Centre for Ecology and Conservation, Biosciences, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus, Tremough, Penryn TR10 9EZ, UK.
Department of Psychology, University of Macau, Avenida da Universidade, Taipa, Macau, China.
Trends Ecol Evol. 2016 Mar;31(3):215-225. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2015.12.012. Epub 2016 Jan 5.
It is often assumed in experiments and models that social learning abilities - how often individuals copy others, plus who and how they copy - are species-typical. Yet there is accruing evidence for systematic individual variation in social learning within species. Here we review evidence for this individual variation, placing it within a continuum of increasing phenotypic plasticity, from genetically polymorphic personality traits, to developmental plasticity via cues such as maternal stress, to the individual learning of social learning, and finally the social learning of social learning. The latter, possibly restricted to humans, can generate stable between-group cultural variation in social learning. More research is needed to understand the extent, causes, and consequences of this individual and cultural variation.
人们通常在实验和模型中假设，社会学习能力——个体复制他人的频率，以及他们复制的对象和方式——具有物种典型性。然而，越来越多的证据表明，物种内部的社会学习存在系统性的个体差异。在这里，我们回顾了这种个体差异的证据，将其置于表型可塑性不断增加的连续体中，从遗传多态的人格特质，到通过母体应激等线索的发育可塑性，再到个体对社会学习的学习，最后是对社会学习的社会学习。后者可能仅限于人类，可以在社会学习中产生稳定的群体间文化差异。需要更多的研究来了解这种个体和文化差异的程度、原因和后果。
