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Jean-louis Deneubourg - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Improving human Collective Decision-Making through animal and artificial intelligence
2021Co-Authors: Cédric Sueur, Christophe Bousquet, Romain Espinosa, Jean-louis DeneubourgAbstract:Whilst fundamental to human societies, Collective Decision-Making such as voting systems can lead to non-efficient Decisions, as past climate policies demonstrate. Current systems are harshly criticized for the way they consider voters’ needs and knowledge. Collective Decision-Making is central in human societies but also occurs in animal groups mostly when animals need to choose when and where to move. In these societies, animals balance between the needs of the group members and their own needs and rely on each individual’s (partial) knowledge. We argue that non-human animals and humans share similar Collective Decision processes, among which are agenda-setting, deliberation and voting. Recent works in artificial intelligence have sought to improve Decision-Making in human groups, sometimes inspired by animals’ Decision-Making systems. We discuss here how our societies could benefit from recent advances in ethology and artificial intelligence to improve our Collective Decision-Making system.
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The interplay between personalities and social interactions affects the cohesion of the group and the speed of aggregation
2018Co-Authors: Isaac Planas-sitjà, Gregory Sempo, Stamatios C. Nicolis, Jean-louis DeneubourgAbstract:Collective Decision-Making plays a central role in group-living animals and can be crucial to the survival of a group and the fitness of its members. As group-level properties emerge from individual Decisions, personality variation can be a major determinant of Collective behaviours. Here, we explore the relationship between personality and social interactions to explain the speed and cohesion of Collective Decision Making during the aggregation process of the American cockroach (Periplaneta americana). We composed groups solely with shy individuals (spending a long time sheltered) or bold individuals (spending a short time sheltered) and tested them in a binary setup (arena with two shelters) for 3 consecutive days. We analysed the shelter use of individuals and groups to compare behavioural consistency among days and analyse the Collective Decision-Making process. Contrary to the bold groups, shy groups had a faster aggregation process with more individuals sheltered mainly because shy individuals found the shelter more rapidly. Moreover, we show that personality is modulated by social interactions. We show high behavioural plasticity in bold groups, where some individuals act shy. This also suggests that learning and regulation mechanisms may take place. This study sheds some light on the implications of individual personality for Collective Decision Making and the key role of shy individuals in gregarious species, such as P. americana.
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group personality during Collective Decision Making a multi level approach
Proceedings of The Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 2015Co-Authors: Isaac Planassitja, Jean-louis Deneubourg, Celine Gibon, Gregory SempoAbstract:Collective Decision-Making processes emerge from social feedback networks within a group. Many studies on Collective behaviour underestimate the role of individual personality and, as a result, personality is rarely analysed in the context of Collective dynamics. Here, we show evidence of sheltering behaviour personality in a gregarious insect (Periplaneta americana), which is characterized by a Collective personality at the group level. We also highlight that the individuals within groups exhibited consistent personality traits in their probability of sheltering and total time sheltered during the three trials over one week. Moreover, the group personality, which arises from the synergy between the distribution of behaviour profiles in the group and social amplifications, affected the sheltering dynamics. However, owing to its robustness, personality did not affect the group probability of reaching a consensus. Finally, to prove social interactions, we developed a new statistical method that will be helpful for future research on personality traits and group behaviour. This approach will help to identify the circumstances under which particular group compositions may improve the fitness of individuals in gregarious species.
