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Gender role ideology, i.e. beliefs about how genders should behave, is shaped by social learning. Accordingly, if perceptions about the beliefs of others are inaccurate this may impact trajectories of cultural change. Consistent with this premise, recent studies report evidence of a tendency to overestimate peer support for inequitable gender norms, especially among men, and that correcting apparent norm misperception promotes transitions to relatively egalitarian beliefs. However, supporting evidence largely relies on self-report measures vulnerable to social desirability bias. Consequently, observed patterns may reflect researcher measurement error rather than participant misperception. Addressing this shortcoming, we examine mens gender role ideology using both conventional self-reported and a novel wife-reported measure of mens beliefs in an urbanising community in Tanzania. We confirm that participants overestimate peer support for gender inequity. However, the latter measure, which we argue more accurately captures mens true beliefs, implies that this tendency is relatively modest in magnitude and scope. Overestimation was most pronounced among men holding relatively inequitable beliefs, consistent with misperception of peer beliefs reinforcing inequitable norms. Furthermore, older and poorly educated men overestimated peer support for gender inequity the most, suggesting that outdated and limited social information contribute to norm misperception in this context.

This paper explores how analysts' forecasting behaviour is related to their centrality within a dynamic information network. In this network, analysts who issued coverage reports on the same listed firms in clusters are connected. The social learning hypothesis and social capital theory suggest that financial analysts could learn from other analyst forecasts and obtain information from analyst reports. Employing a dynamic complex network methodology, we focus on analysts' network centrality – degree, betweenness, and closeness – to represent their information access based on a sample of 819,539 analyst forecasts in the Chinese A-share market from 2018 to 2022. Our findings suggest that analysts with more central positions in the network produce more accurate earnings-per-share forecasts and have a longer persistent influence on other analysts. Our results support the perspective that the diffusion of information among analysts affects their forecasts and reporting behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to explore the factors that influence senior high students' decisions to enroll in agriculture courses in college. Specifically, this sought answers to the socioeconomic profile of senior high school students and determined the environmental condition of the senior high school students in terms of external factors (family income and parents' educational attainment) and internal factors (type of school as public or private, and strand taken). A quantitative technique using descriptive causal research design was utilized to attain its objectives. 1645 Senior High School students from the 11 municipalities or cities in Davao del Norte were respondents to the study. Generally, a self-made survey questionnaire was used in gathering the data. The data were tallied and treated with appropriate statistical tools. It was found that the environmental conditions of SHS in terms of family income and parents' educational attainment as external factors were sometimes evident and in terms of the type of school and strand taken, these internal factors were sometimes evident. It was found out that in terms of social learning, this factor was sometimes evident, in terms of cognitive, this factor was oftentimes evident, in terms of affective, this factor was oftentimes evident, in terms of subjective norm, this factor was sometimes evident, and in terms of perceived behavioral control, this factor was oftentimes evident. It was found that there existed a positive significant influence of environmental, cognitive, and subjective norms factors towards SHS's decision to enroll in an agriculture course in college, however, no significant influence existed on social learning, affective and perceived behavioral control factors towards SHS choice to enroll on agriculture course in college. Finally, the researcher recommends that similar studies may be conducted using other theories and methods, to be conducted in different locales and considering the limitations of this study to further validate its results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shyness is typically associated with avoidant social behavior and restricted affect in new social situations. However, we know considerably less about how one child's shyness influences another child's behavior and affect in new social situations. Children's shyness was parent‐reported when children were age 3 (N = 105, 52 girls, Mage = 3.50 years), and children were tested approximately 1 year later (Mage = 4.76 years) in same‐gender dyads where they were asked to give an impromptu speech about their most recent birthday in front of an experimenter and the other member of the dyad. We examined whether children's shyness and speech order influenced their own and their social partner's observed behavior and affect during the speech. Regardless of speech order, children's own shyness was positively associated with their own avoidant social behavior and gaze aversion. Regardless of shyness, children who gave their speech second averted their gaze more than children who gave their speech first. We also found that children who gave their speech second displayed less positive affect if their social partner who they watched give the speech first was shyer. We speculate that some 4‐year‐old children may be sensitive to the avoidant behaviors of their shy peers and, in turn, respond with less animation when it is their turn to participate in the same activity. Research Highlights: We examined whether preschool children's shyness and speech order influenced their own and their social partner's observed behavior and affect during a dyadic speech taskChildren's own shyness was positively associated with their own avoidant social behavior and gaze aversionChildren who gave their speech second averted their gaze more than children who gave their speech first.Children who gave their speech second displayed less positive affect if their social partner who they watched give a speech first was shyerThese findings suggest that preschool‐aged children are sensitive to learning about their environment indirectly through social observation [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does the representation of boy and girl exemplars in curricular materials affect students' learning? We tested two competing hypotheses about the impact of gender exemplar on learning: First, in line with Social Learning Theory, children might exhibit a same‐gender bias such that they prefer to learn from exemplars that match their gender (H1). Second, consistent with research on children's stereotypes about gender and math (e.g., associating boys with math competence), children might prefer to learn from exemplars who match their stereotypes about who is good at math (H2). We tested these hypotheses with children in middle school (N = 166), a time of development in which stereotypes are well‐engrained, but before gender differences in math achievement appear. Children viewed two distinct math strategies, each presented by a boy or girl exemplar. We then examined which strategy children employed on a subsequent math test as well as their perceived similarity to the exemplars and their awareness or endorsement of gender‐math stereotypes. Children did not preferentially learn from same‐gender exemplars. However, children with stereotypes associating boys with math were more likely to learn the more difficult strategy when it was presented by a boy exemplar than children who did not associate boys with math. The results of this study provide valuable insight into how children's stereotypes impact their real‐world learning. Research Highlights: How does the representation of boy and girl exemplars in children's curricular materials affect their learning?Past research demonstrates that children prefer to learn from same‐gender exemplars, but also hold a stereotype that boys are better at math.In the current study, we test whether children preferentially adopt a math strategy presented by a boy or girl exemplar.Children who held the belief that boys are better at math were more likely to learn a difficult strategy from boy exemplars than children who did not endorse this stereotype. