Date:
November 30, 2016
Source: Stockholm University
Credit:
Pinterest
The
fact that animals can use tools, have self-control and certain expectations of
life can be explained with the help of a new learning model for animal behaviour.
Researchers at Stockholm University and Brooklyn College have combined knowledge
from the fields of artificial intelligence, ethology and the psychology of
learning to solve several problems concerning the behaviour and intelligence of
animals.
Animals are often very effective; an oystercatcher opens mussels quickly, a
baboon takes every opportunity to steal food from tourists or a rat navigates
with ease between the bins in a park. Previously these behaviours have been
considered to be inherited instincts, even though it is well known that animals
have great learning abilities. Researchers from Stockholm University and
Brooklyn College have now created an associative learning model that explains
how effective behaviours can arise. This means that an animal does not only
learn that the last step of a behaviour chain, the one that is rewarding, is
valuable. An animal can learn that all steps towards the reward are valuable.
"Our
learning model may also explain how advanced behaviours are created at an
individual level. Behaviours like self-control, chimpanzee tool use as well as
other phenomena like animals having certain expectations of live," says Magnus
Enquist, professor of ethology at Stockholm University. "Similar models are used
in the field of artificial intelligence, but they have been ignored in animal
studies."
Since
the 1970s it has been known that animals weigh the cost of a certain behaviour
against the profit and that they, to a high degree, make optimal decisions,
which is assumed to be genetically determined. The research group's new model
deals not only with learning, it also takes into account the idea that what
animals are able to learn can be genetically regulated.
"Young animals are often a bit clumsy, while adult animals are extremely
skilled. A small cub does not even consider a vole as food, while an adult fox
is an expert vole catcher," says Johan Lind associate professor of ethology at
Stockholm University. "Our model shows how genetic regulation of learning can
influence the development of species-specific behaviour and intelligence since
evolution can affect curiosity and the speed of learning among other things."
The
researchers' new model could also explain counterproductive behaviour in
artificial environments.
"Many
learning models can explain optimal behaviour, but to explain counterproductive
behaviour an understanding of the mechanisms of the behaviour is needed. Using
our model, we manage to explain why animals get stuck in suboptimal behaviour.
Like a hamster running in its hamster wheel despite having food next to it. Our
model has captured fundamental aspects of learning," says Stefano Ghirlanda,
professor of psychology at Brooklyn College in New York.
The
learning model and the research results were recently published in the
journal Royal Society Open Science.
Source: Science Daily URL:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/11/161130085032.htm