies in both populations showed typical avoidance responses towards alarm cues, and high-predation guppies showed their typical avoidance of novel cues (i.e., neophobia). However, the presence of social safety cues was persuasive, overriding the neophobia of high-predation guppies and emboldening low-predation guppies to ignore alarm cues. Our experiment is one of the first to empirically assess the use of safety and risk cues in prey and suggests a threshold level of ambient risk which dictates the use of conflicting social and personal information.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Adam L Crane
- Department of Biology, Concordia University, West, Montreal, Québec, Canada
| | - Indar W Ramnarine
- Department of Life Sciences, University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago
| | - Grant E Brown
- Department of Biology, Concordia University, West, Montreal, Québec, Canada
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26
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Aguiñaga J, Gomulkiewicz R, Watts HE. Effect of social information on an individual's assessment of its environment. Anim Behav 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2021.06.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
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27
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Kennedy A, Peng T, Glaser SM, Linn M, Foitzik S, Grüter C. Use of waggle dance information in honey bees is linked to gene expression in the antennae, but not in the brain. Mol Ecol 2021; 30:2676-2688. [PMID: 33742503 DOI: 10.1111/mec.15893] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/04/2020] [Revised: 03/12/2021] [Accepted: 03/15/2021] [Indexed: 12/26/2022]
Abstract
Communication is essential for social animals, but deciding how to utilize information provided by conspecifics is a complex process that depends on environmental and intrinsic factors. Honey bees use a unique form of communication, the waggle dance, to inform nestmates about the location of food sources. However, as in many other animals, experienced individuals often ignore this social information and prefer to rely on prior experiences, i.e., private information. The neurosensory factors that drive the decision to use social information are not yet understood. Here we test whether the decision to use social dance information or private information is linked to gene expression differences in different parts of the nervous system. We trained bees to collect food from sugar water feeders and observed whether they utilize social or private information when exposed to dances for a new food source. We performed transcriptome analysis of four brain parts (11-16 bees per tissue type) critical for cognition: the subesophageal ganglion, the central brain, the mushroom bodies, and the antennal lobes but, unexpectedly, detected no differences between social or private information users. In contrast, we found 413 differentially expressed genes in the antennae, suggesting that variation in sensory perception mediates the decision to use social information. Social information users were characterized by the upregulation of biogenic amine genes, while private information users upregulated several genes coding for odour perception. These results highlight that decision-making in honey bees might also depend on peripheral processes of perception rather than higher-order brain centres of information integration.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anissa Kennedy
- Institute of Organismic and Molecular Evolution, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany
| | - Tianfei Peng
- Institute of Organismic and Molecular Evolution, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany.,College of Plant Science, Jilin University, Changchun, China
| | - Simone M Glaser
- Institute of Organismic and Molecular Evolution, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany
| | - Melissa Linn
- Institute of Organismic and Molecular Evolution, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany
| | - Susanne Foitzik
- Institute of Organismic and Molecular Evolution, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany
| | - Christoph Grüter
- Institute of Organismic and Molecular Evolution, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany.,School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
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28
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Spying on your neighbours? Social information affects timing of breeding and stress hormone levels in a colonial seabird. Evol Ecol 2021. [DOI: 10.1007/s10682-021-10112-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
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29
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Lawson SL, Enos JK, Mendes NC, Gill SA, Hauber ME. Pairing status moderates both the production of and responses to anti‐parasitic referential alarm calls in male yellow warblers. Ethology 2021. [DOI: 10.1111/eth.13139] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Shelby L. Lawson
- Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Behavior School of Biological Sciences University of Illinois at Urbana‐Champaign Urbana IL USA
| | - Janice K. Enos
- Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Behavior School of Biological Sciences University of Illinois at Urbana‐Champaign Urbana IL USA
| | - Niko C. Mendes
- Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Behavior School of Biological Sciences University of Illinois at Urbana‐Champaign Urbana IL USA
| | - Sharon A. Gill
- Department of Biological Sciences Western Michigan University Kalamazoo MI USA
| | - Mark E. Hauber
- Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Behavior School of Biological Sciences University of Illinois at Urbana‐Champaign Urbana IL USA
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30
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Bond ML, Lee DE, Farine DR, Ozgul A, König B. Sociability increases survival of adult female giraffes. Proc Biol Sci 2021; 288:20202770. [PMID: 33563118 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2020.2770] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Studies increasingly show that social connectedness plays a key role in determining survival, in addition to natural and anthropogenic environmental factors. Few studies, however, integrated social, non-social and demographic data to elucidate what components of an animal's socio-ecological environment are most important to their survival. Female giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis) form structured societies with highly dynamic group membership but stable long-term associations. We examined the relative contributions of sociability (relationship strength, gregariousness and betweenness), together with those of the natural (food sources and vegetation types) and anthropogenic environment (distance from human settlements), to adult female giraffe survival. We tested predictions about the influence of sociability and natural and human factors at two social levels: the individual and the social community. Survival was primarily driven by individual- rather than community-level social factors. Gregariousness (the number of other females each individual was observed with on average) was most important in explaining variation in female adult survival, more than other social traits and any natural or anthropogenic environmental factors. For adult female giraffes, grouping with more other females, even as group membership frequently changes, is correlated with better survival, and this sociability appears to be more important than several attributes of their non-social environment.
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Affiliation(s)
- M L Bond
- Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.,Wild Nature Institute, Concord, NH, USA
| | - D E Lee
- Wild Nature Institute, Concord, NH, USA.,Department of Biology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA
| | - D R Farine
- Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.,Department of Collective Behavior, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Konstanz, Germany.,Center for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany
| | - A Ozgul
- Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - B König
- Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
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31
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Günzel Y, McCollum J, Paoli M, Galizia CG, Petelski I, Couzin-Fuchs E. Social modulation of individual preferences in cockroaches. iScience 2021; 24:101964. [PMID: 33437942 PMCID: PMC7788088 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2020.101964] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/17/2020] [Revised: 09/24/2020] [Accepted: 12/15/2020] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
Abstract
In social species, decision-making is both influenced by, and in turn influences, the social context. This reciprocal feedback introduces coupling across scales, from the neural basis of sensing, to individual and collective decision-making. Here, we adopt an integrative approach investigating decision-making in dynamical social contexts. When choosing shelters, isolated cockroaches prefer vanillin-scented (food-associated) shelters over unscented ones, yet in groups, this preference is inverted. We demonstrate that this inversion can be replicated by replacing the full social context with social odors: presented alone food and social odors are attractive, yet when presented as a mixture they are avoided. Via antennal lobe calcium imaging, we show that neural activity in vanillin-responsive regions reduces as social odor concentration increases. Thus, we suggest that the mixture is evaluated as a distinct olfactory object with opposite valence, providing a mechanism that would naturally result in individuals avoiding what they perceive as recently exploited resources.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yannick Günzel
- Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, 78457 Konstanz, Germany
- Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour, University of Konstanz, 78464 Konstanz, Germany
- Department of Collective Behaviour, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, 78464 Konstanz, Germany
