Experimental investigation of an evolutionary hypothesis concerning adaptations in stickleback social learning.
Lead Research Organisation:
University of St Andrews
Department Name: Biology
Abstract
There has been a long history of debate among researchers studying animal behaviour as to whether all animals learn in a broadly similar way or whether each species has evolved its own specialised way of learning. Often the best way to test whether an animal has evolved specializations is to make comparisons with closely related species of animals, that might be expected to have evolved the same or a different characteristic depending on the environmental conditions they experience. Recent laboratory experimental studies of two closely related species of fish (sticklebacks) by the investigators have revealed evidence for an adaptation in stickleback learning, suggesting that the ability to learn about the quality of resources from others has evolved in species vulnerable to predation to allow them to forage safely. We plan a series of experiments on sticklebacks, using fish drawn from multiple natural populations, to assess whether learning specializations have evolved in response to the hypothesized environmental conditions. The experiments are designed to test an evolutionary hypothesis about how specialized forms of learning evolve.The findings will be of great interest to researchers studying evolutionary biology, ecology and animal behaviour.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
Kevin Laland (Principal Investigator) | |
Ashley Ward (Researcher) |
Publications
Webster M
(2008)
Diet-specific chemical cues influence association preferences and prey patch use in a shoaling fish
in Animal Behaviour
Webster MM
(2008)
Social learning strategies and predation risk: minnows copy only when using private information would be costly.
in Proceedings. Biological sciences
Webster MM
(2009)
Evaluation of a non-invasive tagging system for laboratory studies using three-spined sticklebacks Gasterosteus aculeatus.
in Journal of fish biology
Webster MM & Laland KN
(2010)
Ecology and evolution of poeciliid fishes
Laland KN, Dean L, Hoppitt, W, Rendell L & Webster MM
(2010)
Handbook of comparative cognition
Laland KN, Atton N & Webster MM
(2011)
Culture Evolves
Webster MM
(2011)
Reproductive state affects reliance on public information in sticklebacks.
in Proceedings. Biological sciences
Laland KN
(2011)
From fish to fashion: experimental and theoretical insights into the evolution of culture.
in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences
Webster MM
(2011)
Personality and social context.
in Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society
Webster M
(2012)
Social information, conformity and the opportunity costs paid by foraging fish
in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology