Social learning – learning from others – is the basis for behavioural traditions. Different social learning strategies (SLS), where individuals biasedly learn behaviours based on their content or who demonstrates them, may increase an individuals fitness and generate behavioural traditions. While SLS have been mostly studied in isolation, their interaction and the interplay between individual and social learning is less understood. We performed a field–based open diffusion experiment in a wild primate. We provided two groups of vervet monkeys with a novel food, unshelled peanuts, and documented how three different peanut opening techniques spread within the groups. We analysed data using hierarchical Bayesian dynamic learning models that explore the integration of multiple SLS with individual learning. We i) report evidence of social learning compared to strictly individual learning, ii) show that vervets preferentially socially learn the technique that yields the highest observed payoff and iii) also bias attention toward individuals of higher rank. This shows that behavioural preferences can arise when individuals integrate social information about the efficiency of a behaviour alongside cues related to the rank of a demonstrator. When these preferences converge to the same behaviour in a group, they may result in stable behavioural traditions.

中文翻译：

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新颖食物的加工揭示了野生灵长类动物的回报和有偏见的社会学习

社会学习（向他人学习）是行为传统的基础。不同的社会学习策略（SLS），即个人根据自己的内容或向他人展示自己的偏见来学习行为，可能会提高个人的适应能力并产生行为传统。虽然SLS大多是单独研究的，但对它们的相互作用以及个人和社会学习之间的相互作用的了解却很少。我们在野生灵长类动物中进行了基于野外的开放扩散实验。我们为两组黑猩猩猴子提供了新颖的食物，带壳的花生，并记录了三种不同的花生开放技术在这两组中的传播方式。我们使用分层贝叶斯动态学习模型分析了数据，该模型探索了多个SLS与个人学习的集成。我们（i）报告了与严格的个人学习相比的社会学习证据，（ii）表明，长者优先在社会上学习可产生最高观察到的回报的技术，并且（iii）也将注意力转移到了更高级别的个人上。这表明，当个人将有关行为效率的社会信息与与示威者等级有关的线索整合在一起时，就会出现行为偏好。当这些偏好在一个小组中汇聚为相同的行为时，它们可能会导致稳定的行为传统。这表明，当个人将有关行为效率的社会信息与与示威者等级有关的线索整合在一起时，就会出现行为偏好。当这些偏好在一个小组中汇聚为相同的行为时，它们可能会导致稳定的行为传统。这表明，当个人将有关行为效率的社会信息与与示威者等级有关的线索整合在一起时，就会出现行为偏好。当这些偏好在一个小组中汇聚为相同的行为时，它们可能会导致稳定的行为传统。