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In disseminating information, policymakers face a choice between broadcasting to everyone and informing a small number of "seeds" who then spread the message. While broadcasting maximises the initial reach of messages, we offer theoretical and experimental evidence that it need not be the best strategy. In a field experiment during the 2016 Indian demonetisation, we delivered policy information, varying three dimensions of the delivery method at the village level: initial reach (broadcasting versus seeding); whether or not we induced common knowledge of who was initially informed; and number of facts delivered. We measured three outcomes: the volume of conversations about demonetisation, knowledge of demonetisation rules, and choice quality in a strongly incentivised policy-dependent decision. On all three outcomes, under common knowledge, seeding dominates broadcasting; moreover, adding common knowledge makes seeding more effective but broadcasting less so. We interpret our results via a model of image concerns deterring engagement in social learning, and we support this interpretation with evidence on differential behaviour across ability categories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Collaboration and preference for teamwork play a fundamental role in strengthening practical completion of team tasks. An organizational culture should facilitate learning systems where knowledge creation occurs through socialization. The purpose of this study is to develop a moderated mediation model, investigating the conditional indirect effect of co-worker support on the relationship between preference for teamwork and communities of practice. Design/methodology/approach: Questionnaire survey was conducted via Google Forms to collect data from 210 employees working in the private and public sector in India. Hayes PROCESS macro models were used for analyzing the mediation of personal interaction and moderation of co-worker support. Findings: This study showed evidence regarding the mediating role of personal interaction on the relationship between preference for teamwork and communities of practice. Co-worker support moderated the relationship between personal interaction and communities of practice. It also moderated the conditional indirect effect. Practical implications: The results approve the substantial role of preference for teamwork in influencing personal interaction and communities of practice. The mediating role of personal interaction on preference for teamwork and communities of practice can lead to creation and sustenance of communities of practice. Furthermore, the moderating role of co-worker support as a conditional indirect effect shows that social support and exchange can lead to social learning. Originality/value: Theoretical explanations and analytical approaches provide insights into the relationship between the preference for teamwork and communities of practice through a conditional indirect effect, a one of its kind of a study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: With Industry 4.0 and the extensive rise of smart technologies, we are seeing remarkable transformations in work practices and workplaces. Scholars report the phenomenal progress of smart technologies. At the same time, we can hear the rhetoric emphasising their potential threats. This study focusses on how and where intelligent machines are leveraged in the workplace, how humans co-working with intelligent machines are affected and what they believe can be done to mitigate the risks of the increased use of intelligent machines. Design/methodology/approach: We conducted in-depth interviews with 15 respondents working in various leadership capacities associated with intelligent machines and technologies. Using NVivo, we coded and churned out the themes from the qualitative data collected. Findings: This study shows how intelligent machines are leveraged across different industries, ranging from chatbots, intelligent sensors, cognitive systems and computer vision to the replica of the entire human being. They are used end-to-end in the value chain, increasing productivity, complementing human workers' skillsets and augmenting decisions made by human workers. Human workers experience a blend of positive and negative emotions whilst co-working with intelligent machines, which influences their job satisfaction level. Organisations adopt several anticipatory strategies, like transforming into a learning organisation, identifying futuristic technologies and upskilling their human workers, regularly conducting social learning events and designing accelerated career paths to embrace intelligent technologies. Originality/value: This study seeks to understand the emotional and practical implications of the use of intelligent machines by humans and how both entities can integrate and complement each other. These insights can help organisations and employees understand what future workplaces and practices will look like and how to remain relevant in this transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although information design has recently received significant attention as a tool for shaping consumers' purchase behavior, little is known about its use and implications in two-sided marketplaces, where both supply and demand consist of self-interested strategic agents. In this paper, we develop a model of a two-sided platform that facilitates transactions between vertically differentiated suppliers and consumers who differ in their quality preferences. We focus on illustrating the potential benefits of optimal information provision in managing the supply side of the marketplace, including the entry, exit, and pricing decisions of potential suppliers. We show that the revenue-optimal information provision policy often involves delaying the disclosure of information regarding the quality of the available suppliers. When the outside options available to consumers are relatively unattractive, we find that information design can help the platform achieve a more revenue-efficient matching between supply and demand. On the other hand, when consumers have access to attractive outside options, we show that information design can accelerate the discovery of high-quality suppliers, leading to an increase in the platform's total transaction volume. Moreover, in cases where the platform benefits from commission subsidies to incentivize the entry of new suppliers, information design can be used to achieve the same goal while allowing the platform to earn higher commission revenue. Overall, our numerical experiments suggest that the impact of information design on platform revenue, as well as on consumer surplus, can be substantial. This paper was accepted by Vishal Gaur, operations management. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.4894. