Selective social learning of plant edibility in 6- and 18-month-old infants.

ABSTRACT: Recent research underscores the importance of social learning to the development of food preferences. Here, we explore whether social information about edibility--an adult placing something in his or her mouth--can be selectively tied to certain types of entities. Given that humans have relied on gathered plant resources across evolutionary time, and given the costs of trial-and-error learning, we predicted that human infants may possess selective social learning strategies that rapidly identify edible plants. Evidence from studies with 6- and 18-month-olds demonstrated that infants selectively identify plants, over artifacts, as food sources after seeing the same food-relevant social information applied to both object types. These findings are the first evidence for content-specific social learning mechanisms that facilitate the identification of edible plant resources. Evolved learning mechanisms such as these have enabled humans to survive and thrive in varied and changing environments.

SUBMITTER: Wertz AE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4345201 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature