Lydia Hopper, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Molecular & Comparative Pathobiology
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Title: Copy cats and aping apes: How social learning aids knowledge acquisition and the transmission of behavioral traditions

Abstract: From ants to zebras, animals are influenced by the behavior of others. At the simplest level, social support can reduce neophobia, increasing animals’ exploration of novel spaces, foods, and other environmental stimuli. Animals can also learn new skills more quickly and more readily after observing others perform them. The upshot is that animals can avoid risks and costs associated with individual, trial-and-error learning. Moreover, the transmission of information via social learning creates behavioral traditions and cultures generating a “second inheritance” system. However, copying is not always uniform or exact: there are differences in animals’ likelihood to seek out or use socially provided information, driven by characteristics such as species, rank, age, and personality. In this talk, I will provide an overview of my research studying primate social learning and what I have learn about what, when, who, and why primates copy others. I will also propose tactics for leveraging our understanding of primate social learning to refine the behavioral management of captive animals.

Faculty Host: Kristina Nielsen