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When does society eventually learn the truth, or take the correct action, via observational learning? In a general model of sequential learning over social networks, we identify a simple condition for learning dubbed excludability. Excludability is a joint property of agents' preferences and their information. We develop two classes of preferences and information that jointly satisfy excludability: (i) for a one‐dimensional state, preferences with single‐crossing differences and a new informational condition, directionally unbounded beliefs; and (ii) for a multi‐dimensional state, intermediate preferences and subexponential location‐shift information. These applications exemplify that with multiple states, "unbounded beliefs" is not only unnecessary for learning, but incompatible with familiar informational structures like normal information. Unbounded beliefs demands that a single agent can identify the correct action. Excludability, on the other hand, only requires that a single agent must be able to displace any wrong action, even if she cannot take the correct action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People often rely on social learning--learning by observing others' actions and outcomes--to form preferences in advance of their own direct experiences. Although typically adaptive, we investigated whether social learning may also contribute to the formation and spread of prejudice. In six experiments (n = 1550), we demonstrate that by merely observing interactions between a prejudiced actor and social group members, observers acquired the prejudices of the actor. Moreover, observers were unaware of the actors' bias, misattributing their acquired group preferences to the behavior of group members, despite identical behavior between groups. Computational modeling revealed that this effect was due to value shaping, whereby one's preferences are shaped by another's actions toward a target, in addition to the target's reward feedback. These findings identify social learning as a potent mechanism of prejudice formation that operates implicitly and supports the transmission of intergroup bias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on developmental systems and dynamic systems theories, we propose the lifeworld approach--a conceptual framework for research and a hypothesis concerning early social-cognitive development. As a framework, the lifeworld approach recognizes the social embeddedness of development and shifts the focus away from individual developmental outcomes toward the reciprocal interplay of processes within and between individuals that co-constitutes early social-cognitive development. As a hypothesis, the lifeworld approach proposes that the changing developmental system--spanning the different individuals as their subsystems--strives toward attractor states through regulation at the behavioral level, which results in both the emergence and further differentiation of developmental attainments. The lifeworld approach--as a framework and a hypothesis, including key methodological approaches to test it--is exemplified by research on infants' self-awareness, prosocial behavior and social learning. Equipped with, first, a conceptual framework grounded in a modern view on development and, second, a growing suite of methodological approaches, developmental science can advance by analyzing the mutually influential relations between intra-individual and interactional processes in order to identify key mechanisms underlying early social-cognitive development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Direct reciprocity is a mechanism for the evolution of cooperation in repeated social interactions. According to the literature, individuals naturally learn to adopt conditionally cooperative strategies if they have multiple encounters with their partner. Corresponding models have greatly facilitated our understanding of cooperation, yet they often make strong assumptions on how individuals remember and process payoff information. For example, when strategies are updated through social learning, it is commonly assumed that individuals compare their average payoffs. This would require them to compute (or remember) their payoffs against everyone else in the population. To understand how more realistic constraints influence direct reciprocity, we consider the evolution of conditional behaviours when individuals learn based on more recent experiences. Even in the most extreme case that they only take into account their very last interaction, we find that cooperation can still evolve. However, such individuals adopt less generous strategies, and they cooperate less often than in the classical setup with average payoffs. Interestingly, once individuals remember the payoffs of two or three recent interactions, cooperation rates quickly approach the classical limit. These findings contribute to a literature that explores which kind of cognitive capabilities are required for reciprocal cooperation. While our results suggest that some rudimentary form of payoff memory is necessary, it suffices to remember a few interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Distributed photovoltaic (DPV) is a promising solution to climate change. However, the widespread adoption of DPV faces challenges, such as high upfront costs, regulatory barriers, and market uncertainty. Addressing these barriers requires coordinating the interests of stakeholders in the promotion of DPV. Therefore, this paper constructs a three-party evolutionary game model in a social network with the government, investment companies and residents as the main subjects and examines the influence of different subjects' behavioral strategies on the promotion of DPV under the social learning mechanism. The results show that: (1) In the game equilibrium, both the government and residents hold a positive attitude towards the promotion of DPV; (2) Companies will obtain most of the subsidies through market power and information differences, resulting in the increase of government subsidies that do not always benefit residents; (3) The increase of energy consumption and pollution prevention costs can promote companies' investment in DPV; (4) The increase of environmental protection taxes to a certain extent helps companies to take responsibility for promoting DPV, reducing the pressure on the government to promote it and increasing residents' income. This study provides insights into the sustainable development of DPV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultural and genetic inheritance combine to enable rapid changes in trait expression, but their relative importance in determining trait expression across generations is not clear. Birdsong is a socially learned cognitive trait that is subject to both cultural and genetic inheritance, as well as being affected by early developmental conditions. We sought to test whether early-life conditions in one generation can affect song acquisition in the next generation. We exposed one generation (F1) of nestlings to elevated corticosterone (CORT) levels, allowed them to breed freely as adults, and quantified their son's (F2) ability to copy the song of their social father. We also quantified the neurogenetic response to song playback through immediate early gene (IEG) expression in the auditory forebrain. F2 males with only one corticosterone-treated parent copied their social father's song less accurately than males with two control parents. Expression of ARC in caudomedial nidopallium (NCM) correlated with father-son song similarity, and patterns of expression levels of several IEGs in caudomedial mesopallium (CMM) in response to father song playback differed between control F2 sons and those with a CORT-treated father only. This is the first study to demonstrate that developmental conditions can affect social learning and neurogenetic responses in a subsequent generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human ecological success is often attributed to our capacity for social learning, which facilitates the spread of adaptive behaviours through populations. All humans rely on social learning to acquire culture, but