Age-dependent social learning in a lizard

Noble, Daniel W. A.; Byrne, Richard W.; Whiting, Martin J.

doi:10.1098/rsbl.2014.0430

Cited by 71 publications

(80 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…These results, combined with several recent studies on nonsocial species, are challenging the notion that social learning evolves only in species that are highly gregarious (Fiorito & Scotto 1992;Wilkinson et al 2010;Noble et al 2014). One potential reason for this discrepancy may be related to life-history variation in sociality.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 64%

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A Test of Local Enhancement in Amphibians

et al. 2014

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Local enhancement is an underexplored social learning mechanism that is often observed in organisms that live in groups. This mechanism occurs when individuals are attracted to areas where conspecifics have previously been, but which are not present when the animal actually moves into the area. We tested for local enhancement in wood frog tadpoles (Lithobates sylvatica) and spotted salamander larvae (Ambystoma maculatum) in three experiments that exposed individuals to one side of a test chamber which was empty and another that contained a group of three conspecifics. Side preference of the focal individual was recorded once the conspecifics were removed. Tadpoles showed a clear preference for moving to areas where a group of tadpoles had previously been located. Conversely, this preference was not observed in salamander larvae. In addition, salamander larvae took significantly more time to initially choose a side. These results indicate that tadpoles exhibit local enhancement, whereas aquatic salamander larvae do not. This difference in social learning could be largely due to differences in aquatic ecology between tadpoles and salamander larvae.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 64%

“…; Noble et al. ). One potential reason for this discrepancy may be related to life‐history variation in sociality.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

A Test of Local Enhancement in Amphibians

et al. 2014

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“…Therefore, it is possible that social learning in the jays may not have developed by this early stage. However, this is unlikely given that juveniles in other relatively asocial species exhibited social learning whereas adults did not (Lupfer, Frieman & Coonfield, 2003; Noble, Byrne & Whiting, 2014). To our knowledge, no corvid studies have compared juvenile and adult social information use.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Outside of corvids, social learning in the form of copying conspecifics has been found in a number of asocial species including red-footed tortoises ( Geochelone carbonaria ; Wilkinson et al, 2010), black river stingrays ( Potamotrygon falkneri ; Thonhauser et al, 2013; Garrone Neto & Uieda, 2012), bearded dragons ( Pogona vitticeps ; Kis, Huber & Wilkinson, 2014), and in juvenile, but not adult, golden hamsters ( Mesocricetus auratus ; Lupfer, Frieman & Coonfield, 2003) and eastern water skinks ( Eulamprus quoyii ; Noble, Byrne & Whiting, 2014). These non-corvid species are likely to have had asocial ancestors, which suggests that social cues are not costly to attend to and can evolve outside of a social context in these taxa.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Eurasian jays do not copy the choices of conspecifics, but they do show evidence of stimulus enhancement

Miller

Logan

Lister

et al. 2016

PeerJ

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Corvids (birds in the crow family) are hypothesised to have a general cognitive tool-kit because they show a wide range of transferrable skills across social, physical and temporal tasks, despite differences in socioecology. However, it is unknown whether relatively asocial corvids differ from social corvids in their use of social information in the context of copying the choices of others, because only one such test has been conducted in a relatively asocial corvid. We investigated whether relatively asocial Eurasian jays (Garrulus glandarius) use social information (i.e., information made available by others). Previous studies have indicated that jays attend to social context in their caching and mate provisioning behaviour; however, it is unknown whether jays copy the choices of others. We tested the jays in two different tasks varying in difficulty, where social corvid species have demonstrated social information use in both tasks. Firstly, an object-dropping task was conducted requiring objects to be dropped down a tube to release a food reward from a collapsible platform, which corvids can learn through explicit training. Only one rook and one New Caledonian crow have learned the task using social information from a demonstrator. Secondly, we tested the birds on a simple colour discrimination task, which should be easy to solve, because it has been shown that corvids can make colour discriminations. Using the same colour discrimination task in a previous study, all common ravens and carrion crows copied the demonstrator. After observing a conspecific demonstrator, none of the jays solved the object-dropping task, though all jays were subsequently able to learn to solve the task in a non-social situation through explicit training, and jays chose the demonstrated colour at chance levels. Our results suggest that social and relatively asocial corvids differ in social information use, indicating that relatively asocial species may have secondarily lost this ability due to lack of selection pressure from an asocial environment.

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“…However, this is unlikely given that juveniles in other relatively asocial species exhibited social learning whereas adults did not (Lupfer, Frieman & Coonfield 2003;Noble, Byrne & Whiting 2014). To our knowledge, no corvid studies have compared juvenile and adult social information use.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

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Supplemental Information 1: Raw Data for the Number of Object Insertions Needed to Solve the Task

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crow family) are hypothesised to have a general cognitive tool-kit because they show a wide range of transferrable skills across social, physical and temporal tasks, despite differences in socioecology. However, it is unknown whether relatively asocial corvids differ from social corvids in their use of social information in the context of copying the choices of others, because only one such test has been conducted in a relatively asocial corvid. We investigated whether relatively asocial Eurasian jays (Garrulus glandarius) use social information (i.e., information made available by others). Previous studies have indicated that jays attend to social context in their caching and mate provisioning behaviour; however, it is unknown whether jays copy the choices of others. We tested the jays in two different tasks varying in difficulty, where social corvid species have demonstrated social information use in both tasks. Firstly, an object-dropping task was conducted requiring objects to be dropped down a tube to release a food reward from a collapsible platform, which corvids can learn through explicit training. Only one rook and one New Caledonian crow have learned the task using social information from a demonstrator. Secondly, we tested the birds on a simple colour discrimination task, which should be easy to solve, because it has been shown that corvids can make colour discriminations. Using the same colour discrimination task in a previous study, all common ravens and carrion crows copied the demonstrator. After observing a conspecific demonstrator, none of the jays solved the object-dropping task, though all jays were subsequently able to learn to solve the task in a non-social situation through explicit training, and jays chose the demonstrated colour at chance levels. Our results suggest that social and relatively asocial corvids differ in social information use, indicating that relatively asocial species may have secondarily lost this ability due to lack of selection pressure from an asocial environment.

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Age-dependent social learning in a lizard

Cited by 71 publications

References 11 publications

A Test of Local Enhancement in Amphibians

A Test of Local Enhancement in Amphibians

Eurasian jays do not copy the choices of conspecifics, but they do show evidence of stimulus enhancement

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