Many animals are capable of learning from others, a process referred to as social learning. There is little doubt that a capacity for social learning is an adaptation and that it typically results in adaptive behavior. What is less clear is whether there are circumstances under which social learning can result in the transmission of outdated, inappropriate, or maladaptive information. Here we report an experimental study that investigated the social learning and transmission of maladaptive foraging information through small social groups of guppies, Poedtia rtticulata. This experiment used a transmission chain design in which fish in small founder groups were trained to take either an energetically costly circuitous route to a feeder or a less costly short route, with trained founder members gradually replaced by untrained conspecifics. Three days after all the founders had been removed, the behavioral traditions of groups of untrained fish were still strongly influenced by their founder's behavior. Moreover, the rate at which untrained subjects that shoaled with founder conspecifics trained to take the long route learned to take the short route was significantly slower than for fish foraging alone. The results provide unequivocal evidence that maladaptive information can be socially transmitted through animal populations and imply that socially learned information can inhibit learning of the optimal behavior pattern. There is little doubt that the ability to learn from others is an important adaptation that allows many animals to acquire information concerning foods, predators, and mates at low cost (Bateson, 1988;Giraldeau, 1997; Ploddn, 1988). By learning from others, animal* can avoid potentially hazardous learning trials and reduce time spent on exploration (Galef, 1995). There is also little doubt that social learning generates adaptive behavior (Galef, 1995), and much work in die field has been dedicated to understanding die role of social interactions in the development of patterns of behavior that enhance the fitness of free-living animals (Galef, 1996; Giraldeau, 1997). Socially learned behavior patterns may be subjected to fitness trade-offs in exactly die same manner that behavior patterns are acquired through other processes (Stephens and Krebs, 1986), but diere is no reason to believe that the behavioral expression of acquired information is less likely What is less dear is whether social learning processes in anfma1« can result in die transmission of maladaptive information through a population, that is, information, expressed in behavior, that reduces die fitness of die learner relative to an alternative behavior pattern and that leads to suboptimal behavioral traditions. That social learning processes can result in die transmission of maladaptive information is a conclusion common to several theoretical models that explore die adaptive value of learning from others (Boyd and Richerson, 1985; Feldman et al., 1996; Laland et aL, 1996). Such analyses have reached a consensus that social learning is...
Autism is characterized by an uneven profile of cognitive abilities and population studies show that approximately 10 percent of diagnosed individuals possess a skill that is significantly better than would be predicted by global IQ. Recent evidence suggests that individuals with autism who possess special skills may represent a distinct genetic group within the autism spectrum. Intellectually high- and low-functioning children and adolescents with autism, together with age- and intelligence-matched comparison participants, completed two experiments that tested pitch discrimination and pitch memory within a visuo-spatial format. The analysis of the data from the studies showed that a subgroup of individuals with autism achieved performance scores that were between four and five standard deviations above the mean for the groups. Unlike comparison participants, their performance appeared to be independent of intelligence, musical training and experience. The findings were interpreted within the context of neuroconstructivist models of typical development and delayed language acquisition characteristic of autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders.
Children with autism experience difficulties in understanding social affective cues, and it has been suggested that such deficits will generalize to music. In order to investigate this proposal, typically developing individuals and children with autism and Down syndrome were compared on tasks measuring perception of affective and movement states in music. The results showed that discrimination performance on both experimental conditions depended on chronological or verbal mental age rather than diagnosis. The findings suggest that emotion‐processing deficits in the social domain do not generalize to music, and that musical understanding is closely related to the level of language development.
Creative activities have been used as a therapeutic tool since the inception of occupational therapy. The role of creative activities has varied over time due to the changing focus of treatment in favour of kinesiological, neurological and psychodynamic approaches (Perrin 2001). Although the literature reflects a resurgence of interest in creative activities and occupation (Harris 2008), few studies address their value in physical rehabilitation today.Rehabilitation is a process 'intended to enable people with disabilities to reach and maintain optimal physical, sensory, intellectual, psychological and /or social function' (World Health Organisation 2009). To locate studies on the use of art in rehabilitation, the Medline, Psychlit and CINAHL databases were searched using the following key terms: art as therapy, physical rehabilitation, chronic illness and creativity. Further terms were searched in relation to themes during the data analysis process, such as self-esteem and time use.Aims: The aims of this study were to understand the experience of participation in visual art from the perspective of adults undergoing outpatient physical rehabilitation and to determine whether art has a place in this context.Method: This qualitative study involved interviewing adults who attended a weekly art class run by a qualified art teacher and occupational therapists in an outpatient physical rehabilitation setting. Nine participants with neurological conditions discussed their experience of the programme and the goals they were working towards or had achieved through painting.Findings: The themes that emerged from the study show that art contributed to the participants meeting their individual rehabilitation goals. It also assisted the participants in using time, increasing enjoyment, regaining confidence and planning for engagement in future activities. All these achievements were seen by the participants to contribute to their rehabilitation or recovery. The identified themes align with the aims of rehabilitation and are similar to findings from many other studies investigating the use of art by people affected by illness or disability.Conclusion: The findings of this study inform clinical practice in the use of visual art with clients in rehabilitation and validate its place in a physical rehabilitation programme.
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