The cognitive ecology of animal construction behaviour: Individual differences in asocial and social learning

通过观察他人来学习的能力，被称为社会学习，使动物（包括人类）能够学习如何解决问题，而无需进行耗时的试错学习。社会学习被认为是形成和维持文化传统的基石。在学习吃什么食物、与谁交配、唱什么歌以及避开谁的过程中，我们对动物与环境的物理特征（物理认知）互动和操纵时社会学习所起的作用知之甚少。动物身体认知的一个例子是工具的使用，受到了很多关注，尽管很少有动物会有这种行为，通过观察其他动物来学习工具的动物就更少了。在这里，我提出了一个新的系统来研究关于物理问题的信息是如何通过社会学习的：鸟类的筑巢。长期以来，我们一直被鸟类筑巢的美丽和多样性所吸引。对这些鸟来说，建造正确的鸟巢是它们繁殖成功的关键：如果筑巢正确，它们就有机会孵出幼鸟，如果筑巢错误，它们肯定会失败。尽管巢很重要，但我们仍然不知道鸟是如何知道筑巢的。几乎每只鸟都会建造某种类型的巢来产卵和养育后代。因为这将鸟与环境紧密地联系在一起，建筑师可以从观察别人的成功和失败中学到很多东西。在气候变化的背景下，建造合适的巢穴是一项特别重要的成就。我打算测试鸟类如何利用其他个体提供的信息来学习如何筑巢。我将通过实验操纵提供给斑胸草雀的社会信息来做到这一点，这些信息在受控的实验室和室外鸟舍环境中都有。然后我将测量这些鸟在做出筑巢决定时使用社会信息的程度。斑胸草雀对研究社会学习在筑巢中的作用很有用，因为它们全年都在筑巢，材料也很多样化，在筑巢时允许其他动物靠近，而且幼鸟在90天大的时候达到性成熟并建造它们的第一个巢穴。我想问的四个具体问题是：(1)鸟类什么时候学习；(2)他们在学习什么；(3)社会学习的重要性是什么？(4)大脑的哪个部分在社会学习中是重要的？为了回答这些问题，我将进行的实验将开始解决社会学习在多大程度上支持这种鲜为人知但基本的鸟类行为。因为筑巢的特殊性，以及更普遍的建造行为，在动物中是很常见的，这个项目为旨在理解社会学习进化的更大的比较分析奠定了基础。

The ability to learn from watching others, called social learning, allows animals (including humans) to learn how to solve problems without engaging in time-consuming trial-and-error learning. Social learning is thought to be a cornerstone to forming and maintaining cultural traditions. While learning what food to eat, who to mate with, what song to sing and who to avoid from others has been well studied we know much less about the role social learning plays when animals are interacting with and manipulating physical features of their environment (physical cognition). One example of physical cognition in animals that has received lots of attention is tool use, although very few animals engage in this behaviour and even fewer appear to learn about tools from watching others. Here I propose a new system to study how information about physical problems may be learned socially: nest building in birds. We have long been fascinated by the beauty and diversity of nests that are built by birds. For the birds themselves, building the correct nest is key to their reproductive success: if they get the nest right they have a chance to fledge young, if they get the nest wrong, they will surely fail. Despite the importance of nests we still do not know how a bird knows what nest to build. Almost every bird builds some type of nest in which to lay eggs and rear young. As this intimately links a bird to the environment a builder stands to learn a lot from observing both the success and failure of others. In the light of climate change building the right nest is an especially important accomplishment. I propose to test how birds use information provided by other individuals to learn how to build a nest. I would do this by experimentally manipulating the social information that is provided to zebra finches in both a controlled laboratory and an outdoor aviary environment. Then I will measure the extent that these birds use social information when they make their own nest-building decisions. Zebra finches are useful for studying the role of social learning in nest building because they build year-round, with a diversity of material, allow others near when they are building, and the young reach sexual maturity and build their first nest when they are 90 days old. The four specific questions I would ask are: (1) when do birds learn; (2) what are they learning; (3) what is the importance of social learning, and (4) what part of the brain is important in social learning? The experiments I would conduct to answer these questions will begin to address the extent to which social learning underpins this little-known but fundamental avian behaviour. Because nest building specifically, and construction behaviour more generally, is common among animals, this projects lays the ground work for a larger comparative analysis aimed at understanding the evolution of social learning.