Templeton J J, Kamil A C, Balda R P
School of Biological Sciences, University of Nebraska--Lincoln, USA.
J Comp Psychol. 1999 Dec;113(4):450-5. doi: 10.1037/0735-7036.113.4.450.
The hypothesis that social learning is an adaptive specialization for social living predicts that social species should learn better socially than they do individually, but that nonsocial species should not exhibit a similar enhancement of performance under social learning conditions. The authors compared individual and social learning abilities in 2 corvid species: the highly social pinyon jay (Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus) and the less social Clark's nutcracker (Nucifraga columbiana). The birds were tested on 2 different tasks under individual and social learning conditions. Half learned a motor task individually and a discrimination task socially; the other half learned the motor task socially and the discrimination task individually. Pinyon jays learned faster socially than they did individually, but nutcrackers performed equally well under both learning conditions. Results support the hypothesis that social learning is an adaptive specialization for social living in pinyon jays.
社会学习是社会生活的一种适应性特化这一假说预测，社会性物种在社会环境中的学习能力应优于个体学习，而非社会性物种在社会学习条件下不应表现出类似的能力提升。作者比较了两种鸦科鸟类的个体学习能力和社会学习能力：社会性很强的美洲矮松松鸦（Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus）和社会性较弱的克拉克星鸦（Nucifraga columbiana）。这些鸟在个体学习和社会学习条件下接受了两项不同任务的测试。一半鸟个体学习一项运动任务，社会学习一项辨别任务；另一半鸟社会学习运动任务，个体学习辨别任务。美洲矮松松鸦在社会学习时比个体学习时学得更快，但星鸦在两种学习条件下表现相当。结果支持了社会学习是美洲矮松松鸦社会生活适应性特化的假说。
