Influence of shared experience on relational dynamics and vicarious learning

世界的社会秩序高度依赖于个人之间的关系动态。个人在社会团体中组织的能力对于集体和每个成员的良好运作至关重要。但是，个人如何决定他们应该加入谁，或者何时信息是重要的，而不是何时可以或应该打折？在包括老鼠和人类在内的社会物种中，我们彼此之间形成社会纽带的能力与我们对从社会互动中获得的信息的依赖之间存在着密切的关系。蒙菲尔斯实验室使用的程序是，老鼠可以通过社交传播获得恐惧或有关食品安全的信息。简单地说：老鼠和人类一样，也是社会性的生物。但是，尽管人类极其复杂，而且我们的一些行为被层层和相互冲突的意图所污染(部分原因是我们庞大的前额叶皮质)，但老鼠的行为足够复杂，足以引起兴趣并产生可变性，但它产生了人们实际上可以理解并有可能容易解释的可变性。老鼠的社会群体动力学提供了一个镜头，通过这个镜头，人们可以理解行为的基本原则，这些原则被剥离到最基本的东西，并且没有分层的过滤器。在什么情况下，个人通过代理从谁那里获得信息？研究人员的目标是考察社会环境稳定性和亲属关系的交集。他们特别询问，共享经验是否会影响个人之间的关系，进而影响他们通过社交传播进行学习的方式。首先，他们将研究个人共享的经历，即他们同时经历的经历，是否会导致他们依赖社会获得的信息的倾向增加。其次，他们将测试对相似经历的共同叙述是否加强了同种人之间的联系，进而增加了他们依赖社会获得的信息的倾向。第三，他们将研究不同经历的共同叙述是否会导致个人之间联系纽带的侵蚀，进而减少他们对社会信息传递的依赖。研究人员的努力将全面理解共享经验对个人、小团体关系以及大团体动态的影响。老鼠模型将使研究人员有机会在更长的一段时间内研究群体和亚组的关系动态--这是老鼠寿命的重要组成部分。试图在人类身上做类似的研究将花费(人类)一生的时间。因此，在老鼠身上解决研究人员的研究问题将使他们能够提取关系动态稳定性的寿命原则及其对个人相互学习的倾向的影响，以及在有意义的很长一段时间内共享经验对这些关系动态的影响。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The world’s social order is highly dependent on relational dynamics between individuals. The ability for individuals to organize in social groups is crucial to the good functioning of the collective, as well as each member. But, how do individuals decide who they should affiliate with, or when information is important vs. when it can or should be discounted? In social species, including rats and humans, there is a strong relationship between our ability to form social bonds with one-another, and our reliance on information that acquired from social interactions. The Monfils lab employs procedures in which rats can acquire fear, or information about food safety, via social transmission. Simply stated: rats, like humans, are social creatures. But whereas humans are exceedingly complex, and whereas some of our behaviors are contaminated by layered and conflicting intentions (owing, in part, to our large prefrontal cortex), the behavior of rats is complex enough to be interesting and to yield variability, but it yields variability that one can actually understand and have the potential to readily explain. Social group dynamics in rats provide a lens via which one can understand fundamental principles of behavior, stripped down to the basics, and devoid of layered filters. From whom, and under what conditions, do individuals acquire information by-proxy? The researchers’ objective is to examine the intersection of socio-environmental stability and affiliative kinship. They specifically ask whether shared experience affects how individuals relate to one another, and in turn affects how they learn via social transmission. First, they will examine whether individuals’ shared experience, that is, one that they undergo together simultaneously, leads to an increase in their propensity to rely on socially acquired information. Second, they will test whether the shared recounting of similar experiences strengthens affiliative bonds between conspecifics, and in turn, increases their propensity to rely on socially acquired information. Third, they will examine whether the shared recounting of differing experiences leads to erosion of affiliative bonds between individuals, and in turn, decreases their reliance on social transmission of information. The researchers’ efforts will yield a comprehensive understanding of the impact of shared experiences on the individual, small group affiliations, as well as large group dynamics. The rat model will give the researchers the opportunity to study relationship dynamics in groups and subgroups over an extended period of time—a significant portion of the rats’ lifespan. Attempting to do a similar study in humans would literally take a (human) lifetime. As such, addressing the researchers’ research questions in rats will enable them to extract lifespan principles of relational dynamic stability and their impact on individuals’ propensity to learn from one another, as well as the impact of shared experience on those relational dynamics over a meaningfully long period of time.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.