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Bandini E, Tennie C. Naïve, adult, captive chimpanzees do not socially learn how to make and use sharp stone tools. Sci Rep 2023; 13:22733. [PMID: 38123639 PMCID: PMC10733399 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-49780-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/20/2023] [Accepted: 12/12/2023] [Indexed: 12/23/2023] Open
Abstract
Although once regarded as a unique human feature, tool-use is widespread in the animal kingdom. Some of the most proficient tool-users are our closest living relatives, chimpanzees. These repertoires however consist primarily of tool use, rather than tool manufacture (for later use). Furthermore, most populations of chimpanzees use organic materials, such as sticks and leaves, rather than stones as tools. This distinction may be partly ecological, but it is also important as chimpanzees are often used as models for the evolution of human material culture, the oldest traces of which consist of manufactured sharp stone tools (so-called "flakes"). Thus, examining the conditions (if any) under which chimpanzees may develop flake manufacture and use can provide insight into the drivers of these behaviours in our own lineage. Previous studies on non-human apes' ability to make and use flakes focused on enculturated apes, giving them full demonstrations of the behaviour immediately, without providing social information on the task in a stepwise manner. Here we tested naïve, captive chimpanzees (N = 4; three potentially enculturated and one unenculturated subject) in a social learning experimental paradigm to investigate whether enculturated and/or unenculturated chimpanzees would develop flake making and use after social information of various degrees (including a human demonstration) was provided in a scaffolded manner. Even though social learning opportunities were provided, neither the unenculturated subject nor any of the potentially enculturated subjects made or used flakes, in stark contrast to previous studies with enculturated apes. These data suggest that flake manufacture and use is outside of our tested group of captive chimpanzees' individual and social learning repertoires. It also suggests that high levels of enculturation alongside human demonstrations (and/or training) may be required before captive chimpanzees can develop this behaviour.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elisa Bandini
- Department of Geosciences, Working Group Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
- Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Sciences, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland.
| | - Claudio Tennie
- Department of Geosciences, Working Group Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- Department of Human Evolution, Max Plank Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
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2
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Zamorano-Abramson J, Hernández-Lloreda MV. Imitation of Novel Intransitive Body Actions in a Beluga Whale ( Delphinapterus leucas): A "Do as Other Does" Study. Animals (Basel) 2023; 13:3763. [PMID: 38136800 PMCID: PMC10740556 DOI: 10.3390/ani13243763] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/22/2023] [Revised: 11/23/2023] [Accepted: 12/02/2023] [Indexed: 12/24/2023] Open
Abstract
Cetaceans are well known for their unique behavioral habits, such as calls and tactics. The possibility that these are acquired through social learning continues to be explored. This study investigates the ability of a young beluga whale to imitate novel behaviors. Using a do-as-other-does paradigm, the subject observed the performance of a conspecific demonstrator involving familiar and novel behaviors. The subject: (1) learned a specific 'copy' command; (2) copied 100% of the demonstrator's familiar behaviors and accurately reproduced two out of three novel actions; (3) achieved full matches on the first trial for a subset of familiar behaviors; and (4) demonstrated proficiency in coping with each familiar behavior as well as the two novel behaviors. This study provides the first experimental evidence of a beluga whale's ability to imitate novel intransitive (non-object-oriented) body movements on command. These results contribute to our understanding of the remarkable ability of cetaceans, including dolphins, orcas, and now beluga whales, to engage in multimodal imitation involving sounds and movements. This ability, rarely documented in non-human animals, has significant implications for the development of survival strategies, such as the acquisition of knowledge about natal philopatry, migration routes, and traditional feeding areas, among these marine mammals.
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Affiliation(s)
- José Zamorano-Abramson
- Centro de Investigación en Complejidad Social, Facultad de Gobierno, Universidad del Desarrollo, Santiago 7610615, Chile
- Grupo UCM de Psicobiología Social, Evolutiva y Comparada, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28223 Madrid, Spain;
| | - María Victoria Hernández-Lloreda
- Grupo UCM de Psicobiología Social, Evolutiva y Comparada, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28223 Madrid, Spain;
- Departamento de Psicobiología y Metodología en Ciencias del Comportamiento, Facultad de Psicología, Campus de Somosaguas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28223 Madrid, Spain
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3
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Braga I, Wardil L. Stochastic evolution of bad memes. Phys Rev E 2023; 108:064103. [PMID: 38243451 DOI: 10.1103/physreve.108.064103] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/24/2023] [Accepted: 10/13/2023] [Indexed: 01/21/2024]
Abstract
Dawkins introduced a groundbreaking concept suggesting that humans, similar to other animals, operate as gene-propagating machines. Following in his footsteps, Blackmore posits that humans might distinguish themselves from other animals by also serving as specialized meme-replicating machines. Here we introduce a mathematical model that examines the impact of social conformity on the propagation of bad memes (memes with low intrinsic appeal). We state the meme equations, which give us the number of different kinds of memes living in the population and its total amount. We show that, unlike a virus, bad memes have a very low probability of initially spreading. However, as memes are produced in large numbers, some will eventually experience a stochastic rise and persist for extended periods, aided by social conformism within groups. We develop analytical approximations to calculate the mean time taken for memes to become extinct and the mean time spent in each population state. These approximations enable us to apply the meme equations to conduct a qualitative analysis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ian Braga