there is substantial variation across societies, between individuals and over developmental time. However, it is unclear why these differences exist. Here, we present an evolutionary model showing that individual variation in social learning can emerge if the benefits of social learning are unpredictable. Unpredictability selects for flexible developmental programmes that allow individuals to update their reliance on social learning based on previous experiences. This developmental flexibility, in turn, causes some individuals in a population to end up consistently relying more heavily on social learning than others. We demonstrate this core evolutionary mechanism across three scenarios of increasing complexity, investigating the impact of different sources of uncertainty about the usefulness of social learning. Our results show how evolution can shape how individuals learn to learn from others, with potentially profound effects on cultural diversity. Social learning facilitates adaptive behaviour, yet people engage in it to varying degrees. Here, the authors use simulations to show how this variation can stem from flexible strategies that evolve if the benefits of social learning are uncertain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A change to a population's social network is a change to the substrate of cultural transmission, affecting behavioral diversity and adaptive cultural evolution. While features of network structure such as population size and density have been well studied, less is understood about the influence of social processes such as population turnover—or the repeated replacement of individuals by naive individuals. Experimental data have led to the hypothesis that naive learners can drive cultural evolution by better assessing the relative value of behaviors, although this hypothesis has been expressed only verbally. We conducted a formal exploration of this hypothesis using a generative model that concurrently simulated its two key ingredients: social transmission and reinforcement learning. We simulated competition between high- and low-reward behaviors while varying turnover magnitude and tempo. Variation in turnover influenced changes in the distributions of cultural behaviors, irrespective of initial knowledge-state conditions. We found optimal turnover regimes that amplified the production of higher reward behaviors through two key mechanisms: repertoire composition and enhanced valuation by agents that knew both behaviors. These effects depended on network and learning parameters. Our model provides formal theoretical support for, and predictions about, the hypothesis that naive learners can shape cultural change through their enhanced sampling ability. By moving from experimental data to theory, we illuminate an underdiscussed generative process that can lead to changes in cultural behavior, arising from an interaction between social dynamics and learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decisions are not necessarily easy to separate into a planning and an execution phase and the decision-making process can often be reflected in the movement associated with the decision. Here, we used formalized definitions of concepts relevant in decision-making and learning to explore if and how these concepts correlate with decision-related movement paths, both during and after a choice is made. To this end, we let 120 participants (46 males, mean age = 24.5 years) undergo a repeated probabilistic two-choice task with changing probabilities where we used mouse-tracking, a simple non-invasive technique, to study the movements related to decisions. The decisions of the participants were modelled using Bayesian inference which enabled the computation of variables related to decision-making and learning. Analyses of the movement during the decision showed effects of relevant decision variables, such as confidence, on aspects related to, for instance, timing and pausing, range of movement and deviation from the shortest distance. For the movements after a decision there were some effects of relevant learning variables, mainly related to timing and speed. We believe our findings can be of interest for researchers within several fields, spanning from social learning to experimental methods and human–machine/robot interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sociology points to the contribution of sports to many areas of life. One stream of research focuses on how sport socialises its participants and fans into an entire world of values that extends beyond the realm of sport. This article explores whether and to what extent sports benefit young fans by facilitating an increased awareness of the global space. It found significant differences between national flag identification abilities of sport fans and non-fans. No significant differences were found between these groups on other factors. Implications of the study potentially support approaches that conceptualise sport as a social learning tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue 32(2) of the "Mitteilungen der Deutschen Mathematikervereinigung" contains various articles and contributions on mathematical topics. One article discusses Margaret Wertheim's project "Making Math," which invites people worldwide to understand and experience mathematics together. Other contributions deal with unconventional approaches to teaching mathematics, research data management, and the relationship between mathematics and fiction. The spread of math explanation videos is also critically examined. The issue also contains information about upcoming elections in the DMV presidency. The secretary of the DMV, Jörg Lehnert, calls for nominations for the Hermann Minkowski Medal 2024. This award is presented every two years by the DMV for outstanding mathematical research achievements. The medal is endowed with 2000 euros and is aimed at mathematicians who have already gained international recognition but are still at the beginning of their careers. Nominations should be connected to the German-speaking area and submitted to the DMV office by August 30, 2024. The article criticizes popular math explanation videos, especially those by Daniel Jung. It is criticized that these videos have didactic and mathematical deficiencies. The article warns that such videos convey a problematic image of mathematics and undermine the educational value of mathematics. The article discusses the importance of learning centers as social learning and exchange places for students in mathematics studies. Best practice examples from two university locations are presented, where regular "math nights" take place to support students in exam preparation. The study examines the use of the blended learning concept "inverted classroom" (IC) in the introductory phase of studies at HFT Stuttgart. The aim is to meet the different performance levels of the students and enable individual learning speeds. The article presents the concept of an extracurricular learning program for young women on the topic of artificial intelligence (AI) and mathematical modeling. The program aims to teach female students from grade 10 the mathematical and computational foundations of modern AI technologies and strengthen their motivation for AI, mathematics, and computer science. The article describes the 12th International Congress of Mathematicians, which took place 70 years ago in Amsterdam. Information is given about the participants, the venues, and the speakers. The text deals with the uncertain identifications of two individuals, namely "him" and van der Corput. The text addresses the topic of the connection between mathematics and literature. It is pointed out that mathematically relevant information is not always obvious in books and that it is important to exchange texts and information with other interested parties. The article contains various references to mathematical and literary works as well as to people who deal with mathematics and literature. Finally, the award ceremony of the Math Advent Calendar MiA is reported. Despite the train strike, over 700 winners of all age groups participated in the award ceremony. The text contains a list of mathematical research projects and their authors at various German universities. Various subject areas are covered, including neurology, physics, chemistry, and materials science. The authors present their research results and methods in their respective fields. Information about the members of the board is also provided. [Extracted from the article]

This study confidently evaluates views on taqlid al-faith in classical theological literature, asserting that they can be assessed in light of neurobiology and modern learning theories. It is evident that a considerable number of believers base their understanding of faith in taqlid (mimicry). However, whether most people meet the criteria for achieving Tahqiq faith (research-based) remains uncertain. The criteria for achieving internalized faith are well-established and can be met with proper guidance and effort. This assertion is based on the perspectives of Muslim theologians on faith, which highlights the differences between taqlid and internalized faith. Taqlid faith is not based on reason. However, critical faith is based on reasoning and logical deductions, leading to the conclusion that Allah is the absolute creator of everything. It is important to note that while arguments based on reasoning and deduction alone may be insufficient to establish the existence of the divine in matters of faith, theological scholars assert that they are still a valuable tool in understanding and interpreting religious beliefs. Theological schools should reconsider their justification of the method of reasoning employed regarding the subject of internalized faith. Faith is not solely a cognitive process but also encompasses behavioral and emotional dimensions. This framework asserts that theological approaches that reduce faith in a cognitive process must be evaluated in the light of modern science's mirror neurons and learning theories. Mirror neurons, discovered by a group of scientists from the University of Parma, Italy, led by Giacomo Rizzolatti, are a crucial biological mechanism that significantly influences the way people relate to each other, empathy, and learning processes. The text clearly and confidently explains how mirror neurons in the brain respond to various experiential factors and how they affect cognitive function. It asserts that the theory of mirror neurons is grounded in human physiology and emphasizes that imitation involves both actional similarities and cognitive processes. The cognitive process in the theory of mirror neurons, whereby individuals believe in observing others, implies the use of reasoning. Additionally, the connection between imitation and social learning theories was examined, highlighting its crucial role in the development of genuine beliefs. Learning theories emphasize the interaction between individuals and their environment, highlighting the significance of social interactions such as modeling and imitation. Theological schools should reconsider their justification of the method of reasoning employed regarding the subject of the Tahqiqi (research-based) faith. Faith is not solely a cognitive process but also encompasses behavioral and emotional dimensions. This framework asserts that theological approaches that reduce faith in a cognitive process must be evaluated in the light of modern science's mirror neurons and learning theories. Mirror neurons, discovered by a group of scientists from the University of Parma, Italy, led by Giacomo Rizzolatti, are a crucial biological mechanism that significantly influences the way people relate to each other, empathy, and learning processes. The text clearly and confidently explains how mirror neurons in the brain respond to various experiential factors and how they affect cognitive function. It asserts that the theory of mirror neurons is grounded in human physiology and emphasizes that imitation involves both actional similarities and cognitive processes. The cognitive process in the theory of mirror neurons, whereby individuals believe in observing others, implies the use of reasoning. Additionally, the connection between imitation and social learning theories was examined, highlighting its crucial role in the development of genuine beliefs. Learning theories emphasize the interaction between individuals and their environment, highlighting the significance of social interactions such as modeling and imitation. Bandura, one of the main proponents of this theory, argues that people learn by observing the behavior of others around them. He also emphasizes that learning is not limited to imitating observed behaviors but that cognitive processes also play an important role. Therefore, he argues that the process of learning by imitation depends not only on external factors but also on the internal thought processes of the individual. This study discusses the effects of imitation on human behavior and its relationship with cognitive processes within the framework of social learning theory. It has been argued that the process of modelling the behavior of the person being imitated overlaps with the process of inference and deduction underlying social cognitive theories. In addition, the interplay between the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral dimensions of faith is emphasized, and it is stated that the Prophet taught faith using live models, symbolic models, and verbal instructions in the Prophet's message, and that these teachings were observed and imitated by the Companions. The article is unique in its field as it is a multidisciplinary study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1924, exactly a century ago, the world-famous children's author Alan Milne wrote this much-loved rhyme about the play activities of his young son: Where am I going? I don't quite know. Down to the stream where the king-cups grow-Up on the hill where the pine-trees blow-Anywhere, anywhere. I don't know...Where am I going? The high rooks call: "It's awful fun to be born at all". Where am I going? The ring-doves coo: "We do have beautiful things to do". But in 2024, in much of the Western world, allowing a young child to wander in this manner would be seen by many as dangerous, reckless and negligent. For example, in 2019, Renee Umstattd Meyer and her colleagues found that a large proportion of children in the post-industrial world did not take the recommended amount of exercise in the outdoor environment, and even where spaces were specifically made available to them, parents feared that they would be infiltrated by crime and violence. This article considers the emergent effects of significant cultural change in children's independent and collaborative free play opportunities. It draws on an ethological and biocultural perspective to argue why independent, active free play, particularly involving peer collaboration, is so important to human development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green