Definition
“Social learning is learning that is facilitated by observation of, or interaction with, another individual (or its products)” (Hoppitt and Laland 2013) modified from (Heyes 1994). This widely used definition serves well to classify the types of learning that are covered by research into social learning. However, the definition is very broad meaning that researchers use additional, narrower definitions to identify more specific types of social learning. Of particular interest is social learning that results in one individual (termed the “observer”) learning a novel behavior pattern after having been exposed to another individual (termed the “demonstrator”) performing that behavior. Such learning is sometimes called “social transmission,” which can be defined as occurring “when the prior acquisition of a behavioral trait T by one individual A, when expressed either directly in the performance of T or in some other behavior associated with T, exerts a lasting positive causal...
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Wild, S., Hoppitt, W.J.E. (2018). Social Learning. In: Vonk, J., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_1879-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_1879-1
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