- Departamento de Física, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, 31270-901 Belo Horizonte MG, Brazil
| | - Lucas Wardil
- Departamento de Física, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, 31270-901 Belo Horizonte MG, Brazil
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4
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Lang B, Kahnau P, Hohlbaum K, Mieske P, Andresen NP, Boon MN, Thöne-Reineke C, Lewejohann L, Diederich K. Challenges and advanced concepts for the assessment of learning and memory function in mice. Front Behav Neurosci 2023; 17:1230082. [PMID: 37809039 PMCID: PMC10551171 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2023.1230082] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/28/2023] [Accepted: 09/05/2023] [Indexed: 10/10/2023] Open
Abstract
The mechanisms underlying the formation and retrieval of memories are still an active area of research and discussion. Manifold models have been proposed and refined over the years, with most assuming a dichotomy between memory processes involving non-conscious and conscious mechanisms. Despite our incomplete understanding of the underlying mechanisms, tests of memory and learning count among the most performed behavioral experiments. Here, we will discuss available protocols for testing learning and memory using the example of the most prevalent animal species in research, the laboratory mouse. A wide range of protocols has been developed in mice to test, e.g., object recognition, spatial learning, procedural memory, sequential problem solving, operant- and fear conditioning, and social recognition. Those assays are carried out with individual subjects in apparatuses such as arenas and mazes, which allow for a high degree of standardization across laboratories and straightforward data interpretation but are not without caveats and limitations. In animal research, there is growing concern about the translatability of study results and animal welfare, leading to novel approaches beyond established protocols. Here, we present some of the more recent developments and more advanced concepts in learning and memory testing, such as multi-step sequential lockboxes, assays involving groups of animals, as well as home cage-based assays supported by automated tracking solutions; and weight their potential and limitations against those of established paradigms. Shifting the focus of learning tests from the classical experimental chamber to settings which are more natural for rodents comes with a new set of challenges for behavioral researchers, but also offers the opportunity to understand memory formation and retrieval in a more conclusive way than has been attainable with conventional test protocols. We predict and embrace an increase in studies relying on methods involving a higher degree of automatization, more naturalistic- and home cage-based experimental setting as well as more integrated learning tasks in the future. We are confident these trends are suited to alleviate the burden on animal subjects and improve study designs in memory research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benjamin Lang
- Animal Behavior and Laboratory Animal Science, Department of Veterinary Medicine, Institute for Animal Welfare, Free University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany
- Science of Intelligence, Research Cluster of Excellence, Berlin, Germany
| | - Pia Kahnau
- Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), Berlin, Germany
| | - Katharina Hohlbaum
- Science of Intelligence, Research Cluster of Excellence, Berlin, Germany
- Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), Berlin, Germany
| | - Paul Mieske
- Animal Behavior and Laboratory Animal Science, Department of Veterinary Medicine, Institute for Animal Welfare, Free University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany
- Science of Intelligence, Research Cluster of Excellence, Berlin, Germany
- Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), Berlin, Germany
| | - Niek P. Andresen
- Science of Intelligence, Research Cluster of Excellence, Berlin, Germany
- Computer Vision and Remote Sensing, Technical University Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Marcus N. Boon
- Science of Intelligence, Research Cluster of Excellence, Berlin, Germany
- Modeling of Cognitive Processes, Technical University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Christa Thöne-Reineke
- Animal Behavior and Laboratory Animal Science, Department of Veterinary Medicine, Institute for Animal Welfare, Free University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany
- Science of Intelligence, Research Cluster of Excellence, Berlin, Germany
| | - Lars Lewejohann
- Animal Behavior and Laboratory Animal Science, Department of Veterinary Medicine, Institute for Animal Welfare, Free University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany
- Science of Intelligence, Research Cluster of Excellence, Berlin, Germany
- Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), Berlin, Germany
| | - Kai Diederich
- Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), Berlin, Germany
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Bandini E. Addressing misconceptions on Latent Solution tests: Comment on "Blind alleys and fruitful pathways in the comparative study of cultural cognition" by Andrew Whiten. Phys Life Rev 2023; 44:64-66. [PMID: 36516612 DOI: 10.1016/j.plrev.2022.12.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/04/2022] [Accepted: 12/05/2022] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Elisa Bandini
- Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zürich, Switzerland.
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Clark FE, Chivers L, Pearson O. Material and food exploration by zoo-housed animals can inform cognition and enrichment apparatus design. Zoo Biol 2023; 42:26-37. [PMID: 35614574 DOI: 10.1002/zoo.21699] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/03/2020] [Revised: 03/21/2022] [Accepted: 04/13/2022] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Abstract
