Explaining social learning of food preferences without aversions:
an evolutionary simulation model of Norway rats.
J. Noble, P. Todd, and E. Tuci. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 268 (1463):
141--149(2001)
Abstract
Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus) transmit preferences for novel foods
socially by smelling each other's breath. However, rats fail to learn
aversions, acquiring a preference even if the rat whose breath they
smell has been poisoned. Rats can distinguish between sick and healthy
conspecifics and social learning of both preferences and aversions
is present in other species - hence it is unclear why rats cannot
learn aversions socially. We constructed an evolutionary simulation
in which a population of rats foraged from a central location, exploiting
food sites that could contain edible or toxic foodstuffs. We examined
the relationship between toxin lethality and selection for individual
versus social learning and discrimination between sick and healthy
conspecifics in order to allow learning of both preferences and aversions.
At low lethality levels individual learning was selected for and
at intermediate levels we found social learning of both preferences
and aversions. Finally, given high lethality levels the simulated
rats would employ social learning but failed to learn aversions,
matching the behaviour of real rats. We argue that Norway rats do
not learn aversions socially because their environment may contain
only highly lethal toxins which make interaction with a sick conspecific
an extremely rare event.
%0 Journal Article
%1 Noble2001
%A Noble, J.
%A Todd, P. M.
%A Tuci, E.
%D 2001
%J Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
%K Animals; Behavior Biological; Evolution; Food Learning; Models, Preferences; Rats; Social
%N 1463
%P 141--149
%T Explaining social learning of food preferences without aversions:
an evolutionary simulation model of Norway rats.
%V 268
%X Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus) transmit preferences for novel foods
socially by smelling each other's breath. However, rats fail to learn
aversions, acquiring a preference even if the rat whose breath they
smell has been poisoned. Rats can distinguish between sick and healthy
conspecifics and social learning of both preferences and aversions
is present in other species - hence it is unclear why rats cannot
learn aversions socially. We constructed an evolutionary simulation
in which a population of rats foraged from a central location, exploiting
food sites that could contain edible or toxic foodstuffs. We examined
the relationship between toxin lethality and selection for individual
versus social learning and discrimination between sick and healthy
conspecifics in order to allow learning of both preferences and aversions.
At low lethality levels individual learning was selected for and
at intermediate levels we found social learning of both preferences
and aversions. Finally, given high lethality levels the simulated
rats would employ social learning but failed to learn aversions,
matching the behaviour of real rats. We argue that Norway rats do
not learn aversions socially because their environment may contain
only highly lethal toxins which make interaction with a sick conspecific
an extremely rare event.
@article{Noble2001,
abstract = {Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus) transmit preferences for novel foods
socially by smelling each other's breath. However, rats fail to learn
aversions, acquiring a preference even if the rat whose breath they
smell has been poisoned. Rats can distinguish between sick and healthy
conspecifics and social learning of both preferences and aversions
is present in other species - hence it is unclear why rats cannot
learn aversions socially. We constructed an evolutionary simulation
in which a population of rats foraged from a central location, exploiting
food sites that could contain edible or toxic foodstuffs. We examined
the relationship between toxin lethality and selection for individual
versus social learning and discrimination between sick and healthy
conspecifics in order to allow learning of both preferences and aversions.
At low lethality levels individual learning was selected for and
at intermediate levels we found social learning of both preferences
and aversions. Finally, given high lethality levels the simulated
rats would employ social learning but failed to learn aversions,
matching the behaviour of real rats. We argue that Norway rats do
not learn aversions socially because their environment may contain
only highly lethal toxins which make interaction with a sick conspecific
an extremely rare event.},
added-at = {2007-12-16T20:00:22.000+0100},
author = {Noble, J. and Todd, P. M. and Tuci, E.},
biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/22818f1cfa0dd67cf051d5c2d25cff389/perceptron},
interhash = {ad147b259053e58fdb5b9179d24f98f0},
intrahash = {2818f1cfa0dd67cf051d5c2d25cff389},
journal = {Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences},
keywords = {Animals; Behavior Biological; Evolution; Food Learning; Models, Preferences; Rats; Social},
number = 1463,
owner = {dvanderelst},
pages = {141--149},
pmid = {11209883},
timestamp = {2007-12-16T20:00:25.000+0100},
title = {Explaining social learning of food preferences without aversions:
an evolutionary simulation model of Norway rats.},
volume = 268,
year = 2001
}