Quantifying and modelling social learning processes in monkey populations
Year: 2007
Type: article
Abstract: Putative traditions in animal populations remain unsubstantiated in the absence of methods\nto isolate the mechanisms of social transmission in social groups. Here we address this\nproblem by quantifying the effect of two social learning processes, namely stimulus\nenhancement and observational learning, on the adoption of a novel extractive foraging\nbehavior in groups of callitrichid monkeys. We simulate the effect of these processes in\na model for the spread of a novel behaviour and also select which model-parameters\nprovide the best fit to the monkey data. Our analysis reveals evidence for asocial processes\nand stimulus enhancement but not observational learning. The latency to solve the tasks\nco-varied with the strength of the asocial, but not social, processes. Further, only asocial\nparameters were required for the model to fit the data. Both model and monkey diffusion\ndata exhibited deceleratory diffusion curves. We discuss the relationship between both the\nasocial and social processes and the diffusion dynamics.
Language: Spanish
Topic: Primate Behavior and Ecology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1558916418