Using Game Theory to Analyse Task Allocation in Social Organizations: The Roles of Social and Individual Learning

Social organizations, from microbes to insect colonies exhibit remarkable abilities in a self-organized division of labour. Previous models of social colonies have not fully incorporated important characteristics of a colony. In this thesis, two well-established learning mechanisms, namely social learning and individual learning, are utilized and compared to identify their role in the emergence of certain characteristics of interest. In different chapters of this thesis, the emergence of inactive workers and task specialization of age groups under various environmental conditions and the effect of delays that may occur in the realisation of task feedback are studied using these learning paradigms.