To robustly study zoo animal cognition and provide effective enrichment, we must provide animals with carefully designed apparatus made from appropriate (safe, attractive, practical) materials. However, all too often, this design phase is overlooked or omitted from the literature. We evaluated how a troop of 12 ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta) explored a range of novel materials and whole foods during outdoor social testing. These items were not intended to test cognition or be enriching; rather we viewed them as the potential "building blocks" from which to build our future apparatus. Lemurs preferred to explore wooden surfaces, but had no preference for manipulanda made from different materials. Large amounts of metal and untreated wood should be avoided in the future; metal produced too much heat and glare, and wood was damaged by biting/chewing. Lemurs used one or two hands to explore manipulanda, and simple touching was more common than twisting or pulling. However, lemurs were most likely to explore by smell than touch or by mouth. Social testing preserved "normal" conditions for the lemurs, including natural food stealing and scrounging in high- and low-ranking individuals, respectively. Our findings culminated in the development of a static, low-level cognitive task apparatus, constructed from modular plastic units. We encourage other researchers to report how they develop cognitive and enrichment apparatuses and consider a similar preference-testing approach.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fay E Clark
- Field Conservation & Science Department, Bristol Zoological Society, Bristol, UK.,School of Psychological Science, University of Bristol School of Psychological Science, Bristol, UK.,School of Life Sciences, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK
| | - Lucy Chivers
- Bristol Veterinary School, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Olivia Pearson
- Bristol Veterinary School, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
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Zamorano-Abramson J, Michon M, Hernández-Lloreda MV, Aboitiz F. Multimodal imitative learning and synchrony in cetaceans: A model for speech and singing evolution. Front Psychol 2023; 14:1061381. [PMID: 37138983 PMCID: PMC10150787 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1061381] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/04/2022] [Accepted: 02/13/2023] [Indexed: 05/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Multimodal imitation of actions, gestures and vocal production is a hallmark of the evolution of human communication, as both, vocal learning and visual-gestural imitation, were crucial factors that facilitated the evolution of speech and singing. Comparative evidence has revealed that humans are an odd case in this respect, as the case for multimodal imitation is barely documented in non-human animals. While there is evidence of vocal learning in birds and in mammals like bats, elephants and marine mammals, evidence in both domains, vocal and gestural, exists for two Psittacine birds (budgerigars and grey parrots) and cetaceans only. Moreover, it draws attention to the apparent absence of vocal imitation (with just a few cases reported for vocal fold control in an orangutan and a gorilla and a prolonged development of vocal plasticity in marmosets) and even for imitation of intransitive actions (not object related) in monkeys and apes in the wild. Even after training, the evidence for productive or "true imitation" (copy of a novel behavior, i.e., not pre-existent in the observer's behavioral repertoire) in both domains is scarce. Here we review the evidence of multimodal imitation in cetaceans, one of the few living mammalian species that have been reported to display multimodal imitative learning besides humans, and their role in sociality, communication and group cultures. We propose that cetacean multimodal imitation was acquired in parallel with the evolution and development of behavioral synchrony and multimodal organization of sensorimotor information, supporting volitional motor control of their vocal system and audio-echoic-visual voices, body posture and movement integration.
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Affiliation(s)
- José Zamorano-Abramson
- Centro de Investigación en Complejidad Social, Facultad de Gobierno, Universidad del Desarrollo, Santiago, Chile
- Grupo UCM de Psicobiología Social, Evolutiva y Comparada, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
- *Correspondence: José Zamorano-Abramson,
| | - Maëva Michon
- Centro de Estudios en Neurociencia Humana y Neuropsicología, Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Diego Portales, Santiago, Chile
- Laboratory for Cognitive and Evolutionary Neuroscience, Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Interdisciplinary Center for Neuroscience, Pontificia Universidad Católica de, Santiago, Chile
- Maëva Michon,
| | - Ma Victoria Hernández-Lloreda
- Grupo UCM de Psicobiología Social, Evolutiva y Comparada, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
- Departamento de Psicobiología y Metodología de las Ciencias del Comportamiento, Facultad de Psicología, Campus de Somosaguas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
| | - Francisco Aboitiz
- Laboratory for Cognitive and Evolutionary Neuroscience, Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Interdisciplinary Center for Neuroscience, Pontificia Universidad Católica de, Santiago, Chile
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Whiten A. Blind alleys and fruitful pathways in the comparative study of cultural cognition. Phys Life Rev 2022; 43:211-238. [PMID: 36343568 DOI: 10.1016/j.plrev.2022.10.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/16/2022] [Accepted: 10/17/2022] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
A mere few decades ago, culture was thought a unique human attribute. Evidence to the contrary accumulated through the latter part of the twentieth century and has exploded in the present one, demonstrating the transmission of traditions through social learning across all principal vertebrate taxa and even invertebrates, notably insects. The scope of human culture is nevertheless highly distinctive. What makes our cultural capacities and their cognitive underpinnings so different? In this article I argue that in behavioural scientists' endeavours to answer this question, fruitful research pathways and their ensuing discoveries have come to exist alongside popular, yet in the light of current empirical evidence, highly questionable scenarios and even scientific blind alleys. I particularly re-evaluate theories that rely on the centrality of a supposed uniquely human capacity for imitative copying in explaining the distinctive capacity for massive cumulative cultural evolution (CCE) in our species. The most extreme versions of this perspective suffer logical incoherence and severe limits on scientific testability. By contrast the field has generated a range of rigorous observational and experimental methodologies that have revealed both long-term cultural fidelity and limited forms of CCE in non-human species. Attention now turns to directly investigating the scope, limits and underlying cognition of non-human versus human CCE, with a broader approach to factors additional to cultural transmission, notably the role of invention, innovation and evolved motivational biases underlying the scope of CCE in the species studied.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrew Whiten
- Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, KY16 9JP, UK.