| | - Jaclyn McCollum
- Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, 78457 Konstanz, Germany
| | - Marco Paoli
- Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, 78457 Konstanz, Germany
- CNRS, Research Centre for Animal Cognition, 31062 Toulouse Cedex 9, France
| | - C. Giovanni Galizia
- Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, 78457 Konstanz, Germany
- Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour, University of Konstanz, 78464 Konstanz, Germany
| | - Inga Petelski
- Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, 78457 Konstanz, Germany
- Department of Collective Behaviour, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, 78464 Konstanz, Germany
| | - Einat Couzin-Fuchs
- Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, 78457 Konstanz, Germany
- Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour, University of Konstanz, 78464 Konstanz, Germany
- Department of Collective Behaviour, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, 78464 Konstanz, Germany
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32
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Tóth Z, Jaloveczki B, Tarján G. Diffusion of Social Information in Non-grouping Animals. Front Ecol Evol 2020. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2020.586058] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Recent findings indicate that the utilization of social information, produced inadvertently by other individuals through their spatial location and/or interaction with the environment, may be ubiquitous in the animal kingdom. If so, social information-mediated effects on population growth and interspecies interactions may be more prevalent than previously thought. However, little is known about how social information may spread among non-grouping individuals, i.e., in animals that do not form cohesive groups and therefore social attraction among group-mates does not facilitate information diffusion. Are there any perception-related, temporal, and/or spatial parameters that may facilitate or limit the spread of social information in temporary aggregations or among dispersed individuals in a population? We argue that living in cohesive groups is not necessarily required for the diffusion of social information and for social information-mediated effects to emerge in a population. We propose that while learning complex problem-solving techniques socially is less likely to occur in non-grouping animals, the spread of adaptive responses to social stimuli, especially to non-visual cues, can be common and may affect population, and/or community dynamics in a wide range of taxa. We also argue that network-based diffusion analysis could be a suitable analytical method for studying information diffusion in future investigations, providing comparable estimations of social effects on information spread to previous studies on group-living animals. We conclude that more studies are warranted to verify what intrinsic and extrinsic factors influence information propagation among incidentally and/or indirectly interacting individuals if we are to better understand the role of social information in animal populations and how the social and ecological characteristics of species are related to information spread in natural communities.
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Neophobia and social facilitation in narrow-striped mongooses. Anim Cogn 2020; 24:165-175. [PMID: 32955622 PMCID: PMC7829228 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-020-01429-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/17/2019] [Revised: 09/06/2020] [Accepted: 09/11/2020] [Indexed: 02/08/2023]
Abstract
Social learning is widespread in the animal kingdom, but individuals can differ in how they acquire and use social information. Personality traits, such as neophobia, may, for example, promote individual learning strategies. Here, we contribute comparative data on social learning strategies in carnivorans by examining whether narrow-striped mongooses (Mungotictis decemlineata), a group-living Malagasy euplerid, learn socially and whether neophobia influences social learning. To this end, we tested seven wild female groups with a two-option artificial feeding box, using a demonstrator–observer paradigm, and conducted novel object tests to assess neophobia. In five groups, one individual was trained as a demonstrator displaying one of the techniques, whereas the other two groups served as control groups. Neophobia did not co-vary with an individual’s propensity to seek social information. However, less neophobic individuals, and individuals that tended to seek social information, learned the task faster. Moreover, individuals in demonstrator groups learned the task faster than those in groups without a demonstrator and used the demonstrated technique more often. Hence, narrow-striped mongooses rely on social facilitation and local or stimulus enhancement to solve new problems. Finally, our results suggest that several individual characteristics should be taken into consideration to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of social learning strategies.
