Innovative Populations


In watching history unfold and learning of social change it is evident that an entire population's attitude or understanding can eventually change. Population changes could include abandoning racism or sexism, developing tool use, or utilizing a new environment or food source. Whatever the change is, in order for this large scale shift to occur someone has to initiate it. In animal behavior the establishment of a new behavior not previously seen in a population is called innovation.

In a recent literature review Simon Reader compiled information from multiple sources on the topics of innovation and the evolution of new behaviors. He looked at the qualities of individual innovators, types of populations which have a tendency toward innovation and characteristics of species that are prone to high innovation rates. Reader also discussed the concept of novelty response, as the initial response to a new object or environment and raised the point of context specificity, that says an individual may be more likely to approach a new object in a known environment. Both social and asocial learning are significant to this topic as asocial learning allows for new behaviors and social learning allows for the spread of recently established behaviors.

Through experiments involving novel tasks, correlations were established between individuals who perform well, as innovators, and those who are neophilic, or likely to explore new objects, aggressive, high in dominance rank, and skilled at social learning. Populations which feed in groups are more prone to develop new behaviors because the significant competition promotes asocial learning. Species that use tools and have enlarged regions of the brain dedicated to multimodal integration are characterized by high innovation rates. Innovation is a hugely important aspect of animal behavior as it allows for adaptation and expansion into new niches. This gives species flexibility to their ecology as well as options if habitat is limited or threatened.

Posted by EBW (9)