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Understanding the link between individual behaviour and population organization and functioning has long been central to ecology and evolutionary biology. Behaviour is a response to intrinsic and extrinsic factors including individual state, ecological factors or social interactions. Within a group, each individual can be seen as part of a network of social interactions varying in strength, type and dynamic. The structure of this network can deeply impact the ecology and evolution of individuals, populations and species. Within a group social interactions can take many forms and may significantly affect an individual’s fitness. These interactions may result in complex systems at the group-level, such as in the case of collective decisions (to migrate, to build nest or to forage). Among them, social transmission of information has been studied mostly in vertebrates: fish, birds and mammals including humans. In insects, social learning has been unambiguously demonstrated in social Hymenoptera but this probably reflects limited research effort and recent evidence show that even non-eusocial insects such as Drosophila, cockroaches and crickets can copy the behaviour of others. Compared to individual learning, which requires a trial and error period every generation, social learning can potentially result in the stable transmission of behaviours across generations, leading to cultural traditions in some species. The study of the processes which may facilitate or prevent this transmission and the analyses of the relationship between social network structure and efficiency of social transmission became these recent years an emerging and promising field of research. The goal of this research topic is to present the genetic and socio-environmental factors affecting social interaction and information or pathogen transmission with the integration of experimental approaches, social network analyses and modelling. Importantly, we aim to understand whether a relationship between social network structures and dynamics can reflect the efficiency of social transmission, i.e. can we use social network analysis to predict the social transmission of information or of pathogen, collective decision-making and ultimately the evolutionary trajectory of a group?

Social behavior in animals. --- Animal societies. --- Insects --- social network analysis --- Social transmission --- Primates --- Social Behaviour --- network dynamics --- Epidemiology --- sociality --- methodology

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Understanding the link between individual behaviour and population organization and functioning has long been central to ecology and evolutionary biology. Behaviour is a response to intrinsic and extrinsic factors including individual state, ecological factors or social interactions. Within a group, each individual can be seen as part of a network of social interactions varying in strength, type and dynamic. The structure of this network can deeply impact the ecology and evolution of individuals, populations and species. Within a group social interactions can take many forms and may significantly affect an individual’s fitness. These interactions may result in complex systems at the group-level, such as in the case of collective decisions (to migrate, to build nest or to forage). Among them, social transmission of information has been studied mostly in vertebrates: fish, birds and mammals including humans. In insects, social learning has been unambiguously demonstrated in social Hymenoptera but this probably reflects limited research effort and recent evidence show that even non-eusocial insects such as Drosophila, cockroaches and crickets can copy the behaviour of others. Compared to individual learning, which requires a trial and error period every generation, social learning can potentially result in the stable transmission of behaviours across generations, leading to cultural traditions in some species. The study of the processes which may facilitate or prevent this transmission and the analyses of the relationship between social network structure and efficiency of social transmission became these recent years an emerging and promising field of research. The goal of this research topic is to present the genetic and socio-environmental factors affecting social interaction and information or pathogen transmission with the integration of experimental approaches, social network analyses and modelling. Importantly, we aim to understand whether a relationship between social network structures and dynamics can reflect the efficiency of social transmission, i.e. can we use social network analysis to predict the social transmission of information or of pathogen, collective decision-making and ultimately the evolutionary trajectory of a group?

Social behavior in animals. --- Animal societies. --- Insects --- social network analysis --- Social transmission --- Primates --- Social Behaviour --- network dynamics --- Epidemiology --- sociality --- methodology

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Many animals, including humans, acquire valuable skills and knowledge by copying others. Scientists refer to this as social learning. It is one of the most exciting and rapidly developing areas of behavioral research and sits at the interface of many academic disciplines, including biology, experimental psychology, economics, and cognitive neuroscience. Social Learning provides a comprehensive, practical guide to the research methods of this important emerging field. William Hoppitt and Kevin Laland define the mechanisms thought to underlie social learning and demonstrate how to distinguish them experimentally in the laboratory. They present techniques for detecting and quantifying social learning in nature, including statistical modeling of the spatial distribution of behavior traits. They also describe the latest theory and empirical findings on social learning strategies, and introduce readers to mathematical methods and models used in the study of cultural evolution. This book is an indispensable tool for researchers and an essential primer for students. Provides a comprehensive, practical guide to social learning research Combines theoretical and empirical approaches Describes techniques for the laboratory and the field Covers social learning mechanisms and strategies, statistical modeling techniques for field data, mathematical modeling of cultural evolution, and more

Learning in animals --- Social learning --- Psychology, Comparative --- Research --- Methodology. --- Animal learning --- Animal intelligence --- Learning --- Socialization --- Behavior, Comparative --- Comparative behavior --- Comparative psychology --- Ethology, Comparative --- Intelligence of animals --- Zoology --- Animal behavior --- Animal psychology --- Human behavior --- Instinct --- Aristotle. --- acquisition. --- animal culture. --- animals. --- asocial learning. --- behavior. --- behavioral repertoires. --- behavioral research. --- behavioral trait. --- biological evolution. --- causal modeling. --- child development. --- children. --- controlled diffusion. --- cultural evolution. --- cultural transmission. --- decision making. --- developmental methods. --- diffusion curve analysis. --- diffusion data. --- diffusion experiments. --- diffusion of innovation. --- diffusion. --- ecological hypothesis. --- experimental manipulations. --- fear. --- frequency-dependent biases. --- gene-culture coevolution. --- genetic hypothesis. --- group contrasts approach. --- hierarchical control. --- imitation. --- inadvertent coaching. --- innovation. --- laboratory experiments. --- learning heuristics. --- mathematical methods. --- meta-strategies. --- model-fitting approach. --- modeling. --- network-based diffusion analysis. --- neural circuitry. --- neuroendocrinological studies. --- neutral models. --- observational conditioning. --- observational data. --- observational learning. --- opportunity providing. --- option choice. --- random copying. --- reaction-diffusion models. --- research methods. --- response facilitation. --- social experience. --- social facilitation. --- social foraging theory. --- social learning mechanisms. --- social learning research. --- social learning strategies. --- social learning. --- social network. --- social transmission. --- statistical methods. --- statistical modeling. --- stimulus enhancement. --- success biases. --- translocation experiments. --- transmission chains.