Definition of learning
We start with a psychology-based definition of learning,which states that learning is a cognitive response to information
acquisition that occurs via an individual’s experience that results in a
detectable and consistent change in neurophysiology and/or behavior (Box
1). Movement intersects with this definition of learning in several key
ways. First, movement will give rise to learning if the movement leads
to acquisition of information by introducing an animal to a new
environment or state. Second, the learned information can give rise to
new movement decisions if the information acquired is used to change
movement patterns. Lastly, learning can be about movement itself, for
example, when an animal learns where and when to migrate by imitating
conspecifics. Figure 1 depicts these connections among movement,
information processing, the environment, and the internal states of the
animal.
Although researchers can access cellular evidence for neurophysiological
changes arising from information acquisition and storage directly via
functional magnetic resonance imaging or similar methods
(Marshet al. 2010), these approaches are impractical in studies of
animals in the wild and most ecologically relevant evidence for learning
comes from observing changes in behavior as a result of experience.
Thus, although the definition of learning above does not strictly
involve decision-making, the ecological implications of learning are
often intimately tied to the decision-making process. In movement
ecology, researchers deduce that learning has taken place by observing
changes in decision making after experiences. Thus, discussions of
learning in movement ecology often involve the decision-making process,
so learning in the context of movement decisions is more like learning
as defined in artificial intelligence: improved performance for a
specific task as a result of prior experience. This definition, which we
refer to as the task-based definition , differs from the
psychological definition because it is directly tied to improvements in
performance for a specific task based on experience (Box 1).