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Occupational gender segregation can be traced back to gender‐typed occupational aspirations formed early in life. Analyzing nationally representative data from the 2010–2018 China Family Panel Studies (N = 2410 adolescents aged 10–19), we examine the relationships between parents' occupations, their gender‐(a)typical occupational expectations, and adolescents' gender‐(a)typical occupational aspirations. Our research makes three distinctive contributions. First, we clarify how gender‐role modeling works by distinguishing adolescents' direct imitation of parents' occupations from their indirect gender‐role learning based on the gender orientation of parents' occupations. Second, we propose and test a new theory of "gender boundary‐setting" to understand how the opposite‐sex parent's gender‐typed occupation can erect gender boundaries that reinforce their children's gender‐typed aspirations. Third, we examine the role of parents' gender‐(a)typical occupational expectations in shaping adolescents' gendered aspirations and how such expectations relate to adolescents' social learning based on parents' occupations. We find that girls' gendered occupational aspirations are shaped by direct occupational imitation, indirect gender‐role learning, gender boundary‐setting, and parents' gendered expectations, whereas boys' aspirations are only shaped by direct imitation. Parents' expectations and adolescents' social learning operate independently of each other. Our findings provide new insights into the supply‐side mechanisms underpinning the intergenerational reproduction of occupational gender segregation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on the first phase of a longitudinal project investigating the perceived purposes that different stakeholders have for primary physical education (PE). In the study, the views of 19 teacher educators from seven countries across Europe were sought. While teacher educators may have some influence across the layers of an education system, little is known about this stakeholder group and their views about primary PE. Analysis of focus group conversations depicts that, while the teacher educators come from a wide range of contexts, their views on the purposes of primary PE were more similar than different. With primary PE in danger of disconnecting into different schools of thought, this finding is important because it suggests that more coherent and connected approaches have the potential to be developed. In line with most government policies from the seven countries, similarities focused on both an educational and outward-looking view of primary PE. Significantly, while the teacher educators recognised the key role of physical learning in primary PE, they also highlighted how children's social, emotional, and cognitive learning form part of an integrated view of primary PE. Teacher educators recognised the importance of primary PE expanding beyond the hall/gymnasium and into classroom, school, and community settings. However, some concerns were voiced about the influence of outsourcing and sport agendas that currently dominate. The views of these teacher educators offer a useful starting point for further investigation, particularly as they present the purposes of primary PE from both an integrated and educational perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Population-based tree seed algorithm (TSA), a popular optimization algorithm, was used in this study. The purpose of this study is to develop a TSA via improving its exploitation and exploration capability which is the most important element of the algorithm. Accordingly, the study was aimed at increasing the convergence rate and performance level of the algorithm. The population diversity of the algorithm was studied, and the incremental social learning method in the literature was integrated into a TSA. The new algorithm obtained was called "Incremental tree seed algorithm" (ITSA). Four different ITSA methods were obtained by using four different methods. With the new methods obtained, the TSA method was applied to twelve low-dimensional benchmark functions. The success of the proposed methods on functions was extraordinary, and the results were shown in the tables. At the same time, Wilcoxon p-test analysis, sign test and ROC curve analysis of the obtained results were also performed. According to the results of p-test, sign test and ROC curve analysis, the proposed method was found to be successful. It can be concluded that the proposed method is more robust than its original version. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metaheuristic algorithms have become increasingly significant in solving complex optimization problems. To address the limitations of the original Aquila Optimizer (AO), such as insufficient local exploitation ability, low optimization precision, and slow convergence rate, an enhanced Aquila Optimizer (PSAO) for global optimization has been proposed. PSAO uses a better ergodic good point set to initialize the Aquila population and modifies the search method by employing the golden sine operator and the mechanism of self-learning and social learning based on particle swarm, followed by designing a nonlinear balance factor γ as the switching condition of the algorithm. The simulation experiments on benchmark functions and CEC2017 functions have verified that the PSAO has better global optimization ability and stronger robustness compared with other intelligent algorithms. Meanwhile, the contribution of each component that belongs to PSAO has been validated by ablation experiments for the CEC2022 test functions. To further illustrate the practical application potential of PSAO, PSAO is successfully applied to four typical engineering design problems, three of which reach the best fitness values. In addition, utilizing PSAO to solve the UAV trajectory planning problem by considering the objectives of trajectory length, altitude and corner of the flight process, the total flight cost is reduced by 60.22 %, 27.94 %, and 22.41 % compared with AO, PSO and Gold-SA, respectively, which proves its applicability and superiority in solving the real optimization problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering the projected impacts of climate change in upcoming decades, innovative educational approaches should encourage inventive problem-solving techniques and societal change, fostering transformative climate adaptation. The value of drama in climate adaptation education remains a novel area in the environmental education research literature and requires further exploration of its potential benefits to Climate Change Education (CCE). This article presents a proposal for CCE to include various elements in a drama workshop by evaluating a methodological framework. Participants in the workshop studied the vulnerabilities that arose from flooding and droughts while dramatizing different social conflicts to develop building adaptation scenarios. Through the exploration of problems via playful activities, participants collaboratively construct narratives and texts rich with meaning, based on a critical and creative perception of themes, needs, desires, and overlapping ideologies. This short-term experience manifests efficacy in elucidating the underpinnings of social systems structures, human values, and motivations. This article analyzes workshop results, providing a pedagogical structure and theoretical foundation, contributing to a better comprehension of drama in education and the creation of capacities towards CCE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children develop their perceptions, expectations, and attitudes toward the occupational world much earlier than they enter it, also via television which serves as a central socialization agent in the preschool years. The current study thematically analyzes the values associated with the occupational world in children's series by integrating two theoretical perspectives: Schwartz's theory of values and Bandura's social cognitive theory. The study finds that children's series represent the occupational world extensively and uniformly as multicultural and community-oriented. Many aspects of the occupational world in these shows are portrayed inconsistently with the real-world workplace. All occupations are treated equally, and the workplace is portrayed positively, involving obedience and conformity and nearly no concern for personal professional advancement. Impact Summary: Prior state of knowledge: Most prior research on the representation of the occupational world has focused on adult-targeted programming and on gender representations. However, television is an important socialization agent about the occupational world and its associated values also for young children. Novel contributions: This content analysis applies two perspectives: social cognitive theory and Schwartz's theory of values. It finds that the occupational world on children's television is presented positively, with conformity and little concern for personal advancement, rather inconsistently with the real-life workforce. Practical implications: As children can learn about the occupational world from its televised representation in child-targeted shows, parents should be familiar with and mediate the content's meaning for their children and complement such portrayals with