Visible Spatial Contiguity of Social Information and Reward Affects Social Learning in Brown Capuchins (Sapajus apella) and Children (Homo sapiens)

Animal social learning is typically studied experimentally by the presentation of artificial foraging tasks. Although productive, results are often variable even for the same species. We present and test the hypothesis that one cause of variation is that spatial distance between rewards and the mean...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of comparative psychology (1983) 2017-11, Vol.131 (4), p.304-316
Main Authors: Wood, Lara A, Whiten, Andrew
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal cognition
Animal Learning
Animal Social Behavior
Attention
Child Characteristics
Female
Foraging behavior
Human
Male
Monkeys & apes
Primates (Nonhuman)
Rewards
Social Learning
Social skills
Spatial Perception
Visual Attention
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Summary:Animal social learning is typically studied experimentally by the presentation of artificial foraging tasks. Although productive, results are often variable even for the same species. We present and test the hypothesis that one cause of variation is that spatial distance between rewards and the means of reward release causes conflicts for participants' attentional focus. We investigated whether spatial contiguity between a visible reward and the means of release would affect behavioral responses that evidence social learning, testing 21 brown capuchins (Sapajus apella), a much-studied species with variant evidence for social learning, and one hundred eighty 2- to 4-year-old human children (Homo sapiens), a benchmark species known for a strong social learning disposition. Participants were presented with a novel transparent apparatus where a reward was either proximal or distal to a demonstrated means of releasing it. A distal reward location decreased attention toward the location of the demonstration and impaired subsequent success in gaining rewards. Generally, the capuchins produced the alternative method to that demonstrated, whereas children copied the method demonstrated, although a distal reward location reduced copying in younger children. We conclude that some design features in common social learning tasks may significantly degrade the evidence for social learning. We have demonstrated this for 2 different primates but suggest that it is a significant factor to control for in social learning research across all taxa.
ISSN:0735-7036
1939-2087
DOI:10.1037/com0000076