A social insect perspective on the evolution of social learning mechanisms

Leadbeater, Ellouise; Dawson, Erika H.

doi:10.1073/pnas.1620744114

Cited by 58 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 88 publications

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“…But given the evolutionary argument above, the demonstration need not imply that these associative learning mechanisms did not evolve beyond their basic state (see also ref. 47). Indeed, the argument suggests that associative learning mechanisms are the building blocks of cognitive evolution, and are finely tuned to serve new social, cultural, and other advanced functions (48).…”

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confidence: 99%

The evolution of cognitive mechanisms in response to cultural innovations

Lotem

Halpern

Edelman

et al. 2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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When humans and other animals make cultural innovations, they also change their environment, thereby imposing new selective pressures that can modify their biological traits. For example, there is evidence that dairy farming by humans favored alleles for adult lactose tolerance. Similarly, the invention of cooking possibly affected the evolution of jaw and tooth morphology. However, when it comes to cognitive traits and learning mechanisms, it is much more difficult to determine whether and how their evolution was affected by culture or by their use in cultural transmission. Here we argue that, excluding very recent cultural innovations, the assumption that culture shaped the evolution of cognition is both more parsimonious and more productive than assuming the opposite. In considering how culture shapes cognition, we suggest that a process-level model of cognitive evolution is necessary and offer such a model. The model employs relatively simple coevolving mechanisms of learning and data acquisition that jointly construct a complex network of a type previously shown to be capable of supporting a range of cognitive abilities. The evolution of cognition, and thus the effect of culture on cognitive evolution, is captured through small modifications of these coevolving learning and data-acquisition mechanisms, whose coordinated action is critical for building an effective network. We use the model to show how these mechanisms are likely to evolve in response to cultural phenomena, such as language and tool-making, which are associated with major changes in data patterns and with new computational and statistical challenges.tool-making | language evolution | niche construction | cognitive evolution | social learning A n open question in the study of culture and cognitive evolution is whether (and to what extent) cognitive mechanisms, especially those viewed as advanced or sophisticated, evolved in response to social-learning challenges or are merely the product of domain-general mechanisms (1-3). According to one view-still widely held in cognitive science and evolutionary psychology-cognitive adaptations take the form of specialized brain modules (or neuronal mechanisms) that evolved for specific, often social purposes, such as "imitation" (4, 5), "mind reading" (6, 7), "cheating detection" (8), or most famously, language acquisition (9, 10). These ideas have been criticized on theoretical and empirical grounds (11,12), and the debate around them demonstrates our limited understanding of the evolution of cognition, its relationship to the evolution of social behavior and, in some organisms, culture.The question of whether culture and social behavior shape the evolution of the brain is, in our view, best considered using the evolutionary framework of niche construction (13-16): that is, culture and social behavior change the ecological niche to which cognitive traits must adapt in the same manner that nest-building by birds changes the ecological niche in which their nestlings evolve. For example, animals' ability t...

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confidence: 99%

The evolution of cognitive mechanisms in response to cultural innovations

Lotem

Halpern

Edelman

et al. 2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…Hundreds of laboratory experimental studies have demonstrated social learning and transmission in a wide variety of animals. Social learning is now extensively documented in mammals (29), with a particular intensity of research studies in primates (30)(31)(32)(33) and cetaceans (34)(35)(36)(37), in birds (38)(39)(40)(41), in fish (42), and in insects (43,44). The fact that social learning has been shown to play important roles spanning multiple functional contexts (25)(26)(27)(28) suggests that many animals are not simply acquiring one or a few behavioral patterns socially, but rather that social learning is central to their acquisition of adaptive behavior.…”

Section: The Discovery Of Widespread Animal Culturementioning

confidence: 99%

The extension of biology through culture

Whiten

Ayala

Feldman

et al. 2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

120

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“…Strategic information use is critical to the success of many animals. Animals must, for example, decide whether to explore new options, exploit the knowledge they already have, or use information gleaned from or sent by other animals about potential options [1–3]. Two important classes of information for animals are private information and social information.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Social insects, such as ants and bees, offer an unique system in which to study information use strategies [1,3], as social information use is likely to be very well developed in this group. More fundamentally, however, in many aspects of information use by social insects no conflict is expected within a colony.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Copy when uncertain: Lower light levels result in higher trail pheromone deposition and stronger reliance on pheromone trails in the ant Lasius niger

Jones

Czaczkes

Gallager

et al. 2018

Preprint

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Animals may gather information from multiple sources, and these information sources may conflict. Theory predicts that, all else being equal, reliance on a particular information source will depend on its information content relative to other sources. Information conflicts are a good area in which to test such predictions. Social insects, such as ants, make extensive use of both private information (e.g. visual route memories) and social information (e.g. pheromone trails) when attempting to locate a food source. Importantly, eusocial insects collaborate on food retrieval, so both information use and information provision may be expected to vary with the information content of alternative information sources. Many ants, such as Lasius niger, are active both day and night. Variation in light levels represents an ecologically important change in the information content of visually-acquired route information. Here, we examine information use and information provision under high light levels (3200 lux), moderate light levels simulating dusk (10 lux) and darkness (0.007 lux). Ants fail to learn the location of a food source in darkness. As light levels decrease, ants show decreasing reliance on private visual information, and increasing pheromone trail following, consistent with a ‘copy when uncertain’ strategy. In moderate light levels and darkness, pheromone deposition increases, presumably to compensate for the low information content of visual information. Varying light levels for cathemeral animals provides a powerful and ecologically meaningful method for examining information use and provision under varying levels of information content.

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A social insect perspective on the evolution of social learning mechanisms

Cited by 58 publications

References 88 publications

The evolution of cognitive mechanisms in response to cultural innovations

The evolution of cognitive mechanisms in response to cultural innovations

The extension of biology through culture

Copy when uncertain: Lower light levels result in higher trail pheromone deposition and stronger reliance on pheromone trails in the ant Lasius niger

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