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10
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Benítez ME, Painter MC, Guisneuf N, Bergman TJ. Answering big questions with small data: the use of field experiments in primate cognition. Curr Opin Behav Sci 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cobeha.2022.101141] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
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11
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Bard KA, Keller H, Ross KM, Hewlett B, Butler L, Boysen ST, Matsuzawa T. Joint Attention in Human and Chimpanzee Infants in Varied Socio-Ecological Contexts. Monogr Soc Res Child Dev 2022; 86:7-217. [PMID: 35355281 DOI: 10.1111/mono.12435] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Joint attention (JA) is an early manifestation of social cognition, commonly described as interactions in which an infant looks or gestures to an adult female to share attention about an object, within a positive emotional atmosphere. We label this description the JA phenotype. We argue that characterizing JA in this way reflects unexamined assumptions which are, in part, due to past developmental researchers' primary focus on western, middle-class infants and families. We describe a range of cultural variations in caregiving practices, socialization goals, and parenting ethnotheories as an essential initial step in viewing joint attention within inclusive and contextualized perspectives. We begin the process of conducting a decolonized study of JA by considering the core construct of joint attention (i.e., triadic connectedness) and adopting culturally inclusive definitions (labeled joint engagement [JE]). Our JE definitions allow for attention and engagement to be expressed in visual and tactile modalities (e.g., for infants experiencing distal or proximal caregiving), with various social partners (e.g., peers, older siblings, mothers), with a range of shared topics (e.g., representing diverse socialization goals, and socio-ecologies with and without toys), and with a range of emotional tone (e.g., for infants living in cultures valuing calmness and low arousal, and those valuing exuberance). Our definition of JE includes initiations from either partner (to include priorities for adult-led or child-led interactions). Our next foundational step is making an ecological commitment to naturalistic observations (Dahl, 2017, Child Dev Perspect, 11(2), 79-84): We measure JE while infants interact within their own physical and social ecologies. This commitment allows us to describe JE as it occurs in everyday contexts, without constraints imposed by researchers. Next, we sample multiple groups of infants drawn from diverse socio-ecological settings. Moreover, we include diverse samples of chimpanzee infants to compare with diverse samples of human infants, to investigate the extent to which JE is unique to humans, and to document diversity both within and between species. We sampled human infants living in three diverse settings. U.K. infants (n = 8) were from western, middle-class families living near universities in the south of England. Nso infants (n = 12) were from communities of subsistence farmers in Cameroon, Africa. Aka infants (n = 10) were from foraging communities in the tropical rain forests of Central African Republic, Africa. We coded behavioral details of JE from videotaped observations (taken between 2004 and 2010). JE occurred in the majority of coded intervals (Mdn = 68%), supporting a conclusion that JE is normative for human infants. The JA phenotype, in contrast, was infrequent, and significantly more common in the U.K. (Mdn = 10%) than the other groups (Mdn < 3%). We found significant within-species diversity in JE phenotypes (i.e., configurations of predominant forms of JE characteristics). We conclude that triadic connectedness is very common in human infants, but there is significant contextualization of behavioral forms of JE. We also studied chimpanzee infants living in diverse socio-ecologies. The PRI/Zoo chimpanzee infants (n = 7) were from captive, stable groups of mixed ages and sexes, and included 4 infants from the Chester Zoo, U.K. and 3 from the Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Japan. The Gombe chimpanzee infants (n = 12) were living in a dynamically changing, wild community in the Gombe National Park, Tanzania, Africa. Additionally, we include two Home chimpanzee infants who were reared from birth by a female scientist, in the combined U.S., middle-class contexts of home and university cognition laboratory. JE was coded from videotaped observations (taken between 1993 and 2006). JE occurred during the majority of coded intervals (Mdn = 64%), consistent with the position that JE is normative for chimpanzee infants. The JA phenotype, in contrast, was rare, but more commonly observed in the two Home chimpanzee infants (in 8% and 2% of intervals) than in other chimpanzee groups (Mdns = 0%). We found within-species diversity in the configurations comprising the JE phenotypes. We conclude that triadic connectedness is very common in chimpanzee infants, but behavioral forms of joint engagement are contextualized. We compared JE across species, and found no species-uniqueness in behavioral forms, JE characteristics, or JE phenotypes. Both human and chimpanzee infants develop contextualized social cognition. Within-species diversity is embraced when triadic connectedness is described with culturally inclusive definitions. In contrast, restricting definitions to the JA phenotype privileges a behavioral form most valued in western, middle-class socio-ecologies, irrespective of whether the interactions involve human or chimpanzee infants. Our study presents a model for how to decolonize an important topic in developmental psychology. Decolonization is accomplished by defining the phenomenon inclusively, embracing diversity in sampling, challenging claims of human-uniqueness, and having an ecological commitment to observe infant social cognition as it occurs within everyday socio-ecological contexts. It is essential that evolutionary and developmental theories of social cognition are re-built on more inclusive and decolonized empirical foundations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kim A Bard
- Department of Psychology, University of Portsmouth
| | - Heidi Keller
- Department of Human Sciences, Osnabrück University
| | | | - Barry Hewlett
- Department of Anthropology, Washington State University, Vancouver
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Ransom A, LaGrant B, Spiteri A, Kushnir T, Anderson AK, De Rosa E. Face-to-face learning enhances the social transmission of information. PLoS One 2022; 17:e0264250. [PMID: 35213587 PMCID: PMC8880930 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0264250] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/18/2020] [Accepted: 02/07/2022] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
Learning from others provides the foundation for culture and the advancement of knowledge. Learning a new visuospatial skill from others represents a specific challenge-overcoming differences in perspective so that we understand what someone is doing and why they are doing it. The "what" of visuospatial learning is thought to be easiest from a shared 0° first-person perspective and most difficult from a 180° third-person perspective. However, the visual disparity at 180° promotes face-to-face interaction, which may enhance learning by scaffolding social perspective taking, the "why" of visuospatial learning. We tested these potentially conflicting hypotheses in child and young adult learners. Thirty-six children (4-6 years) and 57 young adults (18-27 years) observed a live model open a puzzle box from a first-person (0°) or third-person (90° or 180°) perspective. The puzzle box had multiple solutions, only one of which was modelled, which allowed for the assessment of imitation and goal emulation. Participants had three attempts to open the puzzle box from the model's perspective. While first-person (0°) observation increased imitation relative to a 180° third-person perspective, the 180° observers opened the puzzle box most readily (i.e., fastest). Although both age groups were excellent imitators and able to take the model's perspective, adults were more faithful imitators, and children were more likely to innovate a new solution. A shared visual perspective increased imitation, but a shared mental perspective promoted goal achievement and the social transmission of innovation. "Perfection of means and confusion of goals-in my opinion-seem to characterize our age" Einstein (1973) pg 337, Ideas and Opinions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ashley Ransom
