Tovah Kashetsky, Janice Yan, Grant Doering, Tricia Skelton, Reuven Dukas
Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour, McMaster University.
Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour, McMaster University.
Behav Processes. 2023 Oct 28:104962. doi: 10.1016/j.beproc.2023.104962.
Social groups repeatedly solving a complex task can improve their collective performance. To study the mechanisms of collective improvement, we tested the effect of experience on collective decision-making using acorn ants (Temnothorax ambiguus). During a six-emigration training phase, colonies in the choice treatment gained experience choosing to move into one of two nests varying in quality, while colonies in the no-choice treatment had only a single available nest. Both treatments were tested in a subsequent test with two nests of varying quality. We found that experience improved decision-making speed, regardless of treatment. We also found that colonies of the choice treatment were more proficient by carrying a larger proportion of individuals directly into the better-quality nest. However, there was no steady improvement in proficiency throughout their training. Using social network analysis, we quantified changes in group performance over successive emigrations. We found that network density, our measure for social connectedness, and the coefficient of variation of out-strength distribution, our measure for workload distribution, did not differ between treatments and remained stable over successive emigrations. We conclude that collective experience with decision-making may improve subsequent group performance, but the mechanisms of improvement remain unclear. Further research on decision-making in house-hunting ants will advance our understanding of the mechanisms underpinning collective improvement.
反复解决复杂任务的社会群体能够提高其集体表现。为了研究集体进步的机制，我们使用橡子蚁（Temnothorax ambiguus）测试了经验对集体决策的影响。在一个为期六次迁移的训练阶段，处于选择处理组的蚁群获得了选择迁入两个质量不同的巢穴之一的经验，而处于无选择处理组的蚁群只有一个可用的巢穴。在随后的测试中，对两种处理方式都使用了两个质量不同的巢穴进行测试。我们发现，无论处理方式如何，经验都提高了决策速度。我们还发现，选择处理组的蚁群通过将更大比例的个体直接迁入质量更好的巢穴而更加熟练。然而，在整个训练过程中，熟练程度并没有稳步提高。使用社会网络分析，我们量化了连续迁移过程中群体表现的变化。我们发现，作为社会连通性度量的网络密度，以及作为工作量分布度量的出度分布变异系数，在不同处理方式之间没有差异，并且在连续迁移过程中保持稳定。我们得出结论，决策方面的集体经验可能会提高后续群体的表现，但改进机制仍不清楚。对寻找住所的蚂蚁的决策进行进一步研究将增进我们对集体进步背后机制的理解。