initiative-taking, an employee's self-starting opportunity-seeking action to improve environmental performance is a desirable outcome of organizations' green policies. Given prior inattention to this area of study, it is unclear what fosters green initiative-taking, and why. This study attempts to answer these questions using a mixed-methods approach. First, an exploratory qualitative study was conducted. Green human resource management, eco-silence, supervisor bottom-line mentality, and co-worker voice emerged as the major themes of employees' experiences when seeking to engage in green initiative-taking. Second, building on social information processing and social learning theories, a quantitative study proposes a conceptual model of the inter-relationships between the themes that emerged from the first study. Results from a multinational multisource time-lagged quantitative study support most of the hypotheses and shed light on avenues for future research. It suggests that supervisor bottom-line mentality inhibiting green initiative-taking might be standard procedure bottom-line mentality rather than profit bottom-line mentality. Post-hoc, to enhance the study's applicability, a fuzzy-set analysis was conducted to offer managers the configurations that best yield green initiative-taking among hospitality employees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a result of the growing commercial marketplace for teachers' digital data, a new organization that includes educational data brokers has evolved. Educational data brokerage is relatively intangible due to the ease of de-identified data being collected and sold via educational technology. There is an urgent need to expose how the brokerage of educational data relates to the commercial mediation of consent and privacy in educational settings. It is difficult due to a lack of consistent terminology about organizations that buy and sell data. This paper offers an extensive analysis of the social learning platform Edmodo and provides evidence that justifies the term 'educational data broker'. The results aim to provide new terminology to a largely obfuscated process in educational settings and bring to light a concrete example of brokerage activity focusing on teachers' online activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to understand the nature of learning English in the digital age from students' personal 'learning lives'. Drawing on hermeneutic phenomenology's principles, this study conducted conversational interviews and obtained reflective reports from students over 5 months. The findings reveal that students' English learning experiences are sociocultural processes involving a complex interplay between learner agency, other agents, the cultural practices using smartphones, and the wider context. Furthermore, learning English using smartphones facilitates an approach to it or Computer Assisted Language Learning that embraces 'anytime' and 'anywhere' learning and involves a seamless integration of personal, social, formal, and informal learnings. Therefore, we propose smartphone-assisted English language learning (SAELL), addressing smartphone use for learning English, based on qualitative data and recent trends in the field. Future research should include rich qualitative evidence to support the SAELL framework in practice in multiple empirical settings. Empirical studies are mostly applied within university settings; however, the practical implications have more relevance to students, teachers, educators, and policymakers who may be involved in shaping novel smartphone learning spaces for formal and informal contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to examine the experimental governance of urban regeneration in China from the perspective of social learning, through an empirical study of a pilot project called Kingway Brewery in Shenzhen. Single-loop and double-loop learning have contributed to policy innovation, through converting tacit knowledge from experimental pilot projects into explicit and codified knowledge in policy-making. Problem and strategy framing incrementally became more mature and structured, during the deliberative interaction of continuous experimental practice and social learning. In the micro processes of social learning and policy innovation, planners play a crucial role as intermediators and knowledge brokers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: In this study, we investigated whether Kea parrots (Nestor notabilis) can learn to solve a task to reach a food reward by watching another Kea solve the task first, a process known as social learning. The task that the Kea needed to solve was a box with two strings attached, where pulling the correct string caused a reward to be released into a food tray. Pulling the incorrect string had no effect. Kea subjects were separated into groups: test and control. 'Test subjects' observed an experienced, trained demonstrator first solve the box, after which they were given access to the box to try and solve for themselves. 'Control subjects' did not view a demonstration and were given access to the box with no previous experience. We could show that test subjects spent significantly more time manipulating the correct string compared to control subjects. This suggests that viewing a demonstration brought the test subjects' attention to the relevant parts of the box. There was also a trend towards test subjects having more success in solving the box compared to control subjects. Social learning describes the acquisition of knowledge through observation of other individuals, and it is fundamental for the development of culture and traditions within human groups. Although previous studies suggest that Kea (Nestor notabilis) benefit from social learning, experimental evidence has been inconclusive, as in a recent two-action task, all perceptual factors were ignored. The present study attempts to address this by investigating social learning in Kea with a focus on social enhancement processes. In an experiment with a captive group of Kea, we investigated whether individuals that had the opportunity to observe a conspecific performing a simple task subsequently show better performance in that task than a control group without prior demonstration. This study provides a strong tendency of greater success in skill acquisition in Kea as a result of social learning. Kea that observed a conspecific solving a task showed clear evidence of perceptual factors drawing attention to the relevant parts of the experimental apparatus and manipulated these significantly more (100% of trials) than control birds (77.8% of trials). Combined with a strong trend (p = 0.056) of the test subjects solving the task more than the control subjects, this shows conclusively that Kea, at least when required to solve a task, do attend to perceptual factors of a demonstrated action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We leverage a national panel of US municipalities to show that behavioral finance helps explain the number of months of expenses that municipalities save in cash and investment reserves. We hypothesize that municipal managers may be using numerical anchoring based on historical values to target the number of months of savings to hold and that they may also be engaged in social learning to target months of savings based on the behavior of neighboring municipalities. We test for these effects by combining two innovative techniques, a two‐stage regression designed to test for anchoring