Modelling Social Learning in Monkeys (Report‪)‬

Quantifying Social Learning Processes In the laboratory, paired demonstrator-observer designs are used primarily to investigate whether animals are capable of specific forms of social learning (Galef 1988). Laboratory experimental have also been used to investigate the diffusion dynamics of learned behaviour through populations in controlled conditions (Lefebvre & Palameta 1988; Whiten et al. 2005). The results of such experiments do not tell us much about social learning in the wild and often lack ecological validity in terms of the behaviour being learned. They have the potential, however, to provide quantitative data that can be used in the parameters for mathematical models of social learning.