- Department of Psychology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, United States of America
| | - Brian LaGrant
- Department of Psychology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, United States of America
| | - Anthony Spiteri
- Department of Psychology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, United States of America
| | - Tamar Kushnir
- Department of Psychology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, United States of America
| | - Adam K. Anderson
- Department of Psychology, Human Neuroscience Institute, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, United States of America
| | - Eve De Rosa
- Department of Psychology, Human Neuroscience Institute, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, United States of America
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Whiten A, Harrison RA, McGuigan N, Vale GL, Watson SK. Collective knowledge and the dynamics of culture in chimpanzees. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2022; 377:20200321. [PMID: 34894742 PMCID: PMC8666901 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0321] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/12/2021] [Accepted: 07/13/2021] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Social learning in non-human primates has been studied experimentally for over 120 years, yet until the present century this was limited to what one individual learns from a single other. Evidence of group-wide traditions in the wild then highlighted the collective context for social learning, and broader 'diffusion experiments' have since demonstrated transmission at the community level. In the present article, we describe and set in comparative perspective three strands of our recent research that further explore the collective dimensions of culture and cumulative culture in chimpanzees. First, exposing small communities of chimpanzees to contexts incorporating increasingly challenging, but more rewarding tool use opportunities revealed solutions arising through the combination of different individuals' discoveries, spreading to become shared innovations. The second series of experiments yielded evidence of conformist changes from habitual techniques to alternatives displayed by a unanimous majority of others but implicating a form of quorum decision-making. Third, we found that between-group differences in social tolerance were associated with differential success in developing more complex tool use to exploit an increasingly inaccessible resource. We discuss the implications of this array of findings in the wider context of related studies of humans, other primates and non-primate species. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'The emergence of collective knowledge and cumulative culture in animals, humans and machines'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrew Whiten
- Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, and Scottish Primate Research Group, School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, South Street, St Andrews KY16 9JP, UK
| | - Rachel A. Harrison
- Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, and Scottish Primate Research Group, School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, South Street, St Andrews KY16 9JP, UK
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Lausanne 1015, Switzerland
| | - Nicola McGuigan
- Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, and Scottish Primate Research Group, School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, South Street, St Andrews KY16 9JP, UK
- School of Education and Social Sciences, University of the West of Scotland, Paisley PA1 2BE, UK
| | - Gillian L. Vale
- Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, and Scottish Primate Research Group, School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, South Street, St Andrews KY16 9JP, UK
- Lester E Fisher Center for the Study and Conservation of Apes, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Stuart K. Watson
- Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, and Scottish Primate Research Group, School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, South Street, St Andrews KY16 9JP, UK
- Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Department of Comparative Language Science, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language Evolution, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
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14
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Smith AD, De Lillo C. Sources of variation in search and foraging: A theoretical perspective. Q J Exp Psychol (Hove) 2021; 75:197-231. [PMID: 34609229 DOI: 10.1177/17470218211050314] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Search-the problem of exploring a space of alternatives to identify target goals-is a fundamental behaviour for many species. Although its foundation lies in foraging, most studies of human search behaviour have been directed towards understanding the attentional mechanisms that underlie the efficient visual exploration of two-dimensional (2D) scenes. With this review, we aim to characterise how search behaviour can be explained across a wide range of contexts, environments, spatial scales, and populations, both typical and atypical. We first consider the generality of search processes across psychological domains. We then review studies of interspecies differences in search. Finally, we explore in detail the individual and contextual variables that affect visual search and related behaviours in established experimental psychology paradigms. Despite the heterogeneity of the findings discussed, we identify that variations in control processes, along with the ability to regulate behaviour as a function of the structure of search space and the sampling processes adopted, to be central to explanations of variations in search behaviour. We propose a tentative theoretical model aimed at integrating these notions and close by exploring questions that remain unaddressed.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Carlo De Lillo
- Department of Neuroscience, Psychology and Behaviour, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK
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15
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Insights from comparative research on social and cultural learning. PROGRESS IN BRAIN RESEARCH 2021; 254:247-270. [PMID: 32859290 DOI: 10.1016/bs.pbr.2020.05.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/13/2023]
Abstract
Social cognitive skills play a crucial role in human life, and have allowed us to reach a unique level of behavioral and cultural complexity. However, many nonhuman species also show a complex understanding of the social world. Building on theories of human social development, we will follow the emergence of cultural learning skills across taxa, discussing similarities and differences between humans and other species. We will first review literature on social learning, including enhancement, emulation and imitation. Then, we will discuss existing studies on the evolution of teaching, and finally, we will critically review literature on the social transmission of skills and knowledge across generations. By adopting a comparative perspective, we will be able to identify the unique characteristics of social transmission in humans, and the social skills that are instead shared with other species, to gain a deeper understanding of the role of cultural learning in social cognitive development.