of present financial values based on theoretically unimportant historical values, and a measure of the spatial autocorrelation of savings to test for social learning. The results suggest that, in deciding how much to save, municipal managers are influenced by the levels of savings they held in the past and the savings levels of their neighbors, and that they underreact to changes in theoretically relevant economic fundamentals. Further tests also suggest that the smallest cities by population are more influenced by the behavior of their neighbors than their past savings, whereas the largest cities show the opposite result, effectively choosing themselves as their own role models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past two decades, there has been an explosion of innovation in software tools that encapsulate and expand the capabilities of the widely used student peer assessment. While the affordances and pedagogical impacts of traditional in-person, "paper-and-pencil" peer assessment have been studied extensively and are relatively well understood, computerized (online) peer assessment introduced not only shifts in scalability and efficiency, but also entirely new capabilities and forms of social learning interactions, instructor leverage, and distributed cognition, that still need to be researched and systematized. Despite the ample research on traditional peer assessment and evidence of its efficacy, common vocabulary and shared understanding of online peer-assessment system design, including the variety of methods, techniques, and implementations, is still missing. We present key findings of a comprehensive survey based on a systematic research framework for examining and generalizing affordances and constraints of online peer-assessment systems. This framework (a) provides a foundation of a design-science metatheory of online peer assessment, (b) helps structure the discussion of user needs and design options, and (c) informs educators and system design practitioners. We identified two major themes in existing and potential research—orientation towards scaffolded learning vs. exploratory learning and system maturity. We also outlined an agenda for future studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social learning is a mechanism used by many species to efficiently gain information about their environment. Although many animals live in an environment where members of other species are present, little is known about interspecific social learning. Domesticated and urbanized species provide the opportunity to investigate whether nonhuman animals can learn from heterospecifics such as humans, who are integral parts of their social landscape. Although domestic dogs Canis familiaris have been intensively researched for their ability to learn from humans, most studies have focused on dogs living as pets. However, free-ranging dogs represent the majority of the world's dog population, they live alongside humans, scavenge on human refuse, and are subject to natural and sexual selection. Thus, free-ranging dogs with extensive exposure to humans and their artifacts provide the opportunity to investigate interspecific social learning in a naturalistic setting, where learning from humans might be a benefit for them. Here we tested individual free-ranging dogs in a between-subject design: Dogs in the control group could spontaneously choose between two novel and differently patterned food-delivering boxes. In the experimental group, instead, dogs could first observe an unfamiliar human approaching and eating from 1 of the 2 boxes. We provide the first evidence that free-ranging dogs match the choice of an unfamiliar human. These results show that at least simple forms of interspecific social learning might be involved in dogs' success in living alongside humans in a complex urbanized environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although action research has a history of bridging gaps between research and school practice, challenges emerge when aligning a scientific approach with development work in schools and in collaboration between research and school practice. In this article, we aim to deepen the knowledge on teachers' action research as social learning in collaboration with a research-based PD leader. In this study, we follow two teachers conducting action research in a Swedish upper secondary school, in collaboration with a professional development (PD) leader who is also a doctoral student. Qualitative data have been used to write value-creation stories that illustrate the learning process throughout their collaboration. Our findings show how joint work between the teachers and the PD leader functions as a boundary process where two sets of practices – classroom and academic – are coordinated and contribute to the learning process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interspecific information flow is known to affect individual fitness, population dynamics and community assembly, but there has been less study of how species diversity affects information flow and thereby ecosystem functioning and services. We address this question by first examining differences among species in the sensitivity, accuracy, transmissibility, detectability and value of the cues and signals they produce, and in how they receive, store and use information derived from heterospecifics. We then review how interspecific information flow occurs in communities, involving a diversity of species and sensory modes, and how this flow can affect ecosystem‐level functions, such as decomposition, seed dispersal or algae removal on coral reefs. We highlight evidence that some keystone species are particularly critical as a source of information used by eavesdroppers, and so have a disproportionate effect on information flow. Such keystone species include community informants producing signals, particularly about predation risk, that influence other species' landscapes of fear, and aggregation initiators creating cues or signals about resources. We suggest that the presence of keystone species means that there will likely be a positive relationship in many communities between species diversity and information through a 'sampling effect', in which larger pools of species are more likely to include the keystone species by chance. We then consider whether the number and relative abundance of species, irrespective of the presence of keystone species, matter to interspecific information flow; on this issue, the theory is less developed, and the evidence scant and indirect. Higher diversity could increase the quantity or quality of information that is used by eavesdroppers because redundancy increases the reliability of information or because the species provide complementary information. Alternatively, there could be a lack of a relationship between species diversity and information if there is widespread information parasitism where users are not sources, or if information sourced from heterospecifics is of lower value than that gained personally or sourced from conspecifics. Recent research suggests that species diversity does have information‐modulated community and ecosystem consequences, especially in birds, such as the diversity of species at feeders increasing resource exploitation, or the number of imitated species increasing responses to vocal mimics. A first step for future research includes comprehensive observations of information flow among different taxa and habitats. Then studies should investigate whether species diversity