Today's Messages

Please join the Biology Department and the Great Lakes Center for the seminar “Collective learning in animal groups,” presented by Dr. Takao Sasaki on Monday, November 17, at 3:00 p.m. in SAMC 151. Attendees are welcome to arrive at 2:50 p.m. to enjoy coffee and cookies leading up to the seminar.

Research Seminar Abstract: Humans are known for sharing and accumulating knowledge in a group over time, a phenomenon known as collective learning. Many other species also form groups and face the same tasks together repeatedly so that their collective performance can be positively influenced by information acquired from past experiences. However, the field of animal learning has mainly focused on individual learning but directed little attention to learning by multiple entities. As a result, researchers study learning abilities of social animals in isolated conditions, assuming that collective learning is nothing more than the sum of the respective learnings by the group members. I will discuss if and how groups attain synergetic and advantageous performance using homing pigeons and ants as model systems. By carrying multidisciplinary—behavioral ecology, psychology, anthropology, physics and mathematics—investigation, my research aims to shed new light on our understanding of benefits and mechanisms of learning as a group.