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34
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Berg EC, Eadie JM. An experimental test of information use by wood ducks (Aix sponsa): external habitat cues, not social visual cues, influence initial nest site selection. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2020. [DOI: 10.1007/s00265-020-02904-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
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35
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Tibbetts EA, Wong E, Bonello S. Wasps Use Social Eavesdropping to Learn about Individual Rivals. Curr Biol 2020; 30:3007-3010.e2. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.05.053] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/04/2020] [Revised: 04/01/2020] [Accepted: 05/14/2020] [Indexed: 01/05/2023]
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36
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Courbin N, Chinho T, Pichegru L, Verma-Grémillet A, Péron C, Ryan PG, Grémillet D. The dance of the Cape gannet may contain social information on foraging behaviour. Anim Behav 2020. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2020.06.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
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37
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Evans JC, Silk MJ, Boogert NJ, Hodgson DJ. Infected or informed? Social structure and the simultaneous transmission of information and infectious disease. OIKOS 2020. [DOI: 10.1111/oik.07148] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/06/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Julian C. Evans
- Dept of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, Univ. of Zurich Switzerland
| | - Matthew J. Silk
- Centre for Ecology and Conservation, Univ. of Exeter Penryn Campus UK
- Environment and Sustainability Inst., Univ. of Exeter Penryn Campus UK
| | | | - David J. Hodgson
- Centre for Ecology and Conservation, Univ. of Exeter Penryn Campus UK
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38
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Relative sexual attractiveness does not influence mate-choice copying in male Trinidadian guppies, Poecilia reticulata. Anim Behav 2020. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2020.02.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
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39
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Pendergraft LT, Lehnert AL, Marzluff JM. Individual and social factors affecting the ability of American crows to solve and master a string pulling task. Ethology 2020; 126:229-245. [PMID: 33776175 PMCID: PMC7996111 DOI: 10.1111/eth.12980] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/29/2019] [Accepted: 10/17/2019] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
Abstract
Crows and other birds in the family Corvidae regularly share information to learn the identity and whereabouts of dangerous predators, but can they use social learning to solve a novel task for a food reward? Here we examined the factors affecting the ability of 27 wild-caught American crows to solve a common string-pulling task in a laboratory setting. We split crows into two groups; one group was given the task after repeatedly observing a conspecific model the solution, the other solved in the absence of conspecific models. We recorded the crows' estimated age, sex, size, body condition, level of nervousness, and brain volume using DICOM images from a CT scan. Although none of these variables were statistically significant, crows without a conspecific model and large brain volumes consistently mastered the task in the minimum number of days, whereas those with conspecific models and smaller brain volumes required varying and sometimes a substantial number of days to master the task. We found indirect evidence that body condition might also be important for motivating crows to solve the task. Crows with conspecific models were no more likely to initially solve the task than those working the puzzle without social information, but those that mastered the task usually copied the method most frequently demonstrated by their knowledgeable neighbors. These findings suggest that brain volume and possibly body condition may be factors in learning new tasks, and that crows can use social learning to refine their ability to obtain a novel food source, although they must initially learn to access it themselves.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - John M. Marzluff
- University of Washington, School of Environmental and Forest Sciences
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40
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Carlson NV, Greene E, Templeton CN. Nuthatches vary their alarm calls based upon the source of the eavesdropped signals. Nat Commun 2020; 11:526. [PMID: 31988279 PMCID: PMC6985140 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-14414-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/15/2019] [Accepted: 01/03/2020] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Animal alarm calls can contain detailed information about a predator's threat, and heterospecific eavesdropping on these signals creates vast communication networks. While eavesdropping is common, this indirect public information is often less reliable than direct predator observations. Red-breasted nuthatches (Sitta canadensis) eavesdrop on chickadee mobbing calls and vary their behaviour depending on the threat encoded in those calls. Whether nuthatches propagate this indirect information in their own calls remains unknown. Here we test whether nuthatches propagate direct (high and low threat raptor vocalizations) or indirect (high and low threat chickadee mobbing calls) information about predators differently. When receiving direct information, nuthatches vary their mobbing calls to reflect the predator's threat. However, when nuthatches obtain indirect information, they produce calls with intermediate acoustic features, suggesting a more generic alarm signal. This suggests nuthatches are sensitive to the source and reliability of information and selectively propagate information in their own mobbing calls.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nora V Carlson
- Department of Collective Behaviour, University of Konstanz, Universitätsstraße 10, D-78457, Konstanz, Germany.
- Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour, University of Konstanz, Universitätsstraße 10, D-78457, Konstanz, Germany.