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personality and Collective Decision Making in foraging herbivores
Proceedings of The Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 2010Co-Authors: Pablo Michelena, Jean-louis Deneubourg, Raphael Jeanson, A M SibbaldAbstract:The mechanisms by which group-living animals Collectively exploit resources, and the role of individuals in group Decisions, are central issues for understanding animal distribution patterns. We investigated the extent to which boldness and shyness affect the distribution of social herbivores across vegetation patches, using sheep as a model species. Using an experimental and a theoretical approach, we show that Collective choices emerge through the nonlinear dynamics of interactions between individuals, at both short and long distances. Within a range of parameter values derived from the observation of homogeneous groups of each behavioural type, we propose a simple mechanism whereby the same interaction rules can result in different patterns of distribution across patches for bold and shy individuals. We present a mathematical model based on behavioural rules derived from experiments, in which crowding and conspecific attraction affect the probability of entering or leaving patches. Variation in the strength of social attraction is sufficient to account for differences in spatial distribution across patches. The model predicts that resource fragmentation more strongly affects the distribution patterns of shy groups, and suggests that the presence of both bold and shy individuals within groups would result in more flexible behaviour at the population level.
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Collective Decision Making in white faced capuchin monkeys
Proceedings of The Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 2009Co-Authors: Jacques Gautrais, Odile Petit, Jeanbaptiste Leca, Guy Theraulaz, Jean-louis DeneubourgAbstract:In group-living animals, Collective movements are a widespread phenomenon and occur through consensus Decision. When one animal proposes a direction for group movement, the others decide to follow or not and hence take part in the Decision-Making process. This paper examines the temporal spread of individual responses after the departure of a first individual (the initiator) in a semi-free ranging group of white-faced capuchins (Cebus capucinus). We analysed 294 start attempts, 111 succeeding and 183 failing. Using a modelling approach, we have demonstrated that consensus Decision-Making for group movements is based on two complementary phenomena in this species: firstly, the joining together of group members thanks to a mimetic process; and secondly, a modulation of this phenomenon through the propensity of the initiator to give up (i.e. cancellation rate). This cancellation rate seems to be directly dependent upon the number of followers: the greater this number is, the lower the cancellation rate is seen to be. The coupling between joining and cancellation rates leads to a quorum: when three individuals join the initiator, the group Collectively moves. If the initiator abandons the movement, this influences the joining behaviour of the other group members, which in return influences the initiator's behaviour. This study demonstrates the synergy between the initiator's behaviour and the self-organized mechanisms underlying group movements.
Neil D. Tsutsui - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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nestmate recognition in social insects overcoming physiological constraints with Collective Decision Making
Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 2011Co-Authors: Brian R. Johnson, Ellen Van Wilgenburg, Neil D. TsutsuiAbstract:Social insects rank among the most abundant and influential terrestrial organisms. The key to their success is their ability to form tightly knit social groups that perform work cooperatively, and effectively exclude non-members from the colony. An extensive body of research, both empirical and theoretical, has explored how optimal acceptance thresholds could evolve in individuals, driven by the twin costs of inappropriately rejecting true nestmates and erroneously accepting individuals from foreign colonies. Here, in contrast, we use agent-based modeling to show that strong nestmate recognition by individuals is often unnecessary. Instead, highly effective nestmate recognition can arise as a colony-level property from a Collective of individually poor recognizers. Essentially, although an intruder can get by one defender when their odor cues are similar, it is nearly impossible to get past many defenders if there is the slightest difference in cues. The results of our models match observed rejection rates in studies of ants, wasps, and bees. We also show that previous research in support of the optimal threshold theory approach to the problem of nestmate recognition can be alternatively viewed as evidence in favor of the Collective formation of a selectively permeable barrier that allows in nestmates (at a significant cost) while rejecting non-nestmates. Finally, this work shows that nestmate recognition has a stronger task allocation component than previously thought, as colonies can nearly always achieve perfect nestmate recognition if it is cost effective for them to do so at the colony level.
