Miller Rachael, Schwab Christine, Bugnyar Thomas
Department of Cognitive Biology, University of Vienna.
J Comp Psychol. 2016 Nov;130(4):328-340. doi: 10.1037/com0000039. Epub 2016 Jun 30.
Innovation and social information use are influenced by individual characteristics, and are important for the creation and transmission of novel behavioral patterns. Here, we investigated which individual factors predict innovation rates and social transmission of information in a comparative study with identically reared common ravens (Corvus corax) and carrion crows (Corvus corone corone; Corvus corone cornix). In the innovation experiment (1), we presented the birds with a novel problem-solving task while alone, to determine which individuals would quickly solve ("innovators") or not solve ("noninnovators") this task. We then related these findings to sex, object exploration (frequency of novel item manipulation), object neophobia (latency to novel item interaction), and social rank position. We found that innovators were more explorative than noninnovators, although they did not differ significantly in social rank, object neophobia or sex. In the social information use experiments (2 & 3), subjects first observed a model (Exp. 2: conspecific, heterospecific; Exp. 3: conspecific innovator & noninnovator) demonstrate a specific color selection in a 2-choice cup task, before being allowed to make their own cup selection. Innovator and noninnovator observers did not significantly differ in their tendency to use social information, that is, to select the demonstrated cup first, from a conspecific or heterospecific model. Furthermore, observers did not preferentially use social information from an innovator over a noninnovator model. We discuss our findings in relation to the likely benefits of flexible information use, and the role of other model characteristics, such as relationships, on the use of social information. (PsycINFO Database Record
创新和社会信息利用受到个体特征的影响，并且对于新行为模式的创造和传播很重要。在此，我们在一项对同笼饲养的普通渡鸦（Corvus corax）和小嘴乌鸦（Corvus corone corone；Corvus corone cornix）的比较研究中，调查了哪些个体因素能够预测创新率和信息的社会传播。在创新实验（1）中，我们单独向鸟类呈现一个新颖的解决问题任务，以确定哪些个体能够快速解决（“创新者”）或无法解决（“非创新者”）该任务。然后，我们将这些发现与性别、物体探索（对新奇物品操作的频率）、物体新恐惧症（与新奇物品互动的潜伏期）以及社会等级地位联系起来。我们发现，创新者比非创新者更具探索性，尽管他们在社会等级、物体新恐惧症或性别方面没有显著差异。在社会信息利用实验（2和3）中，受试者首先观察一个示范者（实验2：同种、异种；实验3：同种创新者和非创新者）在二选一杯子任务中展示特定的颜色选择，然后才被允许做出自己的杯子选择。创新者和非创新者观察者在使用社会信息的倾向方面没有显著差异，即从同种或异种示范者那里首先选择被示范的杯子。此外，观察者在使用社会信息时，并没有优先选择来自创新者示范者而非非创新者示范者的信息。我们结合灵活信息利用可能带来的好处以及其他示范者特征（如关系）在社会信息利用中的作用来讨论我们的发现。（PsycINFO数据库记录）