- Department of Collective Behaviour, Max Plank Institute for Ornithology, Am Obstberg 1, 78315, Radolfzell am Bodensee, Germany.
| | - Erick Greene
- Division of Biological Sciences and The Wildlife Biology Program, The University of Montana, Health Sciences 205, 32 Campus Drive, Missoula, MT, 59812, USA
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41
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Zendehrouh S, Ahmadabadi MN. Individually irrational pruning is essential for ecological rationality in a social context. Cogn Psychol 2020; 118:101272. [PMID: 31972429 DOI: 10.1016/j.cogpsych.2020.101272] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/31/2018] [Revised: 12/30/2019] [Accepted: 01/03/2020] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
Abstract
Heuristics, commonly thought to violate the full rationality assumptions, are paradoxically indispensable parts of our decision-making and learning processes. To resolve this seemingly paradox, there have been several studies in the literature that aim at finding some broad daily life conditions and situations where employing heuristics are rational. However, these researches mainly focus on non-social conditions, whereas, for human beings, social and individual processes are interwoven and it would be better to study them jointly. Here, we study the role of pruning heuristic in individual reinforcement learning in a social context, where our simulated learning agents make many of their decisions relying on others' knowledge. Our simulation results suggest that the seemingly irrational pruning heuristic leads to less cost in the social settings. That is, we have a meaningfully more social outcome in the presence of this heuristic in social contexts, and social learning helps the agents to learn better where the pruning heuristic is an obstacle in the way of finding the optimal solution in the individual setting. In sum, the synergy between the pruning behavior and social learning leads to ecological rationality.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sareh Zendehrouh
- School of Cognitive Sciences, Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences (IPM), Tehran, Iran.
| | - Majid Nili Ahmadabadi
- Cognitive Systems Lab., School of ECE, College of Eng., University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
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42
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Scott CE, McCann S, Andrade MCB. Male black widows parasitize mate-searching effort of rivals to find females faster. Proc Biol Sci 2019; 286:20191470. [PMID: 31362641 PMCID: PMC6710583 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2019.1470] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/21/2019] [Accepted: 07/08/2019] [Indexed: 01/09/2023] Open
Abstract
Mate-searching success is a critical precursor to mating, but there is a dearth of research on traits and tactics that confer a competitive advantage in finding potential mates. Theory and available empirical evidence suggest that males locate mates using mate-attraction signals produced by receptive females (personal information) and avoid inadvertently produced cues from rival males (social information) that indicate a female has probably already mated. Here, we show that western black widow males use both kinds of information to find females efficiently, parasitizing the searching effort of rivals in a way that guarantees competition over mating after reaching a female's web. This tactic may be adaptive because female receptivity is transient, and we show that (i) mate searching is risky (88% mortality) and (ii) a strongly male-biased operational sex ratio (from 1.2 : 1 to more than 10 : 1) makes competition inevitable. Males with access to rivals' silk trails moved at higher speeds than those with only personal information, and located females even when personal information was unreliable or absent. We show that following rivals can increase the potential for sexual selection on females as well as males and argue it may be more widespread in nature than is currently realized.
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Affiliation(s)
- Catherine E. Scott
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Toronto Scarborough, Scarborough, Ontario, Canada, M1C 1A4
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43
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Varela SAM, Teles MC, Oliveira RF. The correlated evolution of social competence and social cognition. Funct Ecol 2019. [DOI: 10.1111/1365-2435.13416] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Susana A. M. Varela
- Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência Oeiras Portugal
- ISPA‐Instituto Universitário Lisboa Portugal
| | - Magda C. Teles
- Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência Oeiras Portugal
- ISPA‐Instituto Universitário Lisboa Portugal
| | - Rui F. Oliveira
- Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência Oeiras Portugal
- ISPA‐Instituto Universitário Lisboa Portugal
- Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme Lisboa Portugal
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Barrett B, Zepeda E, Pollack L, Munson A, Sih A. Counter-Culture: Does Social Learning Help or Hinder Adaptive Response to Human-Induced Rapid Environmental Change? Front Ecol Evol 2019. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2019.00183] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