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nestmate recognition in social insects overcoming physiological constraints with Collective Decision Making
Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 2011Co-Authors: Brian R. Johnson, Ellen Van Wilgenburg, Neil D. TsutsuiAbstract:Social insects rank among the most abundant and influential terrestrial organisms. The key to their success is their ability to form tightly knit social groups that perform work cooperatively, and effectively exclude non-members from the colony. An extensive body of research, both empirical and theoretical, has explored how optimal acceptance thresholds could evolve in individuals, driven by the twin costs of inappropriately rejecting true nestmates and erroneously accepting individuals from foreign colonies. Here, in contrast, we use agent-based modeling to show that strong nestmate recognition by individuals is often unnecessary. Instead, highly effective nestmate recognition can arise as a colony-level property from a Collective of individually poor recognizers. Essentially, although an intruder can get by one defender when their odor cues are similar, it is nearly impossible to get past many defenders if there is the slightest difference in cues. The results of our models match observed rejection rates in studies of ants, wasps, and bees. We also show that previous research in support of the optimal threshold theory approach to the problem of nestmate recognition can be alternatively viewed as evidence in favor of the Collective formation of a selectively permeable barrier that allows in nestmates (at a significant cost) while rejecting non-nestmates. Finally, this work shows that nestmate recognition has a stronger task allocation component than previously thought, as colonies can nearly always achieve perfect nestmate recognition if it is cost effective for them to do so at the colony level.
Ellen Van Wilgenburg - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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nestmate recognition in social insects overcoming physiological constraints with Collective Decision Making
Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 2011Co-Authors: Brian R. Johnson, Ellen Van Wilgenburg, Neil D. TsutsuiAbstract:Social insects rank among the most abundant and influential terrestrial organisms. The key to their success is their ability to form tightly knit social groups that perform work cooperatively, and effectively exclude non-members from the colony. An extensive body of research, both empirical and theoretical, has explored how optimal acceptance thresholds could evolve in individuals, driven by the twin costs of inappropriately rejecting true nestmates and erroneously accepting individuals from foreign colonies. Here, in contrast, we use agent-based modeling to show that strong nestmate recognition by individuals is often unnecessary. Instead, highly effective nestmate recognition can arise as a colony-level property from a Collective of individually poor recognizers. Essentially, although an intruder can get by one defender when their odor cues are similar, it is nearly impossible to get past many defenders if there is the slightest difference in cues. The results of our models match observed rejection rates in studies of ants, wasps, and bees. We also show that previous research in support of the optimal threshold theory approach to the problem of nestmate recognition can be alternatively viewed as evidence in favor of the Collective formation of a selectively permeable barrier that allows in nestmates (at a significant cost) while rejecting non-nestmates. Finally, this work shows that nestmate recognition has a stronger task allocation component than previously thought, as colonies can nearly always achieve perfect nestmate recognition if it is cost effective for them to do so at the colony level.
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nestmate recognition in social insects overcoming physiological constraints with Collective Decision Making
Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 2011Co-Authors: Brian R. Johnson, Ellen Van Wilgenburg, Neil D. TsutsuiAbstract:Social insects rank among the most abundant and influential terrestrial organisms. The key to their success is their ability to form tightly knit social groups that perform work cooperatively, and effectively exclude non-members from the colony. An extensive body of research, both empirical and theoretical, has explored how optimal acceptance thresholds could evolve in individuals, driven by the twin costs of inappropriately rejecting true nestmates and erroneously accepting individuals from foreign colonies. Here, in contrast, we use agent-based modeling to show that strong nestmate recognition by individuals is often unnecessary. Instead, highly effective nestmate recognition can arise as a colony-level property from a Collective of individually poor recognizers. Essentially, although an intruder can get by one defender when their odor cues are similar, it is nearly impossible to get past many defenders if there is the slightest difference in cues. The results of our models match observed rejection rates in studies of ants, wasps, and bees. We also show that previous research in support of the optimal threshold theory approach to the problem of nestmate recognition can be alternatively viewed as evidence in favor of the Collective formation of a selectively permeable barrier that allows in nestmates (at a significant cost) while rejecting non-nestmates. Finally, this work shows that nestmate recognition has a stronger task allocation component than previously thought, as colonies can nearly always achieve perfect nestmate recognition if it is cost effective for them to do so at the colony level.
