In groups, the actions of neighbors and group-level dynamics can have indirect and direct influences on food choices and learning . Due to the need to stay in a group (imposed in the model), there is a strong ‘consensus’ or ‘conformity’ effect, where the decision of neighbors to stop or not stop in a patch can affect the feeding opportunities of foragers and hence their learning trajectories. This social influence on learning due to grouping, which we refer to as LE, is an emergent process in our model. This process occurs in patchy environments, because grouping causes foragers to share the same foraging opportunities at the same time. As a result, foragers in groups share learning histories and develop similar behavioral repertoires . Moreover, the direct observation of neighbors and its effects, depends on what neighbors have decided to eat, or depends on copying opportunities . In turn, the effect of a social stimulus will depend on what an observer already knows, and whether it can find the resource type of interest. If a forager would already choose a resource item on its own accord (a ir>a ie) then the social stimulus P S would not matter and the social influence would be redundant. Moreover, P S can increase the rate of food intake and feedback on selectivity via the updating of the expectation of the environment a ie.