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45
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Heyman Y, Vilk Y, Feinerman O. Ants Use Multiple Spatial Memories and Chemical Pointers to Navigate Their Nest. iScience 2019; 14:264-276. [PMID: 31005661 PMCID: PMC6476803 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2019.04.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/22/2018] [Revised: 01/23/2019] [Accepted: 04/01/2019] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
Animal navigation relies on the available environmental cues and, where present, visual cues typically dominate. While much is known about vision-assisted navigation, knowledge of navigation in the dark is scarce. Here, we combine individual tracking, dynamic modular nest structures, and spatially resolved chemical profiling to study how Camponotus fellah ants navigate within the dark labyrinth of their nest. We find that, contrary to ant navigation above ground, underground navigation cannot rely on long-range information. This limitation emphasizes the ants' capabilities associated with other navigational strategies. Indeed, apart from gravity, underground navigation relies on self-referenced memories of multiple locations and on socially generated chemical cues placed at decision points away from the target. Moreover, the ants quickly readjust the weights attributed to these information sources in response to environmental changes. Generally, studying well-known behaviors in a variety of environmental contexts holds the potential of revealing new insights into animal cognition. We combine multiple technologies to study how ants navigate within their dark nest Ants substitute visual cues with gravity, chemical cues, and multi-target memories Following a catastrophe, ants quickly readjust the relative importance of cues
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Affiliation(s)
- Yael Heyman
- Department of Physics of Complex Systems, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 7610001, Israel
| | - Yael Vilk
- Department of Physics of Complex Systems, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 7610001, Israel
| | - Ofer Feinerman
- Department of Physics of Complex Systems, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 7610001, Israel.
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46
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Steele EP, Laidre ME. Leaf me alone: visual constraints on the ecology of social group formation. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2019. [DOI: 10.1007/s00265-019-2662-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/15/2023]
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47
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Specificity and flexibility of social influence on spatial choice. Learn Behav 2019; 47:47-58. [DOI: 10.3758/s13420-018-0322-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
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48
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Jacquet PO, Safra L, Wyart V, Baumard N, Chevallier C. The ecological roots of human susceptibility to social influence: a pre-registered study investigating the impact of early-life adversity. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2019; 6:180454. [PMID: 30800337 PMCID: PMC6366227 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.180454] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/20/2018] [Accepted: 11/28/2018] [Indexed: 05/12/2023]
Abstract
There is considerable variability in the degree to which individuals rely on their peers to make decisions. Although theoretical models predict that environmental risks shift the cost-benefit trade-off associated with social information use, this idea has received little empirical support. Here we aim to test the effect of childhood environmental adversity on humans' susceptibility to follow others' opinion in the context of a standard face evaluation task. Results collected in a pilot study involving 121 adult participants tested online showed that susceptibility to social influence and childhood environmental adversity are positively associated. Computational analyses further confirmed that this effect is not explained by the fact that participants exposed to early adversity produce noisier decisions overall but that they are indeed more likely to follow the group's opinion. To test the robustness of these findings, a pre-registered direct replication using an optimal sample size was run. The results obtained from 262 participants in the pre-registered study did not reveal a significant association between childhood adversity and task performance but the meta-analysis ran on both the pilot and the pre-registered study replicated the initial finding. This work provides experimental evidence for an association between individuals' past ecology and their susceptibility to social influence.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pierre O. Jacquet
- Laboratoire de neurosciences cognitives, Département d’études cognitives, École normale supérieure, INSERM, PSL Research University, 75005 Paris, France
- Institut Jean Nicod, Département d’études cognitives, ENS, EHESS, CNRS, PSL Research University, 75005 Paris, France
| | - Lou Safra