Nigel R Franks - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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variability in individual assessment behaviour and its implications for Collective Decision Making
Proceedings of The Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 2017Co-Authors: Thomas A Osheawheller, Naoki Masuda, Ana B Sendovafranks, Nigel R FranksAbstract:Self-organized systems of Collective behaviour have been demonstrated in a number of group-living organisms. There is, however, less research relating to how variation in individual assessments may facilitate group Decision-Making. Here, we investigate this using the decentralized system of Collective nest choice behaviour employed by the ant Temnothorax albipennis, combining experimental results with computational modelling. In experiments, isolated workers of this species were allowed to investigate new nest sites of differing quality, and it was found that for any given nest quality, there was wide variation among individuals in the durations that they spent within each nest site. Additionally, individual workers were consistent in spending more time in nest sites of higher quality, and less time in those of lower quality. Hence, the time spent in a new nest site must have included an assessment of nest quality. As nest site visit durations (henceforth termed assessment durations) are linked to recruitment, it is possible that the variability we observed may influence the Collective Decision-Making process of colonies. Thus, we explored this further using a computational model of nest site selection, and found that heterogeneous nest assessments conferred a number of potential benefits. Furthermore, our experiments showed that nest quality assessments were flexible, being influenced by experience of prior options. Our findings help to elucidate the potential mechanisms underlying group behaviour, and highlight the importance of heterogeneity among individuals, rather than precise calibration, in shaping Collective Decision-Making.
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seasonality in communication and Collective Decision Making in ants
Proceedings of The Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 2014Co-Authors: Nathalie Stroeymeyt, Martin Giurfa, C Jordan, G Mayer, S Hovsepian, Nigel R FranksAbstract:The ability of animals to adjust their behaviour according to seasonal changes in their ecology is crucial for their fitness. Eusocial insects display strong Collective behavioural seasonality, yet the mechanisms underlying such changes are poorly understood. We show that nest preference by emigrating Temnothorax albipennis ant colonies is influenced by a season-specific modulatory pheromone that may help tune Decision-Making according to seasonal constraints. The modulatory pheromone triggers aversion towards low-quality nests and enhances colony cohesion in summer and autumn, but not after overwintering—in agreement with reports that field colonies split in spring and reunite in summer. Interestingly, we show that the pheromone acts by downgrading the perceived value of marked nests by informed and naive individuals. This contrasts with theories of Collective intelligence, stating that accurate Collective Decision-Making requires independent evaluation of options by individuals. The violation of independence highlighted here was accordingly shown to increase error rate during emigrations. However, this is counterbalanced by enhanced cohesion and the transmission of valuable information through the colony. Our results support recent claims that optimal Decisions are not necessarily those that maximize accuracy. Other criteria—such as cohesion or reward rate—may be more relevant in animal Decision-Making.
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a simple threshold rule is sufficient to explain sophisticated Collective Decision Making
PLOS ONE, 2011Co-Authors: Elva J H Robinson, Nigel R Franks, Samuel Ellis, Saki Okuda, James A. R. MarshallAbstract:Decision-Making animals can use slow-but-accurate strategies, such as Making multiple comparisons, or opt for simpler, faster strategies to find a ‘good enough’ option. Social animals make Collective Decisions about many group behaviours including foraging and migration. The key to the Collective choice lies with individual behaviour. We present a case study of a Collective Decision-Making process (house-hunting ants, Temnothorax albipennis), in which a previously proposed Decision strategy involved both quality-dependent hesitancy and direct comparisons of nests by scouts. An alternative possible Decision strategy is that scouting ants use a very simple quality-dependent threshold rule to decide whether to recruit nest-mates to a new site or search for alternatives. We use analytical and simulation modelling to demonstrate that this simple rule is sufficient to explain empirical patterns from three studies of Collective Decision-Making in ants, and can account parsimoniously for apparent comparison by individuals and apparent hesitancy (recruitment latency) effects, when available nests differ strongly in quality. This highlights the need to carefully design experiments to detect individual comparison. We present empirical data strongly suggesting that best-of-n comparison is not used by individual ants, although individual sequential comparisons are not ruled out. However, by using a simple threshold rule, Decision-Making groups are able to effectively compare options, without relying on any form of direct comparison of alternatives by individuals. This parsimonious mechanism could promote Collective rationality in group Decision-Making.
