ArticleAnimal cognition2019
Social learning about construction behaviour via an artefact.
Article in Animal cognition, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- What do zebra finches learn besides singing? Systematic mapping of the literature and presentation of an efficient associative learning test.Animal cognition · 2023Pooled it
- Repeatable colour preferences predict information use in nest-building birds.Learning & behavior · 2026Article
- Conformity and individual preference shape nest material use in zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata).PloS one · 2026Article
- Demonstrating the reproductive consequences of cognition: learning from experience.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Social context affects sequence modification learning in birdsong.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Bird nest building: visions for the future.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023Review
- Adding the neuro to cognition: from food storing to nest building.Animal cognition · 2023Review
- Learning about construction behaviour from observing an artefact: can experience with conspecifics aid in artefact recognition?Animal cognition · 2021Article
- Animal culture research should include avian nest construction.Biology letters · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
One source of public information may be the enduring products of others' behaviour, such as discarded tools or vacated nests. Here, we examined whether observation of a nest affects the material captive zebra finch males prefer when they construct their first nest. It does: for first-time nest construction, males that viewed only an empty cage preferred the colour of material each initially favoured but those males that had observed a pre-built nest of material of their non-preferred colour lost their material-colour preference altogether. Additionally, half of the males that viewed a nest were tested in an environment (the laboratory) different to that in which they were reared (an outdoor aviary). We had expected the aviary-reared (versus laboratory-reared) males would be more uncertain, and thus more likely to select material for their first nest that matched in colour to the colour of the 'demonstrated' nest-but this was not the case. The aviary-reared males did, however, tend to touch first the demonstrated colour of material more than did the laboratory-reared males. Together these results show that both observation of a nest and a change in environment can influence the material choices of novice builders. For naïve animal builders, then, construction artefacts can be information resources for learning about potential construction material.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.