- Laboratoire de neurosciences cognitives, Département d’études cognitives, École normale supérieure, INSERM, PSL Research University, 75005 Paris, France
| | - Valentin Wyart
- Laboratoire de neurosciences cognitives, Département d’études cognitives, École normale supérieure, INSERM, PSL Research University, 75005 Paris, France
| | - Nicolas Baumard
- Institut Jean Nicod, Département d’études cognitives, ENS, EHESS, CNRS, PSL Research University, 75005 Paris, France
| | - Coralie Chevallier
- Laboratoire de neurosciences cognitives, Département d’études cognitives, École normale supérieure, INSERM, PSL Research University, 75005 Paris, France
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49
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Truskanov N, Shy R, Lotem A. Context-specific learning and its implications for social learning. Behav Ecol 2018. [DOI: 10.1093/beheco/ary078] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Noa Truskanov
- School of Zoology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel
| | - Rimon Shy
- School of Zoology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel
| | - Arnon Lotem
- School of Zoology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel
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50
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Jacquet PO, Wyart V, Desantis A, Hsu YF, Granjon L, Sergent C, Waszak F. Human susceptibility to social influence and its neural correlates are related to perceived vulnerability to extrinsic morbidity risks. Sci Rep 2018; 8:13347. [PMID: 30190581 PMCID: PMC6127093 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-31619-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/13/2018] [Accepted: 08/10/2018] [Indexed: 01/19/2023] Open
Abstract
Humans considerably vary in the degree to which they rely on their peers to make decisions. Why? Theoretical models predict that environmental risks shift the cost-benefit trade-off associated with the exploitation of others' behaviours (public information), yet this idea has received little empirical support. Using computational analyses of behaviour and multivariate decoding of electroencephalographic activity, we test the hypothesis that perceived vulnerability to extrinsic morbidity risks impacts susceptibility to social influence, and investigate whether and how this covariation is reflected in the brain. Data collected from 261 participants tested online revealed that perceived vulnerability to extrinsic morbidity risks is positively associated with susceptibility to follow peers' opinion in the context of a standard face evaluation task. We found similar results on 17 participants tested in the laboratory, and showed that the sensitivity of EEG signals to public information correlates with the participants' degree of vulnerability. We further demonstrated that the combination of perceived vulnerability to extrinsic morbidity with decoding sensitivities better predicted social influence scores than each variable taken in isolation. These findings suggest that susceptibility to social influence is partly calibrated by perceived environmental risks, possibly via a tuning of neural mechanisms involved in the processing of public information.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pierre O Jacquet
- Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives (LNC), Département d'Etudes Cognitives, INSERM U960, Ecole Normale Supérieure, PSL Research University, F-75005, Paris, France.
- Institut Jean Nicod, Département d'Etudes Cognitives, CNRS UMR8129, Ecole Normale Supérieure, PSL Research University, F-75005, Paris, France.
- Université Paris Descartes, Sorbonne Paris Cité, 75006, Paris, France.
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Laboratoire Psychologie de la Perception, UMR 8242, 75006, Paris, France.
| | - Valentin Wyart
- Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives (LNC), Département d'Etudes Cognitives, INSERM U960, Ecole Normale Supérieure, PSL Research University, F-75005, Paris, France
| | - Andrea Desantis
- Université Paris Descartes, Sorbonne Paris Cité, 75006, Paris, France
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Laboratoire Psychologie de la Perception, UMR 8242, 75006, Paris, France
- Département Traitement de l'Information et Systèmes, ONERA, Salon-de-Provence, France
| | - Yi-Fang Hsu
- Université Paris Descartes, Sorbonne Paris Cité, 75006, Paris, France
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Laboratoire Psychologie de la Perception, UMR 8242, 75006, Paris, France
- Department of Educational Psychology and Counselling, National Taiwan Normal University, 10610, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Lionel Granjon
- Université Paris Descartes, Sorbonne Paris Cité, 75006, Paris, France
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Laboratoire Psychologie de la Perception, UMR 8242, 75006, Paris, France
| | - Claire Sergent
- Université Paris Descartes, Sorbonne Paris Cité, 75006, Paris, France
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Laboratoire Psychologie de la Perception, UMR 8242, 75006, Paris, France
| | - Florian Waszak
- Université Paris Descartes, Sorbonne Paris Cité, 75006, Paris, France
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Laboratoire Psychologie de la Perception, UMR 8242, 75006, Paris, France
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