A simple behavioral model that predicts the emergence of complex animal hierarchies
Location: University of Bath, campus, 1W 3.103
Time/date: 11:15-12:15, 27/05/2016
Abstract:
Dominance hierarchies determine how resources are distributed in social animals, including humans. The familiar pecking order ranks animals from most to least dominant, but many groups instead have a single “despot”, while others are dominated by a small oligarchy. How these alternative types arise is still poorly understood. I developed a model that traces each type to a specific combination of three simple interactions: winner-loser contests, policing of contenders by subordinates, and a “winner-winner” interaction that allows some contenders to share dominance. I use the model to explain an example of shared dominance in ants. The model further suggests that simple rules may account for complex social structures, even in more cognitively advanced species. I will also discuss my other research related to collective cognition, in which a group of individuals together processes information and acts as a single cognitive unit.
Speakers’ biography:
Dr. Sasaki is Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Oxford and interested in when and how groups make better (or worse) decisions than individuals. His research directly addresses this question, using pigeon homing as a model system. I compare the cognitive abilities of individuals and groups by testing them on the same spatio-cognitive tasks. Thanks to the cutting-edge GPS devices, he can create deatailed agent-based models using high-resolution individual spatiotemporal data. This research is relevant to multiple research fields, including optimal decision-making theory and collective robotics.










