Scrounger numbers and the inhibition of social learning in pigeons

Social foraging can inhibit the learning and performance of food-finding behaviours. Confusion, overshadowing and frequency-dependent payoffs may all contribute to the inhibition, but standard experimental procedures make the separation of these effects difficult. In this study, we combine characteristics of cage and aviary experiments and present either a single naive pigeon or groups of three naive pigeons with a pre-trained producer opening an apparatus in an aviary. All naive birds scrounged on the 3456 openings they witnessed. In a post-test given in the absence of other birds, all single scroungers opened the apparatus, bur only one of the group-scrounging pigeons did. Scrounger numbers appear to play an important role in the inhibition of food-finding behaviour, suggesting that confusion is a major component of learning in a social context. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.