Fast and accurate decisions through collective vigilance in fish shoals
Fast and accurate decisions through collective vigilance in fish shoals
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DOI：
10.1073/pnas.1007102108
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发表时间：
2011-02-08
影响因子：
11.1
通讯作者：
Krause, Jens
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Ward, Ashley J. W.;Herbert-Read, James E.;Krause, Jens
虽然有人认为大型动物群体应该比小型动物群体做出更好的决策，但很少有实证证明这种现象，更少有解释这些改进是如何实现的。在这里，我们表明，速度和准确性的决策增加与组的大小在鱼群捕食威胁。我们研究了两个合理的机制，这种改善：第一，该集团是由一小部分高质量的决策者，第二，该集团成员使用自组织的分工警惕。对个体的重复测试表明，没有证据表明个体之间存在不同的决策能力。相反，我们认为，鱼群实现更大的决策效率，通过劳动分工结合社会信息传递。我们的研究结果应该促使我们重新考虑如何看待具有流动成员的动物群体的合作。
Although it has been suggested that large animal groups should make better decisions than smaller groups, there are few empirical demonstrations of this phenomenon and still fewer explanations of the how these improvements may be made. Here we show that both speed and accuracy of decision making increase with group size in fish shoals under predation threat. We examined two plausible mechanisms for this improvement: first, that groups are guided by a small proportion of high-quality decision makers and, second, that group members use self-organized division of vigilance. Repeated testing of individuals showed no evidence of different decision-making abilities between individual fish. Instead, we suggest that shoals achieve greater decision-making efficiencies through division of labor combined with social information transfer. Our results should prompt reconsideration of how we view cooperation in animal groups with fluid membership.