Cognitive Ecology

在这里，Guillette博士提出了一个系统来研究有关身体问题的信息是如何从社会上获得的：在鸟身上筑巢。从观察他人中学习的能力被称为社交学习，这使得动物(包括人类)能够学习如何解决问题，而不需要进行耗时的反复学习。社会学习被认为是形成和保持文化传统的基石。虽然已经很好地研究了吃什么食物，和谁交配，唱什么歌，以及从别人那里避开谁，但我们对动物与其环境的物理特征(物理认知)进行互动和操纵时，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。长期以来，我们一直被鸟类筑巢的美丽和多样性所吸引。对于鸟类本身来说，筑巢正确是它们繁殖成功的关键；如果筑巢正确，它们就有机会羽化幼鸟，如果筑巢错误，它们肯定会失败。尽管巢很重要，但人们仍然不知道鸟是如何知道要建什么巢的。几乎每只鸟都会建造某种类型的巢来下蛋和哺育幼鸟。由于这将鸟类与环境紧密地联系在一起，建筑商可以从观察他人的成功和失败中学到很多东西。鉴于气候变化，建造合适的鸟巢是一项特别重要的成就。因为特定的筑巢行为和更普遍的筑巢行为在动物中很常见，所以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演变。除了具体考察学习和社会学习在筑巢行为中的作用之外，这个研究项目的总体和长期目标是了解个体间认知差异的原因和后果，包括为什么一些动物似乎更依赖社会信息，而不是它们自己可以获得的信息。为了实现这些目标，吉列特博士和她的团队将采取综合的方法，使用几种鸣禽，包括黑帽山雀和斑马雀。Guillette博士将在野外和实验室中检查筑巢和其他行为的行为和认知，包括检查大脑和行为之间的直接联系。

Here Dr. Guillette proposes a system to study how information about physical problems may be learned socially: Nest building in birds. 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, with whom to mate, 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 much attention is tool use.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, it is still not known 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. 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.In addition to examining the role of learning and social learning in nest-building behaviour specifically, the overarching, long-term goals of this research program are to understand the causes and consequences of among-individual variation in cognition, including why some animals seem to rely more on social information compared to information they can acquire themselves. To accomplish these goals, Dr. Guillette and her team will take integrative approach, using several songbird species, including black-capped chickadees and zebra finches. Dr. Guillette will examine behaviour and cognition of nest building and other behaviours in the wild and in the laboratory, including examining the direct link between the brain and behavior.