Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

How can an external teacher accelerate coordination among multiple learning agents? We investigate this question in a multi-agent foraging task where a simulated teacher can physically relocate agents—a direct but ambiguous pedagogical signal. We formalize a taxonomy of teaching styles (e.g., Undoing, Correcting) and agent interpretation rules. Our computational experiments reveal that the Undoing style is a uniquely powerful catalyst for spatial coordination, most effectively breaking behavioral symmetry between two agents by imposing spatial constraints that define "home regions." This catalytic effect scales, reinforcing niche specialization in three-agent systems. However, success is governed by a pedagogical matching principle: interventions fail when the agent's interpretation rule mismatches the teacher's intent (e.g., Correcting fails when interventions are interpreted as punitive). Our work provides a formal framework showing how structured guidance and agent interpretation jointly shape the emergence of collective organization.