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16
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YAMAMOTO S. “UNWILLING” VERSUS “UNABLE”: UNDERSTANDING CHIMPANZEES’ RESTRICTIONS IN COGNITION AND MOTIVATION. PSYCHOLOGIA 2021. [DOI: 10.2117/psysoc.2021-b020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/10/2023]
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17
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Anderson JA, Kinnally EL. Behavioral mimicry predicts social favor in adolescent rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta). Primates 2020; 62:123-131. [PMID: 32949317 DOI: 10.1007/s10329-020-00861-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/06/2020] [Accepted: 08/27/2020] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Non-conscious mimicry is a highly conserved component of animal behavior with multifaceted connections to sociality across taxa. One intriguing consequence of this mimicry in primates is that it promotes positive social feedback from the recipient toward the mimicker. This suggests that mimicry in primates may be an important aspect of positive social interaction, but few studies have tracked the consequences of mimicry in naturally occurring complex social conditions. Here, we designed a novel ethogram to characterize mimicry between conspecifics, to better understand whether mimicry is associated with affiliation between primates in a semi-naturalistic captive setting. In this study, 15 juvenile (aged 2-4 years) rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) were observed at the California National Primate Research Center. Frequencies of mimicry defined a priori (e.g. following, postural mimicry) were observed over a course of 12 weeks. In separate observations during the same period, focal social behavior (e.g. aggression, play, affiliation) with group members was also observed. Subjects that exhibited higher degrees of mimicry were not more prosocial, but they received significantly more play overtures from social partners (p < 0.01). Additionally, rates of mimicry were higher in 2- and 3-year-olds than 4-year-olds. These results provide proof of principle in a small sample of monkeys that mimicry is associated with social advantages in a complex, semi-naturalistic setting in primates.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jordan A Anderson
- Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University, Durham, USA
| | - Erin L Kinnally
- Department of Psychology and Animal Behavior Graduate Group, University of California Davis, Davis, CA, 95616, USA. .,California National Primate Research Center, Davis, CA, USA.
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18
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Tennie C, van Schaik CP. Spontaneous (minimal) ritual in non-human great apes? Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2020; 375:20190423. [PMID: 32594873 PMCID: PMC7423263 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2019.0423] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/17/2020] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
The potential for rituals in non-human great apes (apes) is an understudied topic. We derive a minimal definition of ritual and then examine the currently available evidence for it in untrained and non-enculturated apes. First, we examine whether such apes show evidence for the two main components of our minimal definition of ritual: symbolism and copying. Second, we examine if there are actual cases already identifiable today that may fit all aspects of our minimal definition of ritual-or whether there are at least cases that fit some aspects (proto-ritual). We find that apes are not likely to spontaneously practise minimal ritual, but we claim that the highest expected likelihood of occurrence is in the results-copying domain. Yet, we did not find actual cases of minimal ritual in apes-including those involving environmental results. We did, however, find some cases that may match at least part of our minimal ritual definition-which we termed proto-ritual. At least two out of three potential cases of such proto-rituals that we identified (rain dance, object-in-ear and surplus nest-making procedures) do revolve around results. Overall, apes do not show much, or very clear, evidence for even minimal ritual, but may sometimes show proto-ritual. However, dedicated ape ritual studies are currently lacking, and future work may identify ape ritual (or clearer cases of proto-ritual). We discuss the implications of our preliminary finding for inferences of ritual in the last common ancestor of humans and apes. This article is part of the theme issue 'Ritual renaissance: new insights into the most human of behaviours'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Claudio Tennie
- Department for Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology, University of Tübingen, 72070 Tübingen, Germany
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19
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Hayashi M, Takeshita H. Object sorting into a two-dimensional array in humans and chimpanzees. Primates 2020; 62:29-39. [PMID: 32728844 DOI: 10.1007/s10329-020-00850-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/21/2019] [Accepted: 07/15/2020] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Abstract
Object-sorting tasks have been used as a means of assessing the cognitive development of humans. In order to investigate cognitive development from a comparative perspective, an object-sorting task was conducted in a longitudinal face-to-face situation involving three juvenile/adolescent chimpanzees (7-9 years old) and 17 children (2-5 years old). The subjects were requested to place nine blocks of different categories (distinguished by three colors and three shapes) into the cells of a box arrayed in a three-by-three pattern. Chimpanzees showed complete or partial categorical sorting in 24-43% of pre-cued trials. The youngest children had difficulty in completing a trial by placing all nine blocks into the box. Humans older than 2 years succeeded in making a one-to-one correspondence by placing a block in each cell, while the end-state pattern remained random. The children gradually increased their rate of categorical sorting, where objects of one category were placed in the same row/column; this tendency peaked at 4 years of age. Above this age, the humans spontaneously shifted their sorting strategy to make a completely even configuration (resulting in a Latin square), which may be more cognitively demanding than categorical sorting. While chimpanzees and older children used both color and shape cues for categorical sorting, younger humans preferred to use shape cues. The results of the present study show fundamental similarities between humans and chimpanzees at the basic level of categorical sorting, which indicates that some autonomous rules are applied during object manipulation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Misato Hayashi
- Section of Language and Intelligence, Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, 41 Kanrin, Inuyama, Aichi, 484-8506, Japan. .,Japan Monkey Centre, Inuyama, Japan.
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20
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Loretto MC, Schuster R, Federspiel IG, Heinrich B, Bugnyar T. Contextual imitation in juvenile common ravens, Corvus corax. Anim Behav 2020. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2020.03.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
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21
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Abstract
Innovation is the ability to solve novel problems or find novel solutions to familiar problems, and it is known to affect fitness in both human and non-human animals. In primates, innovation has been mostly studied in captivity, although differences in living conditions may affect individuals’ ability to innovate. Here, we tested innovation in a wild group of Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus). In four different conditions, we presented the group with several identical foraging boxes containing food. To understand which individual characteristics and behavioural strategies best predicted innovation rate, we measured the identity of the individuals manipulating the boxes and retrieving the food, and their behaviour during the task. Our results showed that success in the novel task was mainly affected by the experimental contingencies and the behavioural strategies used during the task. Individuals were more successful in the 1-step conditions, if they participated in more trials, showed little latency to approach the boxes and mainly manipulated functional parts of the box. In contrast, we found no effect of inhibition, social facilitation and individual characteristics like sex, age, rank, centrality, neophobia and reaction to humans, on the individuals’ ability to innovate.
