Meeting Abstract
Have you ever gone to a vending machine and found it to be broken? Have you ever seen someone else hitting and yelling at a vending machine? Would you try that vending machine, or do you go the next one? Does it matter if you know the person? Can the same thought processes that underlie your snack choices be found in social populations of animals? This project explores how knowledge about value spreads through a community. In previous studies in our lab and others, birds have been shown to share and utilize information about food values and ease of access. In the current study we specifically explore how knowledge of valuation may be obtained and shared within a community in relation to sex, sociality and pair bonds. This study focused on aviary-housed zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) in a space equipped with two computer controlled “smart feeders” that enabled us to both control feeding access and monitor activity. One feeder was filled with high value food, while the other was equipped with less desirable, low value food. We monitored which animals approached the feeders and in what order, then correlated this to pair bonds and previous cage mate associations. We will discuss these findings and ongoing studies exploring patterns of learning when observational ability is restricted. Studying these feeding patterns has implications for mapping social networks and understanding how specific social connections may influence patterns of learning.
