Components of change and the evolution of learning in theory and experiment

Dunlap, Aimee S.; Austin, Matthew W.; Figueiredo, Andreia

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2018.05.024

Cited by 15 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 85 publications

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“…In addition, all environments provided organisms with the features thought necessary for learning to evolve: frequent choices of actions (move straight, turn right, or turn left) and cues that change each generation but reliably indicate the best choice within a generation (Dunlap andStephens 2009, 2016;Dunlap et al 2019). However, while these features were present in all environments, they proved insufficient to evolve learning.…”

Section: %-14% (Experiments 1 and 2)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Most studies of the evolution of learning have focused on the selection pressures that may act to increase or decrease an organism's reliance on learning (Mery and Kawecki 2002;Dunlap and Stephens 2009;Dunlap et al 2019). Our study complements and extends this work by examining how learning may have first arisen.…”

Section: Emergence Of Learning Depends On the Prior Evolution Of Reflmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Our study complements and extends this work by examining how learning may have first arisen. As Dunlap demonstrated (Dunlap andStephens 2009, 2016;Dunlap et al 2019), learning is favored in environments that present alternative courses of action, where the best action cannot be predicted at the beginning of an organism's life but environmental cues exist that reliably correlate with the best action. However, we found that although all of the environments possessed those presumably necessary qualities, they were not sufficient for learning to arise, as evidenced by results from the random start environment.…”

Section: Emergence Of Learning Depends On the Prior Evolution Of Reflmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Most research on the evolution of learning has focused on the adaptive specialization of learning-how the speed of learning, biases to learn certain things better than others, and capacity to store learned information correlate with the reliance on learning in an organism's natural environment (Seligman 1970;Stephens 1991;Mery and Kawecki 2002;Dukas and Ratcliffe 2009;Shettleworth 2010;Domjan 2012). Little is known, however, about the historical question of what selection pressures and evolutionary precursors facilitated the emergence of learning from ancestors incapable of doing so or about the processes that allowed more complex forms of learning to evolve from simpler ones (Moore 2004;Dunlap et al 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, associative learning is such a widespread and likely ancient behavior that it is particularly challenging to reconstruct an accurate phylogeny because of the lack of out-groups and because its origin presumably predates the rapid adaptive radiation of the Cambrian explosion (van Duijn 2017). The ubiquity of associative learning behavior among extant species is also a challenge for experimental evolution, which has been very successful in studying the adaptive modification of existing learning mechanisms in animals but can reveal little about the origins and early evolution of learning (Dunlap et al 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Evolutionary Origin of Associative Learning

Pontes

Mobley

Ofria

et al. 2020

The American Naturalist

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Learning is a widespread ability among animals and, like physical traits, is subject to evolution. But how did learning first arise? What selection pressures and phenotypic preconditions fostered its evolution? Neither the fossil record nor phylogenetic comparative studies provide answers to these questions. Here, we take a novel approach by studying digital organisms in environments that promote the evolution of navigation and associative learning. Starting with a nonlearning sessile ancestor, we evolve multiple populations in four different environments, each consisting of nutrient trails with various layouts. Trail nutrients cue organisms on which direction to follow, provided they evolve to acquire and use those cues. Thus, each organism is tested on how well it navigates a randomly selected trail before reproducing. We find that behavior evolves modularly and in a predictable sequence, where simpler behaviors are necessary precursors for more complex ones. Associative learning is only one of many successful behaviors to evolve, and its origin depends on the environment possessing certain information patterns that organisms can exploit. Environmental patterns that are stable across generations foster the evolution of reflexive behavior, while environmental patterns that vary across generations but remain consistent for periods within an organism's lifetime foster the evolution of learning behavior. Both types of environmental patterns are necessary, since the prior evolution of simple reflexive behaviors provides the building blocks for learning to arise. Finally, we observe that an intrinsic value system evolves alongside behavior and supports associative learning by providing reinforcement for behavior conditioning.

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Section: %-14% (Experiments 1 and 2)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Emergence Of Learning Depends On the Prior Evolution Of Reflmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Emergence Of Learning Depends On the Prior Evolution Of Reflmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

The Evolutionary Origin of Associative Learning

Pontes

Mobley

Ofria

et al. 2020

The American Naturalist

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What are the costs of learning? Modest trade-offs and constitutive costs do not set the price of fast associative learning ability in a parasitoid wasp

et al. 2019

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Learning ability has been associated with energetic costs that typically become apparent through trade-offs in a wide range of developmental, physiological, and life-history traits. Costs associated with learning ability can be either constitutive or induced, depending on whether they are always incurred or only when information is actively learned and memorized. Using lines of the parasitoid wasp Nasonia vitripennis that were selected for fast associative learning ability, we assessed a range of traits that have previously been identified as potential costs associated with learning. No difference in longevity, lipid reserves, tibia length, egg load, or fecundity was observed between the selected and control lines. All of these traits are considered to potentially lead to constitutive costs in the setup of this study. A gradual reversal to baseline learning after two forms of relaxed selection was indicative of a small constitutive cost of learning ability. We also tested for a trade-off with other memory types formed at later stages, but found no evidence that the mid-term memory that was selected for caused a decrease in performance of other memory types. In conclusion, we observe only one minor effect of a constitutive cost and none of the other costs and trade-offs that are reported in the literature to be of significant value in this case. We, therefore, argue for better inclusion of ecological and economic costs in studies on costs and benefits of learning ability. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s10071-019-01281-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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