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

动物建构行为的认知生态学：反社会和社会学习的个体差异

• 批准号: RGPIN-2019-04733
• 负责人: Guillette, Lauren
• 金额: $ 2.04万
• 依托单位: University of Alberta
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=764031
• 关键词: cognitive; ecology; animal; construction; behaviour

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.

通过观察他人来学习的能力，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保持文化传统的基石。虽然学习吃什么食物，与谁交配，唱什么歌以及避免与他人接触已经得到了很好的研究，但我们对动物与环境互动和操纵环境物理特征（物理认知）时社会学习所起的作用知之甚少。动物的物理认知的一个例子是工具的使用，尽管很少有动物参与这种行为，更少的动物似乎通过观察其他动物来学习工具。在这里，我提出了一个新的系统来研究如何信息的物理问题可能是学习社会：筑巢的鸟类。长期以来，我们一直着迷于鸟类筑巢的美丽和多样性。对于鸟类本身来说，建造正确的巢是它们繁殖成功的关键：如果它们把巢建对了，它们就有机会长出幼鸟，如果它们把巢建错了，它们肯定会失败。尽管鸟巢的重要性，我们仍然不知道鸟是如何知道筑巢的。几乎每一种鸟都建造某种类型的巢来产卵和养育后代。由于这一点将鸟类与环境紧密联系在一起，因此建造者可以从观察其他鸟类的成功和失败中学到很多东西。鉴于气候变化，建造正确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。我将通过实验性地操纵在受控实验室和室外鸟舍环境中提供给斑胸草雀的社会信息来做到这一点。然后，我将测量这些鸟在做出自己的筑巢决定时使用社会信息的程度。斑胸草雀对于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，材料多样，在筑巢时允许其他人靠近，年轻人达到性成熟，并在90天大时建造第一个巢。我想问的四个具体问题是：（1）鸟类什么时候学习;（2）它们在学习什么;（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很重要？为了回答这些问题，我将进行的实验将开始探讨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。由于筑巢行为在动物中很常见，这个项目为更大规模的比较分析奠定了基础，旨在了解社会学习的进化。