TY - JOUR
T1 - The Effect of Social Information Use Without Learning on the Evolution of Social Behavior
AU - Borg, James
AU - Channon, Alastair
PY - 2021/2/1
Y1 - 2021/2/1
N2 - In a recent article by Borg and Channon it was shown that social information alone, decoupled from any within-lifetime learning, can result in improved performance on a food-foraging task compared to when social information is unavailable. Here we assess whether access to social information leads to significant behavioral differences both when access to social information leads to improved performance on the task, and when it does not: Do any behaviors resulting from social information use, such as movement and increased agent interaction, persist even when the ability to discriminate between poisonous and non-poisonous food is no better than when social information is unavailable? Using a neuroevolutionary artificial life simulation, we show that social information use can lead to the emergence of behaviors that differ from when social information is unavailable, and that these behaviors act as a promoter of agent interaction. The results presented here suggest that the introduction of social information is sufficient, even when decoupled from within-lifetime learning, for the emergence of pro-social behaviors. We believe this work to be the first use of an artificial evolutionary system to explore the behavioral consequences of social information use in the absence of within-lifetime learning.
AB - In a recent article by Borg and Channon it was shown that social information alone, decoupled from any within-lifetime learning, can result in improved performance on a food-foraging task compared to when social information is unavailable. Here we assess whether access to social information leads to significant behavioral differences both when access to social information leads to improved performance on the task, and when it does not: Do any behaviors resulting from social information use, such as movement and increased agent interaction, persist even when the ability to discriminate between poisonous and non-poisonous food is no better than when social information is unavailable? Using a neuroevolutionary artificial life simulation, we show that social information use can lead to the emergence of behaviors that differ from when social information is unavailable, and that these behaviors act as a promoter of agent interaction. The results presented here suggest that the introduction of social information is sufficient, even when decoupled from within-lifetime learning, for the emergence of pro-social behaviors. We believe this work to be the first use of an artificial evolutionary system to explore the behavioral consequences of social information use in the absence of within-lifetime learning.
KW - Agent interaction
KW - Behavioral persistence
KW - Local enhancement
KW - Social behavior
KW - Social information
UR - https://direct.mit.edu/artl/article-abstract/26/4/431/97304/The-Effect-of-Social-Information-Use-Without?redirectedFrom=fulltext
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85100758030&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1162/artl_a_00328
DO - 10.1162/artl_a_00328
M3 - Article
SN - 1064-5462
VL - 26
SP - 431
EP - 454
JO - Artificial Life
JF - Artificial Life
IS - 4
ER -