The comparative psychology of social learning.

In the first part of this chapter, we use work on social learning published from January 2012 to December 2014 to determine whether students of social learning have overcome a suite of scientific “sins” of which the broader field of comparative psychology has, historically, been accused. Next, we briefly discuss classifications of social learning to provide a framework within which to consider teaching: A behavior that, like imitation, has been considered a uniquely human characteristic but is now viewed as part of the behavioral repertoire of nonhuman animals as well. Finally, we address Romanes's third goal, direct comparison of social learning in closely related species, focussing where the literature is richest, on comparisons of humans with other apes. This chapter is complemented by Chapter 20 of this volume, which focuses on the larger-scale phenomena of tradition and culture that are crucially dependent on social learning. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)