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The Ecology of Social Learning in Animals and its Link with Intelligence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 January 2017

Carel van Schaik ,
Sereina Graber ,
Caroline Schuppli  and
Judith Burkart
Carel van Schaik*
Affiliation:
University of Zurich (Switzerland)
Sereina Graber
Affiliation:
University of Zurich (Switzerland)
Caroline Schuppli
Affiliation:
University of Zurich (Switzerland)
Judith Burkart
Affiliation:
University of Zurich (Switzerland)
*
*Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Carel van Schaik. University of Zurich – Anrthropology. Winterthurerstrasse, 190. CH-8125. Zurich (Switzerland). Phone: +41–446355411. E-mail: vschaik@aim.uzh.ch
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Abstract

Classical ethology and behavioral ecology did not pay much attention to learning. However, studies of social learning in nature reviewed here reveal the near-ubiquity of reliance on social information for skill acquisition by developing birds and mammals. This conclusion strengthens the plausibility of the cultural intelligence hypothesis for the evolution of intelligence, which assumes that selection on social learning abilities automatically improves individual learning ability. Thus, intelligent species will generally be cultural species. Direct tests of the cultural intelligence hypothesis require good estimates of the amount and kind of social learning taking place in nature in a broad variety of species. These estimates are lacking so far. Here, we start the process of developing a functional classification of social learning, in the form of the social learning spectrum, which should help to predict the mechanisms of social learning involved. Once validated, the categories can be used to estimate the cognitive demands of social learning in the wild.

Keywords

culturedomain-generalintelligencelearning
Type
Research Article
Information
The Spanish Journal of Psychology , Volume 19 , 2016 , E99
Copyright
Copyright © Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Colegio Oficial de Psicólogos de Madrid 2017 

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