| Associative Mechanisms Allow for Social Learning and Cultural Transmission of String Pulling in an Insect | |
| Alem, Sylvain; Perry, Clint J.; Zhu, Xingfu; et al | |
| 2016 | |
| Source Publication | PLOS BIOLOGY
 |
| Volume | 14Issue:10Pages:e1002564 |
| Abstract | Social insects make elaborate use of simple mechanisms to achieve seemingly complex behavior and may thus provide a unique resource to discover the basic cognitive elements required for culture, i.e., group-specific behaviors that spread from "innovators" to others in the group via social learning. We first explored whether bumblebees can learn a nonnatural object manipulation task by using string pulling to access a reward that was presented out of reach. Only a small minority "innovated" and solved the task spontaneously, but most bees were able to learn to pull a string when trained in a stepwise manner. In addition, naive bees learnt the task by observing a trained demonstrator from a distance. Learning the behavior relied on a combination of simple associative mechanisms and trial-and-error learning and did not require "insight" : naive bees failed a "coiled-string experiment," in which they did not receive instant visual feedback of the target moving closer when tugging on the string. In cultural diffusion experiments, the skill spread rapidly from a single knowledgeable individual to the majority of a colony's foragers. We observed that there were several sequential sets ("generations") of learners, so that previously naive observers could first acquire the technique by interacting with skilled individuals and, subsequently, themselves become demonstrators for the next "generation" of learners, so that the longevity of the skill in the population could outlast the lives of informed foragers. This suggests that, so long as animals have a basic toolkit of associative and motor learning processes, the key ingredients for the cultural spread of unusual skills are already in place and do not require sophisticated cognition. |
| Keyword | Animal Cultures Evolution Traditions Diffusion Cognition Bees Intelligence Bumblebees Networks Whales |
| Language | 英语 |
| Document Type | 期刊论文 |
| Identifier | https://ir.xtbg.ac.cn/handle/353005/10099 |
| Collection | 植物进化生态研究组 |
| Recommended Citation GB/T 7714 | Alem, Sylvain,Perry, Clint J.,Zhu, Xingfu,et al. Associative Mechanisms Allow for Social Learning and Cultural Transmission of String Pulling in an Insect[J]. PLOS BIOLOGY,2016,14(10):e1002564. |
| APA | Alem, Sylvain,Perry, Clint J.,Zhu, Xingfu,&et al.(2016).Associative Mechanisms Allow for Social Learning and Cultural Transmission of String Pulling in an Insect.PLOS BIOLOGY,14(10),e1002564. |
| MLA | Alem, Sylvain,et al."Associative Mechanisms Allow for Social Learning and Cultural Transmission of String Pulling in an Insect".PLOS BIOLOGY 14.10(2016):e1002564. |
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