Influence of shared experience on relational dynamics and vicarious learning

University Of Texas At Austin, Austin TX

Investigators

Abstract

The world’s social order is highly dependent on relational dynamics between individuals. The ability for individuals to organize in social groups is crucial to the good functioning of the collective, as well as each member. But, how do individuals decide who they should affiliate with, or when information is important vs. when it can or should be discounted? In social species, including rats and humans, there is a strong relationship between our ability to form social bonds with one-another, and our reliance on information that acquired from social interactions. The Monfils lab employs procedures in which rats can acquire fear, or information about food safety, via social transmission. Simply stated: rats, like humans, are social creatures. But whereas humans are exceedingly complex, and whereas some of our behaviors are contaminated by layered and conflicting intentions (owing, in part, to our large prefrontal cortex), the behavior of rats is complex enough to be interesting and to yield variability, but it yields variability that one can actually understand and have the potential to readily explain. Social group dynamics in rats provide a lens via which one can understand fundamental principles of behavior, stripped down to the basics, and devoid of layered filters. From whom, and under what conditions, do individuals acquire information by-proxy? The researchers’ objective is to examine the intersection of socio-environmental stability and affiliative kinship. They specifically ask whether shared experience affects how individuals relate to one another, and in turn affects how they learn via social transmission. First, they will examine whether individuals’ shared experience, that is, one that they undergo together simultaneously, leads to an increase in their propensity to rely on socially acquired information. Second, they will test whether the shared recounting of similar experiences strengthens affiliative bonds between conspecifics, and in turn, increases their propensity to rely on socially acquired information. Third, they will examine whether the shared recounting of differing experiences leads to erosion of affiliative bonds between individuals, and in turn, decreases their reliance on social transmission of information. The researchers’ efforts will yield a comprehensive understanding of the impact of shared experiences on the individual, small group affiliations, as well as large group dynamics. The rat model will give the researchers the opportunity to study relationship dynamics in groups and subgroups over an extended period of time—a significant portion of the rats’ lifespan. Attempting to do a similar study in humans would literally take a (human) lifetime. As such, addressing the researchers’ research questions in rats will enable them to extract lifespan principles of relational dynamic stability and their impact on individuals’ propensity to learn from one another, as well as the impact of shared experience on those relational dynamics over a meaningfully long period of time. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.