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22
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Tennie C, Bandini E, van Schaik CP, Hopper LM. The zone of latent solutions and its relevance to understanding ape cultures. BIOLOGY & PHILOSOPHY 2020; 35:55. [PMID: 33093737 PMCID: PMC7548278 DOI: 10.1007/s10539-020-09769-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/18/2019] [Accepted: 09/18/2020] [Indexed: 05/16/2023]
Abstract
The zone of latent solutions (ZLS) hypothesis provides an alternative approach to explaining cultural patterns in primates and many other animals. According to the ZLS hypothesis, non-human great ape (henceforth: ape) cultures consist largely or solely of latent solutions. The current competing (and predominant) hypothesis for ape culture argues instead that at least some of their behavioural or artefact forms are copied through specific social learning mechanisms ("copying social learning hypothesis") and that their forms may depend on copying (copying-dependent forms). In contrast, the ape ZLS hypothesis does not require these forms to be copied. Instead, it suggests that several (non-form-copying) social learning mechanisms help determine the frequency (but typically not the form) of these behaviours and artefacts within connected individuals. The ZLS hypothesis thus suggests that increases and stabilisations of a particular behaviour's or artefact's frequency can derive from socially-mediated (cued) form reinnovations. Therefore, and while genes and ecology play important roles as well, according to the ape ZLS hypothesis, apes typically acquire the forms of their behaviours and artefacts individually, but are usually socially induced to do so (provided sufficient opportunity, necessity, motivation and timing). The ZLS approach is often criticized-perhaps also because it challenges the current null hypothesis, which instead assumes a requirement of form-copying social learning mechanisms to explain many ape behavioural (and/or artefact) forms. However, as the ZLS hypothesis is a new approach, with less accumulated literature compared to the current null hypothesis, some confusion is to be expected. Here, we clarify the ZLS approach-also in relation to other competing hypotheses-and address misconceptions and objections. We believe that these clarifications will provide researchers with a coherent theoretical approach and an experimental methodology to examine the necessity of form-copying variants of social learning in apes, humans and other species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Claudio Tennie
- Department for Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Elisa Bandini
- Department for Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Carel P. van Schaik
- Department of Anthropology and Anthropological Museum, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Lydia M. Hopper
- Lester E. Fisher Center for the Study and Conservation of Apes, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago, IL USA
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23
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Shorland G, Genty E, Guéry JP, Zuberbühler K. Social learning of arbitrary food preferences in bonobos. Behav Processes 2019; 167:103912. [PMID: 31344448 DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2019.103912] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/19/2019] [Revised: 07/20/2019] [Accepted: 07/20/2019] [Indexed: 12/30/2022]
Abstract
A fruitful approach to investigate social learning in animals is based on paradigms involving the manipulation of artefacts. However, tool use and elaborate object manipulations are rare in natural conditions, suggesting that social learning evolved in other contexts where fitness consequences are higher, such as discriminating palatable from noxious foods, recognising predators or understanding social hierarchies. We focussed on one such context by investigating whether bonobos socially learned others' arbitrary food preferences through mere observation. To this end, we trained two demonstrators to prefer or avoid distinctly coloured food items, treated with either a sweet or bitter agent. Demonstrators then displayed their newly acquired preferences in front of naïve subjects. In subsequent choice tests, subjects generally matched their choices to the demonstrators' preferred food colours, despite having already tasted the equally palatable colour alternative. Both age and exposure to demonstrator preference had a significant positive effect on the proportion of matched choices. Moreover, in a context where errors can be costly, social learning was instant insofar as six of seven subjects used socially learned information to influence their very first food choice. We discuss these findings in light of the current debate on the evolution of social learning in animals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gladez Shorland
- Department of Comparative Cognition, Institute of Biology, University of Neuchâtel, Rue Emile-Argand 11, 2000, Neuchâtel, Switzerland.
| | - Emilie Genty
- Department of Comparative Cognition, Institute of Biology, University of Neuchâtel, Rue Emile-Argand 11, 2000, Neuchâtel, Switzerland; Institute of Work and Organizational Psychology, University of Neuchâtel, Rue Emile-Argand 11, 2000, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
| | - Jean-Pascal Guéry
- La Vallée des Singes Primate park, Le Gureau, 86700, Romagne, France
| | - Klaus Zuberbühler
- Department of Comparative Cognition, Institute of Biology, University of Neuchâtel, Rue Emile-Argand 11, 2000, Neuchâtel, Switzerland; School of Psychology and Neurosciences, University of St Andrews, St Mary's Quad, South Street, St Andrews, KY16 9JP, UK
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24
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Bandini E, Tennie C. Individual acquisition of “stick pounding” behavior by naïve chimpanzees. Am J Primatol 2019; 81:e22987. [DOI: 10.1002/ajp.22987] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/29/2018] [Revised: 03/06/2019] [Accepted: 04/18/2019] [Indexed: 01/23/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Elisa Bandini
- Department for Early Prehistory and Quaternary EcologyThe University of TübingenTübingen Germany
| | - Claudio Tennie
- Department for Early Prehistory and Quaternary EcologyThe University of TübingenTübingen Germany
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25
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Tamariz M. Replication and emergence in cultural transmission. Phys Life Rev 2019; 30:47-71. [PMID: 31005570 DOI: 10.1016/j.plrev.2019.04.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/03/2019] [Accepted: 04/09/2019] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Abstract
Humans are fundamentally defined by our socially transmitted, often long-lived, sophisticated cultural traits. The nature of cultural transmission is the subject of ongoing debate: while some emphasize that it is a biased, transformational process, others point out that high-fidelity transmission is required to explain the quintessentially cumulative nature of human culture. This paper integrates both views into a model that has two main components: First, actions - observable motor-behavioural patterns - are inherited with high fidelity, or replicated, when they are copied, largely independently of their normal, effective or conventional function, by naive learners. Replicative action copying is the unbiased transmission process that ensures the continuity of cultural traditions. Second, mental culture - knowledge, skills, attitudes and values - is not inherited directly or faithfully, but instead emerges, or develops, during usage, when individuals learn the associations between actions and their contexts and outcomes. Mental cultural traits remain stable over generations to the extent that they are informed by similar (replicated) motor patterns unfolding in similar environments. The arguments in support of this model rest on clear distinctions between inheritance and usage; between public-behavioural and private-mental culture; and between selection for fidelity and selection for function.
