Editing Ethology (section)

==== Cultural learning ====

{{main|Cultural transmission in animals}}

===== Observational learning =====

{{main|Observational learning}}

===== Imitation =====

{{main|Imitation}}

[[Imitation]] is an advanced behavior whereby an animal observes and exactly replicates the behavior of another.
The National Institutes of Health reported that capuchin monkeys preferred the company of researchers who imitated them to that of researchers who did not. The monkeys not only spent more time with their imitators but also preferred to engage in a simple task with them even when provided with the option of performing the same task with a non-imitator.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nih.gov/news/health/aug2009/nichd-13.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090822171642/http://www.nih.gov/news/health/aug2009/nichd-13.htm |archive-date=2009-08-22 |title=Imitation Promotes Social Bonding in Primates, August 13, 2009 News Release |publisher=National Institutes of Health |date=2009-08-13 |access-date=2011-11-08}}</ref> Imitation has been observed in recent research on chimpanzees; not only did these chimps copy the actions of another individual, when given a choice, the chimps preferred to imitate the actions of the higher-ranking elder chimpanzee as opposed to the lower-ranking young chimpanzee.<ref name="FerrariHorner2010">{{cite journal |last1=Horner |first1=Victoria  |display-authors=etal |title=Prestige Affects Cultural Learning in Chimpanzees |journal=PLOS ONE |volume=5 |issue=5 |date=19 May 2010 |pages=e10625 |issn=1932-6203 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0010625 |pmid=20502702 |pmc=2873264 |bibcode=2010PLoSO...510625H|doi-access=free }}</ref>

===== Stimulus and local enhancement =====

Animals can learn using observational learning but without the process of imitation. One way is ''stimulus enhancement'' in which individuals become interested in an object as the result of observing others interacting with the object.<ref>{{cite journal | last1=Spence | first1=K. W. | year=1937 | title=Experimental studies of learning and higher mental processes in infra-human primates | journal=Psychological Bulletin | volume=34 | issue=10 | pages=806–850 | doi=10.1037/h0061498}}</ref> Increased interest in an object can result in object manipulation which allows for new object-related behaviours by trial-and-error learning. Haggerty (1909) devised an experiment in which a monkey climbed up the side of a cage, placed its arm into a wooden chute, and pulled a rope in the chute to release food. Another monkey was provided an opportunity to obtain the food after watching a monkey go through this process on four occasions. The monkey performed a different method and finally succeeded after trial-and-error.<ref>{{cite journal | last1=Haggerty | first1=M. E. | year=1909 | title=Imitation in monkeys | url=https://zenodo.org/record/1426775| journal=Journal of Comparative Neurology and Psychology | volume=19 | issue=4 | pages=337–455 | doi=10.1002/cne.920190402}}</ref> In local enhancement, a demonstrator attracts an observer's attention to a particular location.<ref name="mechanisms">{{cite book |author1=Hoppitt, W. |author2=Laland, K. N. |year=2013 |title=Social Learning: An Introduction to Mechanisms, Methods, and Models. Princeton University Press |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-1-4008-4650-4}}</ref> Local enhancement has been observed to transmit foraging information among birds, rats and pigs.<ref name="foraging">{{cite journal |last1=Galef |first1=B. G. |last2=Giraldeau |first2=L.-A. |year=2001 |title=Social influences on foraging in vertebrates: Causal mechanisms and adaptive functions |journal=Animal Behaviour |volume=61 |issue=1 |pages=3–15 |doi=10.1006/anbe.2000.1557 |pmid=11170692|s2cid=38321280 }}</ref> The stingless bee (''[[Trigona corvina]]'') uses local enhancement to locate other members of their colony and food resources.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Social information in the Stingless Bee, Trigona corvina Cockerell (Hymenoptera: Apidae): The use of visual and olfactory cues at the food site |journal=Sociobiology |year=2014 |issn=0361-6525 |pages=401–406 |volume=61 |issue=4 |doi= 10.13102/sociobiology.v61i4.401-406 |author1= F.M.J. Sommerlandt |author2=W. Huber |author3=J. Spaethe|doi-broken-date=1 November 2024 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

===== Social transmission =====

{{see also|Cultural transmission in animals}}

A well-documented example of social transmission of a behaviour occurred in a group of [[macaque]]s on [[Hachijojima]] Island, Japan. The macaques lived in the inland forest until the 1960s, when a group of researchers started giving them potatoes on the beach: soon, they started venturing onto the beach, picking the potatoes from the sand, and cleaning and eating them.<ref name=WilsonSociobiology>{{cite book |last=Wilson |first=Edward O. |author-link=Edward O. Wilson |title=Sociobiology: the new synthesis |page=170 |year=2000 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-00089-6}}</ref> About one year later, an individual was observed bringing a potato to the sea, putting it into the water with one hand, and cleaning it with the other. This behaviour was soon expressed by the individuals living in contact with her; when they gave birth, this behaviour was also expressed by their young—a form of social transmission.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/japanese_macaque.htm |title=Japanese Macaque – Macaca fuscata |publisher=Blueplanetbiomes.org |access-date=2011-11-08}}</ref>