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experience dependent flexibility in Collective Decision Making by house hunting ants
Behavioral Ecology, 2011Co-Authors: James A. R. Marshall, Nathalie Stroeymeyt, Elva J H Robinson, P M Hogan, Martin Giurfa, Nigel R FranksAbstract:When Making a Decision, solitary animals often adjust to local conditions by using flexible evaluation and Decision criteria, even though these may occasionally lead to irrationality. By contrast, Collective Decision Making in large animal groups—such as, nest choice by emigrating ant colonies—is usually considered to rely on robust, fixed preference rules and to be immune to irrationality. Here, we show that familiarization with available nest sites prior to emigration can lead to flexible Collective Decisions in the house-hunting ant Temnothorax albipennis. Colonies allowed to inspect a mediocre nest site while their home nest is still intact usually develop an aversion toward that nest. We found that aversion strength was not determined by the quality of the familiar nest only but was also influenced by the quality of the home nest. As a result, nest choice in later emigrations depended strongly on the quality of the previously experienced home nest, allowing colonies to adjust to the local quality of available sites. Additionally, we found that in a worst-case scenario where the only alternatives are of even lower quality, developing an aversion toward a mediocre nest can occasionally lead to poor Collective Decisions. We discuss whether the observed flexibility in Collective choices necessarily requires experience-dependent changes in individual Decision criteria and develop a new analytical model of nest choice in house-hunting ants showing that a fixed-threshold Decision strategy at the individual level can lead to experience-dependent, flexible Decisions at the colony level. Key words: ants; Collective Decision Making, irrationality, nest choice; previous experience. [BehavEcol]
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On optimal Decision Making in brains and social insect colonies
Modelling Natural Action Selection, 2011Co-Authors: James A. R. Marshall, Tim Kovacs, Robert Planqué, Rafal Bogacz, Anna Dornhaus, Nigel R FranksAbstract:The problem of how to compromise between speed and accuracy in Decision-Making faces organisms at many levels of biological complexity. Striking parallels are evident between Decision-Making in primate brains and Collective Decision-Making in social insect colonies: in both systems, separate populations accumulate evidence for alternative choices; when one population reaches a threshold, a Decision is made for the corresponding alternative, and this threshold may be varied to compromise between the speed and the accuracy of Decision-Making. In primate Decision-Making, simple models of these processes have been shown, under certain parametrizations, to implement the statistically optimal procedure that minimizes Decision time for any given error rate. In this paper, we adapt these same analysis techniques and apply them to new models of Collective Decision-Making in social insect colonies. We show that social insect colonies may also be able to achieve statistically optimal Collective Decision-Making in a very similar way to primate brains, via direct competition between evidence-accumulating populations. This optimality result makes testable predictions for how Collective Decision-Making in social insects should be organized. Our approach also represents the first attempt to identify a common theoretical framework for the study of Decision-Making in diverse biological systems.
Richard P Mann - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Collective Decision Making by rational agents with differing preferences
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2020Co-Authors: Richard P MannAbstract:Collective Decisions can emerge from individual-level interactions between members of a group. These interactions are often seen as social feedback rules, whereby individuals copy the Decisions they observe others Making, creating a coherent group Decision. The benefit of these behavioral rules to the individual agent can be understood as a transfer of information, whereby a focal individual learns about the world by gaining access to the information possessed by others. Previous studies have analyzed this exchange of information by assuming that all agents share common goals. While differences in information and differences in preferences have often been conflated, little is known about how differences between agents’ underlying preferences affect the use and efficacy of social information. In this paper, I develop a model of social information use by rational agents with differing preferences, and demonstrate that the resulting Collective behavior is strongly dependent on the structure of preference sharing within the group, as well as the quality of information in the environment. In particular, I show that strong social responses are expected by individuals that are habituated to noisy, uncertain environments where private information about the world is relatively weak. Furthermore, by investigating heterogeneous group structures, I demonstrate a potential influence of cryptic minority subgroups that may illuminate the empirical link between personality and leadership.
