Grant: Canada Research Chairs

Here Dr. Guillette proposes a system to study how information about physical problems may be learned socially: Nest building in birds. The ability to learn from watching others, called social learning, allows animals (including humans) to learn how to solve problems without engaging in time-consuming trial-and-error learning. Social learning is thought to be a cornerstone to forming and maintaining cultural traditions. While learning what food to eat, with whom to mate, what song to sing, and who to avoid from others has been well studied, we know much less about the role social learning plays when animals are interacting with and manipulating physical features of their environment (physical cognition). One example of physical cognition in animals that has received much attention is tool use. We have long been fascinated by the beauty and diversity of nests that are built by birds. For the birds themselves, building the correct nest is key to their reproductive success; if they get the nest right, they have a chance to fledge young, if they get the nest wrong, they will surely fail. Despite the importance of nests, it is still not known how a bird knows what nest to build. Almost every bird builds some type of nest in which to lay eggs and rear young. As this intimately links a bird to the environment, a builder stands to learn a lot from observing both the success and failure of others. In the light of climate change, building the right nest is an especially important accomplishment. Because nest building specifically, and construction behaviour more generally, is common among animals, this projects lays the ground work for a larger comparative analysis aimed at understanding the evolution of social learning. In addition to examining the role of learning and social learning in nest-building behaviour specifically, the overarching, long-term goals of this research program are to understand the causes and consequences of among-individual variation in cognition, including why some animals seem to rely more on social information compared to information they can acquire themselves. To accomplish these goals, Dr. Guillette and her team will take integrative approach, using several songbird species, including black-capped chickadees and zebra finches. Dr. Guillette will examine behaviour and cognition of nest building and other behaviours in the wild and in the laboratory, including examining the direct link between the brain and behavior.