Social Learning as a Way to Overcome Choice-Induced Preferences? Insights from Humans and Rhesus Macaques

Abstract

Much theoretical attention is currently devoted to social learning. Yet, empirical studies formally comparing its effectiveness relative to individual learning are rare. Here, we focus on free choice, which is at the heart of individual reward-based learning, but absent in social learning. Choosing among two equally valued options is known to create a preference for the selected option in both humans and monkeys. We thus surmised that social learning should be more helpful when choice-induced preferences retard individual learning than when they optimize it. To test this prediction, the same task requiring to find which among two items concealed a reward was applied to rhesus macaques and humans. The initial trial was individual or social, rewarded or unrewarded. Learning was assessed on the second trial. Choice-induced preference strongly affected individual learning. Monkeys and humans performed much more poorly after an initial negative choice than after an initial positive choice. Comparison with social learning verified our prediction. For negative outcome, social learning surpassed or at least equaled individual learning in all subjects. For positive outcome, the predicted superiority of individual learning did occur in a majority of subjects (5/6 monkeys and 6/12 humans). A minority kept learning better socially though, perhaps due to a more dominant/aggressive attitude toward peers. Poor learning from errors due to over-valuation of personal choices is among the decision-making biases shared by humans and animals. The present study suggests that choice-immune social learning may help curbing this potentially harmful tendency. Learning from successes is an easier path. The present data suggest that whether one tends to walk it alone or with a peer’s help might depend on the social dynamics within the actor/observer dyad.

Performance error-related activity in monkey striatum during social interactions

“…reward for the observer monkey) influenced the observer monkey’s conditional error rate. Our behavioral results, along with results from previous reports91920, suggest that rhesus macaques not only monitor their behavior but also monitor other monkeys’ behavior. The task did not require the animals to show a behaviour consistent with monitoring their conspecific’s performance, in contrast to a previous study9.…”

Vicarious Neural Processing of Outcomes during Observational Learning

“…Additional neuroimaging and behavioural research is needed to explore the relative effectiveness of individual and observational learning from others and individual errors (cf. [11], [84]). …”

“…Learning-by-observation (LeO) plays a crucial role in many adaptive behaviours such as foraging and predator avoidance [4] and it has been observed in several animal species including rats [5], dogs [6], pigeons [7] and monkeys [8]–[11]. LeO relies on multiple functions, including the ability to infer others’ intentions from action observation, process others’ action outcomes (i.e.…”

Macaque Monkeys Can Learn Token Values from Human Models through Vicarious Reward

“…This understanding opens opportunities for both comparative psychology and social neuroscience. We encourage broader adoption of human-monkey (H-M) paradigms of social interaction to supplement the growing use of monkey-monkey (M-M) interaction paradigms [33], [20]. M-M paradigms have weaknesses, like long or unfeasible training periods, that are not present in H-M paradigms.…”

“…We reasoned that not establishing a value for neutral tokens might elicit an explorative behavior from the monkey. Further, it has been shown that monkeys and humans perform better during social learning from a negative outcome than from a positive one [20].…”