influences the cumulative quality or quantity of information at the community level, and consequently ecosystem‐level processes. An applied objective is to conserve species in part for their value as sources of information for other species, including for humans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Experiments since the classic studies of Niko Tinbergen have provided evidence that animals use visual landmarks to navigate. We tested whether birds use visual landmarks to relocate their nest sites by presenting two species of cavity nesting birds with a dyad of nest boxes with different white markings around the entrance, a circle or a triangle. When the two boxes were erected in close proximity on the same tree, pied flycatchers Ficedula hypoleuca and blue tits Cyanistes caeruleus confused the entrance of their nest both when the boxes had different external markings and when they were unmarked. Most females added nest material to both boxes of a dyad and one third of the flycatchers laid eggs in both boxes although a female can only incubate the eggs in one nest at a time. Thus, the birds did not use external markings around cavity entrances for orientation. We also tried to replicate a previous study purporting to show that migratory birds use social learning of the external appearance of nests from other species. However, pied flycatchers did not choose boxes with the same painted markings as those applied to nests of resident great tits Parus major which were judged to be high quality "demonstrators" from their large clutch sizes. We argue that conclusions from previous studies on social learning based on external markings as landmarks on nest cavities in birds need to be reconsidered. Significance: Animals may try to hide their nest site on the landscape to avoid the attention of predators and competitors. However, this may make it difficult in the beginning of the breeding season for the parents to relocate the nest site quickly, particularly in a habitat with a complex three-dimensional structure of bushes and trees. To test whether birds might use conspicuous markings around the entrance of their nest as landmarks, we presented prospecting pied flycatchers Ficedula hypoleuca and blue tits Cyanistes caeruleus with a dyad of nest boxes painted with a white circle or a white triangle affixed to different trees or the same tree. However, we found no evidence that the birds used the external markings to identify the entrance to their nest site, or that such markings on nest cavities were learned from resident great tits Parus major. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Praxis der Kinderpsychologie und Kinderpsychiatrie is the property of Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Praxis der Kinderpsychologie und Kinderpsychiatrie is the property of Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article describes an empirical study that explored the cognitive and emotional effects of teaching through shadow theater as compared to traditional storytelling of the same texts and songs in children on the autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The rationale is based on broken mirror theory anchored in research on mirror neurons. Fifty-seven elementary school students diagnosed with ASD aged 7 to 13 participated in classes where they were taught eight familiar children's stories and songs in a shadow theater format or in a traditional storytelling format. Half heard the story first and then watched the shadow theater and vice-versa. The activities were videoed and transcribed for analysis on the Pupils' Functioning in Lessons on the Autism Scale (PFLAS) that measures cognitive, emotional, behavioral and learning responses. Performance on the PFLAS was higher for the shadow theater activity than for the storytelling activity on all indices. Shadow theater may provide a more conducive setting for the development of the acquisition of social and behavioral skills than traditional storytelling, possibly by tapping mirror neurons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research examined the practices and spaces for self-access language learning (SALL) support, such as self-access learning centers (SALCs), learning resources, other learning spaces, advising, learner development, and social learning opportunities in leading institutions in Europe. The researcher analyzed how language learner support is conceptualized, operationalized, and evaluated at three institutions in Italy and one in Germany. The research was conducted through systematic observations during site visits, document analyses, and semi-structured interviews with staff and students in the four institutions. The researcher also drew on findings from the recent literature, insights from recent conference presentations, and discussions with colleagues based elsewhere in Europe to make observations about current trends in SALL in Europe. Six themes emerged from a thematic analysis of this data. The research offers perspectives for students and teachers interested in supporting learning outside the classroom in Europe and elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Cognitive Elephant Herding Optimization (CEHO) technique, a new variation of Elephant Herding Optimization (EHO) that incorporates human learning principles-based techniques, has been proposed in this study. Two novel strategies--Socially Interactive Guidance (SIG) and Self-Adaptive Parameterized Perception (SAPP)--have been developed as a result of incorporating these concepts into EHO. The SIG approach incorporates guidance-based learning as its inspiration for the exploration phase. Similar to this, SAPP techniques are devoted to the exploitation phase that incorporates Self-Regulating Perception (SRP) and Generation Gap (GG) cognitive skills from people into the technique. On the CEC 2013 benchmark suits, a significant number of experimental assessments have been carried out to evaluate the significance of the proposed strategy. Moreover, the algorithm is compared to some of the state-to-art algorithms, namely elephant herding optimization (EHO), differential evolution (DE), sine cosine algorithm (SCA), and whale optimization algorithm (WOA), in order to validate the proposed performance and convergence of CEHO against selected functions of CEC 2013 benchmark suits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Environmental & Social Management Journal / Revista de Gestão Social e Ambiental is the property of Environmental & Social Management Journal and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

