Network-based diffusion analysis (NBDA) is a statistical tool to detect and quantify social transmission of information or a behaviour in social networks ( SNA, etc.). NBDA assumes that social transmission of a behavior follows the social network of associations or interactions among individuals, since individuals who spend a lot of time together, or who interact more have more opportunity to learn from each other. Therefore, NBDA infers social transmission if the spread of a novel behavior follows the social network of a

population Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and pl ...

. NBDA thus allows the study of social learning to be linked to

animal behavior Ethology is a branch of zoology that studies the behaviour of non-human animals. It has its scientific roots in the work of Charles Darwin and of American and German ornithologists of the late 19th and early 20th century, including Charle ...

research that uses social network analysis. NBDA was introduced by Franz & Nunn and further developed by Hoppitt, Boogert, & Laland.

Implementation

NBDA requires prior knowledge about the underlying

social network A social network is a social structure consisting of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), networks of Dyad (sociology), dyadic ties, and other Social relation, social interactions between actors. The social network per ...

of a population. In an observational study, the order (or timing) at which individuals in the population acquire a behaviour or information is recorded. NBDA then tests whether the spread of information or behaviour is explained by the previously determined network or not. Because more closely associated individuals are more likely to interact with each other, information is assumed to travel along social ties. If there is a good match between the diffusion of information and the underlying network social transmission is assumed. Otherwise, it is assumed that information was asocially acquired (e.g. trial and error, mistakes, etc.).

Application

NBDA does not only serve as a tool for the detection of social learning, but also allows the estimation of the strength of the social transmission effect. In addition, several individual-level variables can be included in the analysis, which have potential influence on an individual's learning rate (e.g. gender, rank or age), and can also be used to model the effect of, and statistically control for potential ecological and genetic influences. NBDA has been successfully used in a number of studies to identify and quantify the effects of social transmission on the spread of behaviors in both wild and captive animal populations such as

starling Starlings are small to medium-sized passerine (perching) birds known for the often dark, glossy iridescent sheen of their plumage; their complex vocalizations including mimicking; and their distinctive, often elaborate swarming behavior, know ...

chimpanzee The chimpanzee (; ''Pan troglodytes''), also simply known as the chimp, is a species of Hominidae, great ape native to the forests and savannahs of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed one. When its close rel ...

s or

humpback whale The humpback whale (''Megaptera novaeangliae'') is a species of baleen whale. It is a rorqual (a member of the family Balaenopteridae) and is the monotypic taxon, only species in the genus ''Megaptera''. Adults range in length from and weigh u ...

Examples

* Lobtail-feeding in humpback whales * Foraging strategies in tits * Moss-sponging in chimpanzees

References

External links

* {{cite journal , last1=Franz , first1=M. , last2=Nunn , first2=C. L. , title=Network-based diffusion analysis: a new method for detecting social learning , journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences , date=25 February 2009 , volume=276 , issue=1663 , pages=1829–1836 , doi=10.1098/rspb.2008.1824, pmid=19324789 , pmc=2674490 Ethology Research methods Networking algorithms Social network analysis