The influence of task difficulty, social tolerance and model success on social learning in Barbary macaques
Abstract Despite playing a pivotal role in the inception of animal culture studies, macaque social learning is surprisingly understudied. Social learning is important to survival and influenced by dominance and affiliation in social animals. Individuals generally rely on social learning when individ...
| Main Authors: | , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Nature Portfolio
2023-01-01
|
| Series: | Scientific Reports |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-26699-6 |
| _version_ | 1797945981519527936 |
|---|---|
| author | Ivan Garcia-Nisa Cara Evans Rachel L. Kendal |
| author_facet | Ivan Garcia-Nisa Cara Evans Rachel L. Kendal |
| author_sort | Ivan Garcia-Nisa |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Despite playing a pivotal role in the inception of animal culture studies, macaque social learning is surprisingly understudied. Social learning is important to survival and influenced by dominance and affiliation in social animals. Individuals generally rely on social learning when individual learning is costly, and selectively use social learning strategies influencing what is learned and from whom. Here, we combined social learning experiments, using extractive foraging tasks, with network-based diffusion analysis (using various social relationships) to investigate the transmission of social information in free-ranging Barbary macaques. We also investigated the influence of task difficulty on reliance on social information and evidence for social learning strategies. Social learning was detected for the most difficult tasks only, with huddling relations outside task introductions, and observation networks during task introductions, predicting social transmission. For the most difficult task only, individuals appeared to employ a social learning strategy of copying the most successful demonstrator observed. Results indicate that high social tolerance represents social learning opportunities and influences social learning processes. The reliance of Barbary macaques on social learning, and cues of model-success supports the costly information hypothesis. Our study provides more statistical evidence to the previous claims indicative of culture in macaques. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-10T21:03:40Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-d6c800e4b3ab4e3f934cbe9242b90ac9 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2045-2322 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-10T21:03:40Z |
| publishDate | 2023-01-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Scientific Reports |
| spelling | doaj.art-d6c800e4b3ab4e3f934cbe9242b90ac92023-01-22T12:11:03ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222023-01-0113111410.1038/s41598-022-26699-6The influence of task difficulty, social tolerance and model success on social learning in Barbary macaquesIvan Garcia-Nisa0Cara Evans1Rachel L. Kendal2Durham Cultural Evolution Research Centre, Department of Anthropology, Durham UniversityDurham Cultural Evolution Research Centre, Department of Anthropology, Durham UniversityDurham Cultural Evolution Research Centre, Department of Anthropology, Durham UniversityAbstract Despite playing a pivotal role in the inception of animal culture studies, macaque social learning is surprisingly understudied. Social learning is important to survival and influenced by dominance and affiliation in social animals. Individuals generally rely on social learning when individual learning is costly, and selectively use social learning strategies influencing what is learned and from whom. Here, we combined social learning experiments, using extractive foraging tasks, with network-based diffusion analysis (using various social relationships) to investigate the transmission of social information in free-ranging Barbary macaques. We also investigated the influence of task difficulty on reliance on social information and evidence for social learning strategies. Social learning was detected for the most difficult tasks only, with huddling relations outside task introductions, and observation networks during task introductions, predicting social transmission. For the most difficult task only, individuals appeared to employ a social learning strategy of copying the most successful demonstrator observed. Results indicate that high social tolerance represents social learning opportunities and influences social learning processes. The reliance of Barbary macaques on social learning, and cues of model-success supports the costly information hypothesis. Our study provides more statistical evidence to the previous claims indicative of culture in macaques.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-26699-6 |
| spellingShingle | Ivan Garcia-Nisa Cara Evans Rachel L. Kendal The influence of task difficulty, social tolerance and model success on social learning in Barbary macaques Scientific Reports |
| title | The influence of task difficulty, social tolerance and model success on social learning in Barbary macaques |
| title_full | The influence of task difficulty, social tolerance and model success on social learning in Barbary macaques |
| title_fullStr | The influence of task difficulty, social tolerance and model success on social learning in Barbary macaques |
| title_full_unstemmed | The influence of task difficulty, social tolerance and model success on social learning in Barbary macaques |
| title_short | The influence of task difficulty, social tolerance and model success on social learning in Barbary macaques |
| title_sort | influence of task difficulty social tolerance and model success on social learning in barbary macaques |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-26699-6 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT ivangarcianisa theinfluenceoftaskdifficultysocialtoleranceandmodelsuccessonsociallearninginbarbarymacaques AT caraevans theinfluenceoftaskdifficultysocialtoleranceandmodelsuccessonsociallearninginbarbarymacaques AT rachellkendal theinfluenceoftaskdifficultysocialtoleranceandmodelsuccessonsociallearninginbarbarymacaques AT ivangarcianisa influenceoftaskdifficultysocialtoleranceandmodelsuccessonsociallearninginbarbarymacaques AT caraevans influenceoftaskdifficultysocialtoleranceandmodelsuccessonsociallearninginbarbarymacaques AT rachellkendal influenceoftaskdifficultysocialtoleranceandmodelsuccessonsociallearninginbarbarymacaques |