discussions and real-world encounters with the workforce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We develop a model of market entry under social learning through word of mouth (WOM). The success of an entrant depends on consumer awareness generated via WOM, modeled as a percolation process on a random graph. The likelihood of an entrant gaining significant awareness depends on network structure, characterized by the first three factorial moments of the degree distribution. We identify three pricing equilibria: blockaded, deterred, and accommodated entry. The model demonstrates that increased network density can shift equilibria from blockaded to deterred and eventually to accommodated entry. Numerical simulations suggest that consumer surplus may be nonmonotonic with respect to network density. Additionally, if incumbents can charge personalized prices based on consumers' connectivity, they may optimally set lower prices for highly connected consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the necessity to enhance the effectiveness of online learning (OL) environments by examining the influence of social interactions on learner motivation, engagement, and success, specifically focusing on online computer science education (CSE). Acknowledging the limitations of peer-to-peer and learner-to-teacher interactions on online platforms, this paper delves into the potential of social learning (SL) organized through learner groups, communities, or networks to significantly enrich the learning experience. To test the hypothesis that SL positively impacts student outcomes, an experiment was conducted with 49 engineering students divided into two groups. The first group undertook an object-oriented programming course in C++ using the Moodle platform, while the second group, in addition to the online course, participated in asynchronous group activities through forums and synchronous interactions via chat. The results reveal a notable positive impact of SL on student outcomes, with participants in the second group reporting higher satisfaction levels and achieving superior results compared to those in the first group. The findings underscore the significance of integrating social interaction into OL environments, with potential implications for enhancing the overall quality of education and student performance in society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indigenous education efforts across the world’s Indigenous communities are being implemented to address varying challenges of poverty, cultural discrimination, resource dispossession and isolation. Engaged in a decolonisation agenda, most Indigenous communities are leading diverse localised efforts that turn inwards to their own rich tapestries of knowledge, culture and relationships. In this paper, we argue for the need to broaden the conceptualisation of Indigenous education models to account for the invaluable role that social learning and practice play in sustaining grassroots efforts on how a particular Indigenous people engage with formal educational processes. This paper explores Indigenous education as a community of practice that exemplifies mutual engagement, joint enterprise and shared repertoire, as crucial elements in sustaining Indigenous education endeavours. We use Lave and Wenger’s “communities of practice” as a theoretical framework to better understand how the Manobos, an Indigenous group in the southern Philippines, have been able to successfully operate their own school. Drawing from participant-observation and key informant interviews with teachers, community leaders and missionaries, we foreground examples of how the Manobos rely upon mutual engagement, joint enterprise and shared repertoire of actors to show that they belong to an overarching community of practice. More specifically, we demonstrate that Indigenous education as practiced by the Manobos is a socially constituted enterprise that entails grassroots learning at the individual and collective level, collaborations with external groups, as well as strategic negotiation and compliance with government’s policies that ultimately help them sustain the school’s operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: While complex dog–human coexistence has been deeply investigated, there is a relative scarcity of similar knowledge regarding dog–dog interactions. Social learning, a fundamental synchronizing mechanism between dogs and humans, was recently found to be influenced by the functional breed selection of dogs: with the cooperative breeds being more effective learners from a human demonstrator than the independent working breeds were. Here, we investigated whether these differences would also be present when dogs had to learn from another dog and how to effectively perform a detour around a transparent V-shaped obstacle. We tested dogs from 28 independent and 19 cooperative breeds in three consecutive trials. In the control groups, all dogs had to detour on their own the obstacle. In the dog demonstration groups, in trial 1, the subjects had to detour on their own, but before the next two trials, a trained dog showed them the solution. Results: We found that the performance of the two breed groups was the same in the without demonstration groups. However, after observing the dog demonstrator, the independent dogs learned the task more successfully than the cooperative breeds did. In the case of the independent working breeds, detour latencies significantly dropped along the consecutive trials, and these dogs also showed higher rate of successful detours after observing the demonstrator dog's action than in the control group. Conclusions: This is the first study where the consequences of functional breed selection were confirmed in a scenario that involved conspecific social learning in dogs. The results fit well to the ecologically valid framework of the evolutionary past of dog breed formation, in which cooperative breeds were selected for their interactivity with humans, whereas independent breeds often had to work together with their conspecifics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Methods Results Conclusions Facebook groups providing breastfeeding support are widespread. Some are created and/or facilitated by midwives, but little is known about their motivations or experiences. The present study aimed to examine how midwives involved in providing breastfeeding support via local Breastfeeding support Facebook (BSF) groups perceive the value of this provision and their experiences of creating these services and engaging with mothers online.Participants were recruited through Facebook advertising and snowballing techniques. UK registered midwives with experience of providing breastfeeding support via Facebook groups were eligible. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted using Microsoft Teams/Zoom with nine midwives between July and September 2021. Reflexive thematic analysis was conducted.Three themes, each with three subthemes, were identified: (1) Imperatives and Value; (2) Goodwill & Lack of Resources; and (3) Community of Practice. Theme 1 described groups as necessary for meeting current mothers' needs and improving low breastfeeding rates. Theme 2 highlighted that BSF groups rely on voluntary work by midwives and peer supporters, with sustainability and recognition of their efforts being major concerns. Theme 3 showed that BSF groups function as communities of practice, offering social learning opportunities and benefits for midwives.Midwives became involved in delivering online support motivated by a belief in the value of this provision, but acted as volunteers and felt unsupported by wider services. This has impacts for the sustainability of this provision regardless of its value. However, midwives reported significant benefits from involvement. Thus, there is a need for services to provide additional guidance and investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This case study contributes to the conceptualisation of, and methodology for, studying caringscapes/carescapes that concern the relations among humans and between human and non‐human subjects. It analyses how some local villagers along the Lower Kinabatangan River express their ‘duty of care’ toward the river through their sustained local participation in restorative work by means of such projects as assessing changing water quality in their wetlands. Making sense of their emergent sense of responsibility to foster care for the river entails examining not only how the local sense of place centres upon the river, but also how the river itself affects local communal and personal identity in a two‐way flow. This case study highlights the agency of those experiencing the process of socioecological change involving a social learning process covering two decades via learning networks, community participation in citizen science, trust, and leadership by example. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The structure of social networks fundamentally influences spreading dynamics. In general, the more contact between individuals, the more opportunity there is for the transmission of information or disease to take place. Yet, contact between individuals, and any resulting transmission events, are determined by a combination of spatial (where individuals choose to move) and social rules (who they choose to interact with or learn from). Here, we examine the effect of the social–spatial interface on spreading dynamics using a simulation model. We quantify the relative effects of different movement rules (localized, semi-localized, nomadic and resource-based movement) and social transmission rules (simple transmission, anti-conformity, proportional, conformity and threshold rules) to both the structure of social networks and spread of a novel behaviour. Localized movement created weakly connected sparse networks, nomadic movement created weakly connected dense networks, and resource-based movement generated strongly connected modular networks. The resulting rate of spreading varied with different combinations of movement and transmission rules, but—importantly—the relative rankings of transmission rules changed when running simulations on static versus dynamic representations of networks. Our results emphasize that individual-level social and spatial behaviours influence emergent network structure, and are of particular consequence for the spread of information under complex transmission rules. This article is part of the theme issue 'The spatial–social interface: a theoretical and empirical integration'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Learning new information from others, called social learning, is one of the most fundamental types of learning from infancy. Developmental studies show that infants likely engage in social learning situations selectively and that social learning facilitates infant information processing. In this paper, we summarize how social learning functions support human learning from infancy focusing on two aspects of social learning; pedagogical learning and selective learning. We also provide an overview of the developmental process of social learning based on the findings of developmental research. This review suggests that the learning facilitation effects of pedagogical learning decrease with development, while the facilitation effects of selective learning are observed even in older ages. The differences in these learning facilitation effects are considered to be due to the differences in the utility of learning in uncertain environments. The findings of the studies imply the unique nature of human social learning and the critical role of social interactions in cognitive development. Understanding the development of social learning provides valuable insights into how infants learn and adapt in complex social environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis study examines the impacts of educational videos with human or humanoid animated pedagogical avatars (APAs) on cognitive, affective, and social learning outcomes in declarative and procedural knowledge contexts. A 2 × 2 factorial design was used, considering instructor type (human vs. humanoid APA) and knowledge type (declarative vs. procedural). The study involved 139 university students with no prior knowledge of the video content and was conducted in a human-computer interaction lab using an eye-tracking device. There were no significant differences in learning achievement, perceived lecture engagement, emotion, satisfaction, and social presence between the human and humanoid APA. However, learners showed greater visual interest in the human instructor, which influenced their interest in the learning content. Viewers of declarative knowledge videos showed more visual interest and achieved higher learning scores, while procedural videos increased lecture engagement, emotion, satisfaction, and social presence. The study suggests that humanoid APAs can effectively replace human instructors in educational videos and emphasizes the importance of considering knowledge types in video design to impact learning outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: This study is the first to assess whether infants' developing social brains may be susceptible to the vicarious social experience of interparental positivity. Specifically, we explored whether infants' exposure to interparental positivity may vicariously shape their neural substrates of social development. Methods: In a sample of 45 infants (MAgeMonths = 11.01; 48.9% girls), infant left-frontal resting alpha electroencephalogram (EEG) asymmetry was derived as a reliable indicator of neural substrates linked to adaptive social development. Moreover, positive characteristics of the mother-father couple relationship were assessed both by means of observation and self-report by mother and father. Importantly, various relevant covariates were considered, including interparental negativity (observed and self-reported), as well as infants' direct caregiving experiences and duration of infant exposure to mother-father relationship-dynamics (parent-report). Results: Results indicated that higher levels of observed interparental positivity were associated with greater infant left-frontal alpha EEG asymmetry, even after accounting for covariates (ß's > 0.422). Discussion: The current study's results are first to suggest that positive vicarious social experiences in infants' day-to-day lives play a significant role for early neural development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ocean deoxygenation and standing levels of hypoxia are shrinking fundamental niches, particularly in coastal areas, yet documented repercussions on species development and behaviour are limited. Here, we tackled the impacts of deoxygenation (7 mg O2 l−1), mild hypoxia (nocturnal 5 mg O2 l−1) and severe hypoxia (nocturnal 2 mg O2 l−1) on cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) development (hatching success, development time, mantle length), cognition (ability to learn individually and socially) and behaviour (ability to camouflage and to explore its surroundings spatially). We found that hypoxia yielded lower survival rates, smaller body sizes and inhibited predatory (increased latency to attack the prey) and anti-predator (camouflage) behaviours. Acute and chronic exposure to low oxygen produced similar effects on cognition (inability to socially learn, increased open-field activity levels, no changes in thigmotaxis). It is thus expected that, although cuttlefish can withstand oxygen limitation to a certain degree, expanding hypoxic zones will diminish current habitat suitability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some oscine passerines incorporate heterospecific sounds into their repertoires, including vocalizations of other bird species, sounds of other fauna, and even anthropogenic sounds, through vocal mimicry. However, few studies have investigated whether mimics learn heterospecific sounds from model species or from conspecific tutors. Here, we investigate mimicry acquisition using innovation in Cuculidae calls imitated by the Chinese blackbird (Turdus mandarinus). If the mimicry innovation arises and spreads among several neighbors and is not produced by model species, the mimicry must be acquired partially from conspecifics. We found that: (1) Cuculidae calls imitated by blackbirds were reasonably accurate, but with some differences between mimetic and real calls in acoustic structures. (2) We identified four unique mimetic units (mimicry innovation or copy errors), and these units only occurred at certain sites and were shared by several neighbors. In aggregate, frequency parameters (the first principal component) of unique mimetic units were higher than usual mimetic units (p < 0.001). Our findings provide further evidence that mimetic units can be partially learnt from conspecifics based on four cases of unique mimetic units. Our study and approach provide a reference and theoretical basis for the future understanding of social learning and development of vocal mimicry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children with elevated behavioural inhibition (BI) show context‐inappropriate fear and dysregulated RSA across stressor tasks. However, few studies have examined dynamic RSA within tasks and relations to parent and child anxiety. Using piecewise growth modelling and multimethod baseline data from an intervention study of 151 3.5–5‐year‐old children and their parents, we examined relations between child social anxiety (SA), parent anxiety and their interaction in predicting children's RSA across social stressor tasks (e.g. learning about unfamiliar peers, Trier Social Stress). Within the sample, 49.63% of children were reported to be White, non‐Hispanic/Latine (n = 67), 22% multiracial (n = 31), 14.81% Asian/Pacific Islander (n = 20) and 12.59% Black/African‐American (n = 17). Furthermore, 64.44% of the parents were reported to be White, non‐Hispanic/Latine (n = 87), 20% Asian/Pacific Islander (n = 27), 13.33% Black/African‐American (n = 18) and 2.22% multiracial (n = 3). Children showed differentiated RSA reactivity and recovery within an anticipatory social learning task based on their level of clinically appraised SA. Relations between child SA and RSA across tasks was moderated by parent anxiety, specifically for dyads matched in anxiety. Findings provide support for the potential influence of both child and parent anxiety on children's parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) responses across specific self‐regulatory tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Learning through cooperation with conspecifics—'cooperative learning'—is critical to cultural evolution and survival. Recent progress has established that interbrain synchronization (IBS) between individuals predicts success in cooperative learning. However, the likely sources of IBS during learning interactions remain poorly understood. To address this dearth of knowledge, we tested whether movement synchrony serves as an exogenous factor that drives IBS, taking an embodiment perspective. We formed dyads of individuals with varying levels of prior knowledge (high–high (HH), high–low (HL), low–low (LL) dyads) and instructed them to collaboratively analyse an ancient Chinese poem. During the task, we simultaneously recorded their brain activity using functional near-infrared spectroscopy and filmed the entire experiment to parse interpersonal movement synchrony using the computer-vision motion energy analysis. Interestingly, the homogeneous groups (HH and/or LL) exhibited stronger movement synchrony and IBS compared with the heterogeneous group. Importantly, mediation analysis revealed that spontaneous and synchronized body movements between individuals contribute to IBS, hence facilitating learning. This study therefore fills a critical gap in our understanding of how interpersonal transmission of information between individual brains, associated with behavioural entrainment, shapes social learning. This article is part of the theme issue 'Minds in movement: embodied cognition in the age of artificial intelligence'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social learning is the main policy-design mechanism that involves interactions between agents. This study provides an overview of the research on policy design using social learning. Descriptive and co-citation analyses were used to identify emerging research lines and thematic similarities between scientific publications. The database used for the bibliometric analysis contained 271 articles published between 1979 and 2022 in 152 journals indexed by the SSCI. We propose a study based on the origins and the future research agenda of social learning for policy design. The results reveal that "environment", "governance", and "social" represent the knowledge base. These topics have evolved over time and have become established as a consolidated intellectual structure. In addition, a new topic called "media and news" has emerged, focusing on the challenges of spreading fake news and learning manipulation in a post-truth world. The cluster "Media and news" is gaining significance due to its impact on the dissemination of information and the shaping of opinions in contemporary society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a systematic review of the Service-Learning (in Spanish, Aprendizaje-Servicio or Aps ) methodology and its digitization between 2019 and 2023, concerning its impact on the participating students in European higher education institutions. The objective was to test the competencies achieved by the student body after applying Aps combined with information and communication technologies. We conclude that, despite the students’ preference for face-to-face learning, the impact of digital a p s is beneficial, positively influencing civic, digital, social, motivational, work-related, and didactic competencies, and that digitization in the classroom constitutes an interstitial instrument for innovation in the Aps methodology of the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Armed conflicts between drug cartels and the Mexican government have caused collateral damage to local communities while prompting various responses from civilian women. Existing studies on women’s reactions to narco-violence have focused on either their active resistance against violence or their direct participation in cartels. In reality, however, most civilian women’s actions exist on a spectrum between these two extreme poles, which has received relatively little attention in the literature. This article examines how civilian women cooperate with cartels by analyzing qualitative data, including 37 semi-structured interviews with participants from Jalisco, Mexico. Using the concept of “everyday cooperation,” we divide civilian women’s actions to cohabit with cartels in the narco-environment into three categories: keeping silent, pursuing benefits, and idealizing narco-culture. Though civilian women’s actions are shaped by the normalization of violence embedded in their local communities, they strategize their behavior through social learning processes. This study conceptually and empirically contributes to the literature on civilian agency under narco-violence by scrutinizing the array of local civilian women’s responses to pervasive criminal violence, focusing on their daily cooperation with cartels in Mexico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trypophobia is the condition in which individuals report a range of negative emotions when viewing clusters of small holes. Since the phenomenon was first described in the peer-reviewed literature a decade ago, 49 papers have appeared together with hundreds of news articles. There has also been much discussion on various Internet forums, including medical and health-related websites. In the present article, we examine the degree to which the phenomenon is caused by a form of social learning, specifically, its ubiquitous social media presence. We also examined its prevalence among the broad population. In Experiment 1 (n = 2,558), we assessed whether younger people and females (i.e., greater social media users) are more sensitive to trypophobic stimuli, as predicted by the social media hypothesis. In Experiment 2 (n = 283), we examined whether sensitivity to trypophobic stimuli and rates of trypophobia is greater in people who are aware of the condition's existence, as opposed to those who have never heard of the phenomenon. In line with the social media theory, results showed that younger people and females are indeed more susceptible to trypophobia. However, 24% of trypophobic individuals have never heard of the condition. Overall, these data suggest that both social learning and non-social learning contribute to trypophobia. We also find that the prevalence of trypophobia is approximately 10%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Social learning generates reframing when individual and collective values are reflected. This reframing enables community members to move from personal to collective views and actions, resulting in valuable outcomes that improve the community's functioning. This research aims to enhance the development of reframing with the help of role-playing games (RPG), given that digital games are considered particular communities. Method: A relationship model was constructed to identify which game features generate reframing and how much they promote reframing. The model's validity was tested using experts' feedback and a game experience test (GET). The factor analysis results interpret that the features tested impact reframing. Results: The study proposes that RPGs can promote reframing and identifies reframing associated with particular game features (such as game stories). Conclusion: Students, game designers, related teachers and researchers can benefit from using the model to encourage reflection using games or require a model to bridge game features with social learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a novel social cognitive learning-based metaheuristic called kids Learning Optimizer (KLO), inspired by the early social learning behavior of kids organized as families in societal setup. In a society, people are organized as family groups (parents and children) where they interact with each other within and outside their family. This interaction plays a vital role in early brain development, mannerisms, and behavioral learning. Early childhood learning is affected by various stimuli in their surroundings at different stages of life (newborn, infant, toddler, pre-school). This idea motivated us to map the decentralized learning concept of families and their interactions into a new algorithm where search agents (individuals) are arranged/organized in families, and they interact with each other at different stages of life to find the optimal solution. The algorithm is tested against 116 challenging benchmark functions including 31 unimodal, 63 multimodal, 14 CEC'2017 functions, and eight constrained functions. The algorithm is compared with 10 state-of-the-art algorithms. Friedman's Mean Rank (FMR) and Wilcoxon rank-sum test (WRS) are used to measure the performance of competing algorithms. In the first two experiments, unimodal and multimodal benchmark functions are used to measure the explorative and exploitative ability of the algorithm. FMR and WRS show KLO outperformed all other algorithms. In the third experiment, the proposed method is tested against 14 CEC'2017 functions and eight constrained functions along with three real life mechanical engineering optimization problems. KLO proved to be better or equivalent to other competing algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cultural transmission of behaviour patterns across animal populations and between generations has been rigorously demonstrated in diverse vertebrate species and also in insects, but controversies continue about exactly what distinguishes nonhuman from human cultural learning. A contentious contemporary debate concerns a hypothetical 'zone of latent solutions' (ZLS), conceptualized as all that members of a species can acquire by individual learning. The ZLS hypothesis proposes that cumulative culture is restricted to humans because of a unique ability to copy behavioural innovations beyond our species' ZLS. Apes and other taxa are argued instead to be limited to copying only behaviours that are already within their ZLS, thus constraining their capacity for cumulative culture. Here I suggest that empirical tests of this hypothesis are scattered through the research literature covering social learning experiments and I collate relevant instances. Over 20 such studies spanning mammals, birds, fish and insects demonstrate social learning of novel actions new to the species that no individual acquires through its own efforts. Many offer particularly compelling refutation of the ZLS hypothesis because in addition to documenting an absence of individual level learning, they incorporate designs showing that observers match whichever of two alternative forms of action they witnessed or include multistep actions that are clearly challenging for individuals of the species studied to acquire by individual learning. • A ZLS hypothesis argues only humans socially learn actions beyond individual learning. • Review of past literature yields 26 experiments whose findings counter this. • Studies span apes, other mammals, birds, reptiles and insects. • Ten two-action experiments show copies of either option acquired by observers. • Other studies show copying of difficult multistep actions beyond individual learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theoretical and empirical scholars of cultural evolution have traditionally studied social learning strategies, such as conformity, as adaptive strategies to obtain accurate information about the environment, whereas within social psychology there has been a greater focus upon the social consequences of such strategies. Although these two approaches are often used in concert when studying human social learning, we believe the potential social benefits of conformity, and of social learning more broadly, have been overlooked in studies of non‐humans. We review evidence from studies of homophily, imitation, and rapid facial mimicry that suggests that behaving like others affords social benefits to non‐human animals and that behaviour matching may be deployed strategically to increase affiliation. Furthermore, we review studies of conformity in dispersers, and suggest that forgoing personal information or preferences in favour of those of the new group during immigration may be a strategy to facilitate social integration. We therefore propose that the informational and social functions of conformity apply to humans and animals alike. We use this perspective to generate several interesting research questions to inspire work in this field. For example, under what conditions do animals use informational or social conformity and what role does uncertainty play in social learning in immigrant individuals? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Norms play a crucial role in governing human societies. From an early age, humans possess an innate understanding of norms, recognizing certain behaviours, contexts, and roles as being governed by them. The evolution of normativity has been linked to its contribution to the promotion of cooperation in large groups and is intertwined with the development of joint intentionality. However, there is no evolutionary consensus on what normatively differentiated our hominin ancestors from the phylogenetic lineage leading to chimpanzees and bonobos. Here we propose that the development of teaching through a process of evaluative feedback between parent and offspring functioned as a prerequisite for the later development of normativity. Parents approve or disapprove of offspring’s behaviours based on their own learned knowledge of what is appropriate or inappropriate. We argue our proposition using a simple model of cultural transmission, which shows the adaptive advantage offered by these elementary forms of teaching. We show that an important part of this adaptive advantage can arise from the benefits derived from guidance about which behaviours to adopt or reject. We propose that this type of guidance has fundamental elements that characterise the normative world. We complete our argument by reviewing several studies that examine the emergence of normativity in young children without prior exposure to a normative framework with respect to the behaviours under analysis. We suggest that this normativity is best interpreted as manifestations of teaching among young children rather than as norm recognition among early normative children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on deliberative democracy that contains a detailed discussion of its relationship to justice in Indigenous territory is limited. Through a case study of the controversy over a solar energy project on Kanaluvang tribal land in Taiwan, this article explores how issues of energy justice are constructed in multiple communication and deliberative sites of the governance system and the role of Indigenous activism and deliberation in addressing energy injustice. The research methods used are documentary analysis and in-depth interviews. The study presents a discursive narrative on the interconnected nature of the climate–energy–biodiversity nexus and how Indigenous activism creates deliberative spaces which reinforce Indigenous empowered space and oriented toward social learning and respect for tribal sovereignty. Indigenous activism and deliberation illuminate the emancipatory elements of Indigenous energy justice. It is crucial to connect multiple forms of tribal communication to the wider democratic system in the pursuit of energy justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To better prepare students for active and thoughtful participation in a democratic society, civic education should foster an array of civic competencies. Cultivating student civic agency--an under-studied civic competency--is of particular importance to equip students to authentically use their voice in their communities. But what does it look like to foster student civic agency in a classroom setting? This article leverages a social and emotional learning (SEL) framework to uncover the active curricular ingredients and educational mechanisms through which a student-led civics curriculum has fostered civic agency. In this multi-site case study, we analyze the implementation of an eighth grade student-led civics curriculum in a northeastern U.S. state. We outline how implicit SEL processes in these classrooms, stemming from a pedagogical focus on "changemakers," supported development of civic agency. We found that the changemakers theme facilitated student exploration of their own civic identity and values, while prompting students to critically examine political power structures. Notably, the theme also helped students to develop a narrative of self as changemakers and to envision themselves actively engaged in civic spaces. This study adds insights to growing evidence on the multi-faceted benefits that civically-oriented SEL may offer to preparing young people to engage in democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pest management is pivotal for ensuring secure grain production and constitutes a fundamental strategy in combating pests that detrimentally affect grain supplies. Given the complexity and dynamic nature of pests, it is imperative that farmers implement coordinated prevention and control strategies. Such measures are essential to augment the efficacy of these efforts and to reduce the risks posed by pests to agricultural crops. This research involved a survey of 1205 agricultural households spanning three representative provinces in Northwestern China. By employing an endogenous switching Probit model and addressing sample selection bias, the study investigates the influence of social learning on the adoption of cooperative