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Collective Decision Making by rational individuals
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2018Co-Authors: Richard P MannAbstract:The patterns and mechanisms of Collective Decision Making in humans and animals have attracted both empirical and theoretical attention. Of particular interest has been the variety of social feedback rules and the extent to which these behavioral rules can be explained and predicted from theories of rational estimation and Decision Making. However, models that aim to model the full range of social information use have incorporated ad hoc departures from rational Decision-Making theory to explain the apparent stochasticity and variability of behavior. In this paper I develop a model of social information use and Collective Decision Making by fully rational agents that reveals how a wide range of apparently stochastic social Decision rules emerge from fundamental information asymmetries both between individuals and between the Decision makers and the observer of those Decisions. As well as showing that rational Decision Making is consistent with empirical observations of Collective behavior, this model makes several testable predictions about how individuals make Decisions in groups and offers a valuable perspective on how we view sources of variability in animal, and human, behavior.
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Collective Decision Making by rational individuals
bioRxiv, 2018Co-Authors: Richard P MannAbstract:The patterns and mechanisms of Collective Decision-Making in humans and animals have attracted both empirical and theoretical attention. Of particular interest has been the variety of social feedback rules, and the extent to which these behavioural rules can be explained and predicted from theories of rational estimation and Decision-Making. However, models that aim to model the full range of social information use have incorporated ad hoc departures from rational Decision-Making theory to explain the apparent stochasticity and variability of behaviour. In this paper I develop a model of social information use and Collective Decision-Making by fully rational agents that reveals how a wide range of apparently stochastic social Decision rules emerge from fundamental information asymmetries both between individuals, and between the Decision-makers and the observer of those Decisions. As well as showing that rational Decision-Making is consistent with empirical observations of Collective behaviour, this model makes several testable predictions about how individuals make Decisions in groups, and offers a valuable new perspective on how we view sources of variability in animal, and human, behaviour.
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Collective Decision Making and social interaction rules in mixed species flocks of songbirds
Animal Behaviour, 2014Co-Authors: Damien R Farine, Richard P Mann, Lucy M Aplin, Colin J Garroway, Ben C SheldonAbstract:Associations in mixed-species foraging groups are common in animals, yet have rarely been explored in the context of Collective behaviour. Despite many investigations into the social and ecological conditions under which individuals should form groups, we still know little about the specific behavioural rules that individuals adopt in these contexts, or whether these can be generalized to heterospecifics. Here, we studied Collective behaviour in flocks in a community of five species of woodland passerine birds. We adopted an automated data collection protocol, involving visits by RFID-tagged birds to feeding stations equipped with antennae, over two winters, recording 91 576 feeding events by 1904 individuals. We demonstrated highly synchronized feeding behaviour within patches, with birds moving towards areas of the patch with the largest proportion of the flock. Using a model of Collective Decision Making, we then explored the underlying Decision rule birds may be using when foraging in mixed-species flocks. The model tested whether birds used a different Decision rule for conspecifics and heterospecifics, and whether the rules used by individuals of different species varied. We found that species differed in their response to the distribution of conspecifics and heterospecifics across foraging patches. However, simulating Decisions using the different rules, which reproduced our data well, suggested that the outcome of using different Decision rules by each species resulted in qualitatively similar overall patterns of movement. It is possible that the Decision rules each species uses may be adjusted to variation in mean species abundance in order for individuals to maintain the same overall flock-level response. This is likely to be important for maintaining coordinated behaviour across species, and to result in quick and adaptive flock responses to food resources that are patchily distributed in space and time.