The learning process
The process of learning includes all the steps needed for information acquisition based on experiences encountered. Broadly, these steps include attention to relevant information, perception of the information, acquisition of that information, finally storage and retrieval (memory) of that information. At this point that the information can be acted upon, for example, to make a movement decision (Figure 1).
Diverse factors may impede or enhance an animal’s attention to information from its environment or from other individuals. For example, animals in unfamiliar environments may be more (or less) observant of environmental cues (Wolfe 1969) and certain types of social interaction may increase or decrease attentiveness, leading to social learning (Heyes 1994). Other factors, such as the internal state of an animal (Dorrance & Zentall 2001) or its risk sensitivity (Bacon et al . 2010) may also play a role in determining attentiveness (Figure 1).
The perception and acquisition of information depend on an animal’s sensory capacities. For most animals, certain sensory cues will be easier to detect than others, which can lead to different hierarchies of sensory cues, though that hierarchy may itself be altered contextually. For example, many aural and olfactory cues may be more important than visual information at night (Zollner and Lima 1999). Once acquired, information must be committed to memory as part of the learning process. Storage and retrieval of learned information is essential for decision making, which can be based on recent events or information remembered over long periods of time (Abrahms et al . 2019; Polansky et al ., 2015).
A test of successful learning is the ability to make a decision using information from past experiences that discriminates among alternative strategies. For example, in laboratory studies, exposure to spatially distributed food rewards in mazes can affect the movement choices of rats (Leonard and McNaughton 1990). Similarly, for wolves, memory-related statistical metrics like ‘time since last visit’ to a location may form the basis for movement decision discrimination (Schlägel et al . 2017). Of course, this link between experiences and decision making is context-dependent, being modulated by layers of complexity regarding habitats, social status, and internal states (Figure 1).