pest control strategies by farmers. The findings indicate that social learning significantly enhances farmers' adoption of cooperative pest control measures. In a counterfactual scenario, introducing social learning to farmers previously unexposed to it would result in a 10.3% increase in the likelihood of adopting these practices. Additionally, factors such as the health status of the household head, income level, and size of land under management are critical determinants of farmers' participation in social learning. The differential access to scientific, accurate, and systematic information, coupled with resource disparities among farmers, can partially account for the varying average treatment effects observed in different learning methods on the propensity to adopt cooperative pest control practices. Furthermore, social learning plays a crucial role in fostering such adoption by establishing trust among farmers, facilitating consensus in decision-making, and enhancing the dissemination of information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Academic achievement is one of the most important variables in determining educational outcomes and success outside of school. This study is about the relationship between selfawareness as part of socio-emotional learning and its implications on students' academic achievement among O-level students in secondary schools in Kyabugimbi Sub County. Objectives: The study sought to examine the relationship between self-awareness and students' academic achievement among O-level students in secondary schools in Kyabugimbi Sub County. Methodology: A cross-sectional study design was used where data was collected at a single point in time. The study population comprised of 2,682 students in S1-S3 in six secondary schools in Kyabugimbi Sub County. The sample size comprised of 235 students. Data was collected using a self-administered close-ended questionnaire and analyzed by generating inferential statistics. Findings: The study findings show a strong positive significant relationship (r=0.681**; p<0.05) between self-awareness and students' academic achievement among O-level students in secondary schools. Conclusions and recommendations: The study concludes that selfawareness is one of the critical aspects for socio-emotional learning that play a significant role towards the students' academic achievement. The study recommends policymakers to prioritize selfawareness programs in schools, integrating self-awareness activities into the school curriculum, training teachers to help students develop self-awareness and educating parents on fostering the importance of self-awareness needs of their children at home. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The influence of entrepreneurial role models on individuals could be regarded as a social learning process. However, we still lack an in-depth understanding of under what conditions the impacts of entrepreneurial role models are stronger or weaker. This paper draws on social learning theory and construal level theory to explore how entrepreneurial role models relate to individuals' entrepreneurial perceptions under different psychological distance dimensions. A representative sample of 322 final-year students from nine universities in China was analyzed. The results demonstrated that entrepreneurial role model was positively associated with feasibility and desirability perceptions. Further, we found that the spatial distance and social distance as boundary conditions, respectively, moderated the main effects. This study extends prior research on the functions of entrepreneurial role model by providing a psychological distance perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In support of safe sport (SS) in Canada, a community of practice (CoP) for high performance coaches and NSO personnel was created and facilitated by two mental performance consultants (MPCs) to ensure SS concepts are well understood and applied by coaches and NSO staff. Fifteen people joined this 4-month CoP. The value creation framework was used to shape and assess the changes/learning that occurred in the monthly, online meetings. The learning activities (presentations, discussions, individual and shared reflections) were driven by the participants' needs and resulted in shared and co-created practices. Three value creation stories about selection, second-guessing, and self-care illustrate participants' learning. Through this paper, a new role for MPCs is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The traditional target tracking algorithm can only utilize the information of a single sensor and cannot fully utilize the advantages of multiple sensors. To address this issue, this study designs a multi-sensor target tracking algorithm based on node capacity planning and distributed collaboration. First, aiming at the problem of distributed tracking application in multi-sensor networks, a wireless sensor target tracking algorithm based on node energy constraints is constructed. By constructing a node tracking model, the energy consumption is reduced according to the distributed connection network and node planning is introduced. Then, for sensor networks with limited energy, a node planning algorithm using convex relaxation method is developed to solve complex integer programming problems. Finally, in view of the various complex problems existing in the sensor network, a distributed social learning algorithm based on its own data and neighboring decision-making is established. This algorithm ultimately improves the performance of the multi-sensor target tracking algorithm by transmitting decisions about environmental states. The results demonstrated that in the convergence comparison between the TrackingNet dataset and the MOT 15 dataset, the convergence of research algorithm began to stabilize when the system was iterated 106 and 48 times, respectively. In addition, when the system iterated to 200 and 157 times, the error of the algorithm slowly began to level off and was at a smaller value. The above results show that the research algorithm has achieved better performance in multi-sensor target tracking tasks. It can better handle the relationship between targets and improve the effect of target tracking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that close to 9% of the world's soils are affected by salinity. The purpose of this article is to discuss qualitative social science findings on alternative ways of conceptualizing salinization in Kazakhstan and how these findings could be leveraged for transformative knowledge towards sustainability. We highlight dimensions of land degradation that are doubly obscured: the under-represented issue of salinization, and vernacular knowledge on salinization. The article draws on qualitative data collection methods, including eighteen months of participant observation, workshop transcripts and archival records. Three research findings are presented. First, there is an analysis of the framing of environmental issues common among policymakers in the region. Second, these frameworks are contrasted with novel data on how local farming communities understand and deal with salinization. These two research results enable extrapolating a third finding: how such locally based knowledge could be harnessed towards solving salinization issues. Beyond the specific issue of salinization, the results of this research suggest potentially valuable design principles relating to specific ways that the environmental knowledge of expert farmers and scientific experts could be paired. In the case of Central Asia, models based on the local culture can be adapted, such as hosting and apprenticeship relationships. This example suggests transferable lessons on how to forge social learning towards sustainability that start from imperfect local tools (bottom-up) rather than from internationally promoted but socially distant blueprints (top-down). