Social learning is widespread across the animal kingdom and used by individuals to acquire adaptive behaviour across a range of contexts, from mate choice to migration. However, while multiple studies have demonstrated the presence of social learning in different species across several taxa, less attention has been paid to explaining variation in this phenomenon between populations or individuals. Theoretical modelling has suggested age should be important, with social learning most adaptive during the juvenile phase. Yet, empirical studies testing the interaction between age and social learning are equivocal and scattered in the literature. Accordingly, we present here what we believe to be the first meta-analytical review of this body of work. Collating 57 experimental studies that tested social learning in a foraging context, we conducted a two-fold analysis. First, we examined whether learning success or rates were correlated with five possible variables: phylogeny, dispersal system, age at first reproduction (a conservative measure of extended juvenile periods), type of task or testing condition (captive individuals, wild individuals or wild individuals brought into captivity for testing). Second, we tested for interactions between age and these variables (28 studies). Our results did not support a clear direct relationship between age and social learning abilities. However, life history factors indirectly related to age (age at first reproduction and dispersal system) affected social learning propensity. Finally, social learning success was also correlated with factors related to the experiment itself (captive or wild origin of the animals and the type of task used to assess social learning).

中文翻译：

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环境和生活史因素，但不是年龄，影响社会对食物的学习：荟萃分析

社会学习在整个动物王国中广泛存在，并被个人用来在从配偶选择到迁徙等一系列环境中获得适应性行为。然而，虽然多项研究已经证明在不同物种的几个分类群中存在社会学习，但很少有人关注解释种群或个体之间这种现象的变化。理论模型表明年龄应该很重要，青少年阶段的社会学习适应性最强。然而，测试年龄与社会学习之间相互作用的实证研究是模棱两可的，并且分散在文献中。因此，我们在这里介绍我们认为是对这一工作主体的第一次元分析审查。整理了 57 项在觅食环境中测试社会学习的实验研究，我们进行了双重分析。首先，我们检查了学习成功率或学习率是否与五个可能的变量相关：系统发育、传播系统、首次繁殖的年龄（延长幼年期的保守措施）、任务类型或测试条件（圈养个体、野生个体或野生个体）被囚禁以进行测试）。其次，我们测试了年龄与这些变量之间的相互作用（28 项研究）。我们的结果并不支持年龄和社会学习能力之间存在明确的直接关系。然而，与年龄（首次繁殖和传播系统的年龄）间接相关的生活史因素影响了社会学习倾向。最后，