A shared narrative in the literature on the evolution of cooperation maintains that social learning evolves early to allow for the transmission of cumulative culture. Social norms, whilst present at the outset, only rise to prominence later on, mainly to stabilise cooperation against the threat of defection. In contrast, I argue that once we consider insights from social epistemology, an expansion of this narrative presents itself: An interesting kind of social norm — an epistemic coordination norm — was operative in early and important instances of specialised social learning. I show how there's a need for such norms in two key social learning strategies and explain how this need is constituted. In assessor-teaching (e.g. Castro et al., 2019b, 2021), epistemic coordination norms allow agents to coordinate around the content of social learning, i.e., what is to be known and how this is to be done. These norms also allow agents to coordinate around the form of cultural learning in what's sometimes called strategic social learning (Laland, 2004; Hoppitt & Laland, 2013; Heyes, 2018, Chap. 5) and elsewhere. Broadly speaking, this concerns how cultural learning is organised within the social group. The upshot is that the evolution of social learning and social norms are intertwined in important and underappreciated ways from early on. The above matters as it informs our views about the evolution of social norms more generally. Truly social norms emerged to coordinate a plurality of complex behaviours and interactions, amongst them specialised social learning. I substantiate this view by contrasting it with Jonathan Birch's views on the evolution of norms. What results is a general but cohesive narrative on the early evolution of social norms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I propose a framework describing how naïve learning in networks may determine coordination outcomes of product adoption. Individuals receive initial signals regarding the value of the product, communicate afterwards, and make adoption decisions based on that. In the framework of DeGroot's Naïve Learning, the model suggests that as beliefs converge, the result will converge to a unique cutoff equilibrium, similar to a global game. I then describe how adoption rates and social welfare depend on network structures by showing that the variance of the unit eigenvector centrality of the listening matrix, which represents inequality in network positions, is a sufficient statistic for adoption in equilibrium. More adoption is expected with high inequality in network positions if the value of the product to be adopted is low, and vice versa. The relationship between social welfare and inequality in network positions aligns with that of adoption and inequality in network positions, except in cases of very low product value, where increased adoption may reduce overall social welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After more than a century in which social learning was blackboxed by evolutionary biologists, psychologists and economists, there is now a thriving industry in cognitive neuroscience producing computational models of learning from and about other agents. This is a hugely positive development. The tools of computational cognitive neuroscience are rigorous and precise. They have the potential to prise open the black box. However, we argue that, from the perspective of a scientific realist, these tools are not yet being applied in an optimal way. To fulfil their potential, the shiny new methods of cognitive neuroscience need to be better coordinated with old-fashioned, contrastive experimental designs. Inferences from model complexity to cognitive complexity, of the kind made by those who favour lean interpretations of behaviour (‘associationists’), require social learning to be tested in challenging task environments. Inferences from cognitive complexity to social specificity, made by those who favour rich interpretations (‘mentalists’), call for non-social control experiments. A parsimonious model that fits current data is a good start, but carefully designed experiments are needed to distinguish models that tell us how social learning could be done from those that tell us how it is really done. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Technology & Chinese Language Teaching is the property of Middle Tennessee State University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Social constructivism emphasises the role of meaningful interactions as a vehicle for learning. Meaningful interactions engage learners cognitively and socially with others to construct knowledge. Such interactions, however, require an environment specially designed to facilitate and guide learners' cognitive and social processes towards the construction of knowledge. Forums in massive open online courses (MOOCs) could potentially provide such an environment. However, research on how MOOC forums are designed to facilitate and guide cognitive and social processes is scarce. This study adopts a qualitative lens to examine the specifications, pedagogical instructions, and guidance provided in the forums of 4 edX MOOCs to help learners engage in meaningful interactions. We sought to uncover how MOOC forums are designed to support the social construction of knowledge. We found that MOOC forums mainly seek to facilitate cognitive processes while giving scant support or guidance to social processes. Such a learning design might favour the individual over the social construction of knowledge. To a certain extent, our findings help explain the questionable effectiveness of MOOC forums as social learning environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Educational psychology remains constricted by Westernised science's universalising views. The teaching about emotions and their expression is a critical element at the core of educational psychology, but the underpinning ontology and theories appear to be largely unexamined. The importance of educational psychology was highlighted by the Covid-19 pandemic, and with wellbeing initiatives accumulating, now, more than ever before, educational psychology research and practice in Aotearoa New Zealand must be called to account. Most existing programmes derive from anthropological, psychological and observation-based approaches, unquestioningly proposing that we all feel emotions because of, or in response to, certain occurrences in our lives. Dare we question this 'given' through a decolonising or cross-cultural lens? Māori values, holistic concepts and the diverse ways of knowing and being with emotion need to be considered as Aotearoa New Zealand looks beyond the dominant discourse of current SEL. In classrooms every day, practitioners discern how to discuss and respond to emotions, their own and those of the students in their care. This article invites educators to critique their own understandings of emotions and considers ways to challenge educational psychology and the practice of teaching about emotions to acknowledge the culturally diverse classroom contexts of Aotearoa New Zealand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a dynamic price-based demand response (DR) energy sharing model for peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions of photovoltaic (PV) prosumers in microgrids. First, a multi-subject dynamic game model is constructed between a retail electricity provider (REP), an energy sharing provider (ESP), and multiple prosumers participating in energy sharing transactions. The cost model of the prosumers is designed to reflect the DR from the perspectives of economic cost and the satisfaction of prosumers with electricity consumption patterns. Further, the effect of social learning (SL) among prosumers on multi-subject decision-making behavior is considered. The model is solved using a deep reinforcement learning algorithm, and the results show that: (1) SL reduces the volatility of electricity prices and provides more stable price signals for market participants. (2) When prosumers are unwilling to change their electricity consumption pattern, ESP and REP will increase the purchase price and reduce the sale price, encouraging prosumers to increase electricity consumption to some extent. (3) As the number of prosumers increases, the benefits to price setters increase, but the costs to prosumers rise accordingly. This study provides a valuable reference for promoting the development of the PV industry and the diffusion of sustainable energy.