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neo‐Brandeisian legal scholars have recently revived the ideas of Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, who championed state regulation that preserved market competition and economic liberty in the face of concentrated private power. Yet ultimately and perhaps paradoxically, it has been Europe and not the United States that has proved more hospitable to accommodating key features of the Brandeisian approach. We explain this outcome by tracing the evolution of EU competition law to gain insight into the social learning processes through which such regimes change over time. We argue that the EU's administrative system, which provides the European Commission with significant bureaucratic discretion, has facilitated processes of ongoing deliberative adjustment to policy and practice, which over time has resulted in a system of "regulated competition" with striking similarities to the Brandeisian vision. The analysis highlights how administrative law institutions condition how regulatory regimes evolve in response to acquired experience and knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cognitive differences can catalyze social learning through the process of one-to-one social influence. Yet the learning benefits of exposure to the ideas of cognitively dissimilar others often fail to materialize. Why do cognitive differences produce learning from interpersonal influence in some contexts but not in others? To answer this question, we distinguish between cognition that is expressed—one's public stance on an issue and the way in which supporting arguments are framed—and cognition that is latent—the semantic associations that underpin these expressions. We theorize that, when latent cognition is obscured, one is more likely to be influenced to change one's mind on an issue when exposed to the opposing ideas of cognitively dissimilar, rather than similar, others. When latent cognition is instead observable, a subtle similarity-attraction response tends to counteract the potency of cognitive differences—even when social identity cues and other categorical distinctions are inaccessible. To evaluate these ideas, we introduce a novel experimental paradigm in which participants (a) respond to a polarizing scenario; (b) view an opposing argument by another whose latent cognition is either similar to or different from their own and is either observable or obscured; and (c) have an opportunity to respond again to the scenario. A preregistered study (n = 1,000) finds support for our theory. A supplemental study (n = 200) suggests that the social influence of latent cognitive differences operates through the mechanism of argument novelty. We discuss implications of these findings for research on social influence, collective intelligence, and cognitive diversity in groups. This paper was accepted by David Simchi-Levi, organizations. Supplemental Material: The online appendix and data files are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2022.00895. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Pacific region is experiencing accelerating global change with complex interactions amongst multiple drivers, yet the onus for urgent adaptation falls largely on communities. Proponents of adaptation must therefore ensure that communities are empowered and enabled to design and implement their own adaptation plans after project cycles have concluded, and that this capacity is scaled beyond the original focus. To address this challenge, we tested a new approach in the Solomon Islands for the iterative development, implementation and evaluation of community-led adaptation. Our theory of change was that by co-designing a decision-making process with a network of community facilitators, livelihood adaptation planning could be mainstreamed and scaled out across rural communities. We implemented a planning process based on systems thinking, social learning and co-production, which we assessed using a novel participatory monitoring, evaluation and learning framework. The process involved six steps: (1) identifying drivers of change; (2) developing shared visions for livelihoods; (3) scoping possible futures for livelihoods; (4) identifying existing community adaptive capacity; (5) determining priority 'no-regrets' strategies to achieve the community vision and (6) mapping adaptation pathways of implementation decisions. Community facilitators co-designed the process, and then ran it in their communities to develop place-based adaptation pathways suited to the local decision-making context, and scaling the process out to neighbouring villages through peer-to-peer learning. Results from a monitoring, evaluation and learning assessment showed the process had generated shifts in thinking among communities towards anticipatory adaptation and the development and implementation of livelihood adaptation pathways. The process had also empowered people to have ownership, responsibility and agency for their futures without major ongoing support from outside agencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In social learning the way in which agents represent their beliefs motivates and constrains both how they learn individually from the environment and socially from one another. Assuming that agents can only hold beliefs drawn from a finite set of possible belief states, in this paper we investigate the effect that varying the number of those belief states has on the efficacy of social learning. To this end we propose an evidence tokens model for social learning, in which agents transfer tokens between competing hypotheses on the basis both of evidence that they receive directly and of information received from their peers. Using agent-based simulations and difference equations we show that this model is effective in social learning for boundedly rational agents and scales well to the case where there are multiple hypotheses under consideration. We show that varying the number of belief states (as determined by the number of evidence tokens available) has a clear effect both on accuracy and on the time taken for the agent population to reach agreement about which hypothesis is true, so that the optimal belief granularity in social learning is strongly influenced by macro properties of the whole population governing the way that agents interact with each other and the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The release of captive‐bred or translocated individuals is a strategy used worldwide to support threatened animal populations. By capture–recapture analysis, we examined the survival of released individuals when reinforcing a critically endangered Lesser White‐fronted Goose population. Our analysis includes data from 646 birds, released 1984–2017, including two different age classes, divided in two distinct periods when different techniques were used. Fledglings were released with foster parents of Barnacle Geese in the first period and by a soft release without support of foster parenting in the second period. Yearlings were released by soft release in both periods. We find that use of foster parents enhances survival rates, but these differences were detectable only in the first year of life. Fledglings supported by foster parents showed significantly higher survival compared to yearlings released by soft release, but this difference was not clear when soft release was applied to both groups. Resighting data suggest that most losses occurred during the acclimation period following the release. Foster parenting may enhance survival rates due to social learning enabling the transfer of crucial behaviors (e.g. feeding, anti‐predator, and migration) to released individuals. However, these conservation benefits need to be balanced against costs and potential inherent risks related to foster parenting, including the imprinting of undesired behaviors in released individuals, such as hybridization. Based on our results, we advise conservationists to carefully consider foster parenting as one method to improve survival probability, especially if capacity to produce individuals to be released is a limiting factor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social learning is common in nature, yet cumulative culture (where knowledge and technology increase in complexity and diversity over time) appears restricted to humans. To understand why, we organized a computer tournament in which programmed entries specified when to learn new knowledge and when to refine (i.e. improve) existing knowledge. The tournament revealed a 'refinement paradox': refined behavior afforded higher payoffs as individuals converged on a small number of successful behavioral variants, but refining did not generally pay. Paradoxically, entries that refined only in certain conditions did best during behavioral improvement, while simple copying entries thrived when refinement levels were high. Cumulative cultural evolution may be rare in part because sophisticated strategies for improving knowledge and technology are initially advantageous, yet complex culture, once achieved, favors conformity, blind imitation and hyper-credulity. Author summary: Although social learning, culture, and traditions are found in animals, why humans seem to be the only species that builds on knowledge and technology over generations is still not fully understood. Here we organized a computer tournament in which programmed entries specified when to learn new knowledge and when to refine (i.e. improve upon) existing knowledge. We found a 'refinement paradox': while using refined behavior was beneficial to individuals, it was not beneficial to be the one doing the refining. Entries that refined selectively, only under limited conditions, did well while refinement levels increased, but once refinement was high simple entries that did not refine thrived. This result might explain why cumulative culture is rare in nature: sophisticated strategies for improving knowledge are initially advantageous, but once complex culture is common it pays to conform to the behavior of others and copy blindly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]