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Affiliation(s)
- Monica Tamariz
- Psychology, Heriot-Watt University, Riccarton Campus, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, UK.
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26
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Rørvang MV, Christensen JW, Ladewig J, McLean A. Social Learning in Horses-Fact or Fiction? Front Vet Sci 2018; 5:212. [PMID: 30238009 PMCID: PMC6135911 DOI: 10.3389/fvets.2018.00212] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/07/2018] [Accepted: 08/14/2018] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Prima facie, the acquisition of novel behaviors in animals through observation of conspecifics seems straightforward. There are, however, various mechanisms through which the behavior of animals can be altered from observing others. These mechanisms range from simple hard-wired contagious processes to genuine learning by observation, which differ fundamentally in cognitive complexity. They range from social facilitation and local enhancement to true social learning. The different learning mechanisms are the subject of this review, largely because research on learning by observation can be confounded by difficulties in interpretation owing to the looming possibility of associative learning infecting experimental results. While it is often assumed that horses are capable of acquiring new behavior through intra-species observation, research on social learning in horses includes a variety of studies some of which may overestimate the possession of higher mental abilities. Assuming such abilities in their absence can have welfare implications, e.g., isolating stereotypical horses on the assumption that these behaviors can be learned though observation by neighboring horses. This review summarizes the definitions and criteria for the various types of social transmission and social learning and reviews the current documentation for each type in horses with the aim of clarifying whether horses possess the ability to learn through true social learning. As social ungulates, horses evolved in open landscapes, exposed to predators and grazing most of the day. Being in close proximity to conspecifics may theoretically offer an opportunity to learn socially, however anti-predator vigilance and locating forage may not require the neural complexity of social learning. Given the significant energetic expense of brain tissue, it is likely that social facilitation and local enhancement may have been sufficient in the adaptation of equids to their niche. As a consequence, social learning abilities may be maladaptive in horses. Collectively, the review proposes a novel differentiation between social transmission (social facilitation, local, and stimulus enhancement) and social learning (goal emulation, imitation). Horses are undoubtedly sensitive to intra-species transfer of information but this transfer does not appear to satisfy the criteria for social learning, and thus there is no solid evidence for true social learning in horses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maria V Rørvang
- Department of Biosystems and Technology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Alnarp, Sweden
| | | | - Jan Ladewig
- Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Andrew McLean
- Equitation Science International, Tuerong, VIC, Australia
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27
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Clay Z, Over H, Tennie C. What drives young children to over-imitate? Investigating the effects of age, context, action type, and transitivity. J Exp Child Psychol 2018; 166:520-534. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2017.09.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/18/2017] [Revised: 09/06/2017] [Accepted: 09/06/2017] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
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28
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Preschool children and chimpanzees incur costs to watch punishment of antisocial others. Nat Hum Behav 2017; 2:45-51. [DOI: 10.1038/s41562-017-0264-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/21/2017] [Accepted: 11/09/2017] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
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29
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Bandini E, Tennie C. Spontaneous reoccurrence of "scooping", a wild tool-use behaviour, in naïve chimpanzees. PeerJ 2017; 5:e3814. [PMID: 28951813 PMCID: PMC5611899 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.3814] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/04/2017] [Accepted: 08/26/2017] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Modern human technological culture depends on social learning. A widespread assumption for chimpanzee tool-use cultures is that they, too, are dependent on social learning. However, we provide evidence to suggest that individual learning, rather than social learning, is the driver behind determining the form of these behaviours within and across individuals. Low-fidelity social learning instead merely facilitates the reinnovation of these behaviours, and thus helps homogenise the behaviour across chimpanzees, creating the population-wide patterns observed in the wild (what here we call "socially mediated serial reinnovations"). This is the main prediction of the Zone of Latent Solutions (ZLS) hypothesis. This study directly tested the ZLS hypothesis on algae scooping, a wild chimpanzee tool-use behaviour. We provided naïve chimpanzees (n = 14, Mage = 31.33, SD = 10.09) with ecologically relevant materials of the wild behaviour but, crucially, without revealing any information on the behavioural form required to accomplish this task. This study found that naïve chimpanzees expressed the same behavioural form as their wild counterparts, suggesting that, as the ZLS theory predicts, individual learning is the driver behind the frequency of this behavioural form. As more behaviours are being found to be within chimpanzee's ZLS, this hypothesis now provides a parsimonious explanation for chimpanzee tool cultures.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elisa Bandini
- School of Psychology, The University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom.,Department for Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology, The University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Claudio Tennie
- School of Psychology, The University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom.,Department for Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology, The University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
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30
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Bard KA. Dyadic interactions, attachment and the presence of triadic interactions in chimpanzees and humans. Infant Behav Dev 2017; 48:13-19. [DOI: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2016.11.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/02/2015] [Revised: 11/01/2016] [Accepted: 11/01/2016] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
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Abstract
Discoveries about the cultures and cultural capacities of the great apes have played a leading role in the recognition emerging in recent decades that cultural inheritance can be a significant factor in the lives not only of humans but also of nonhuman animals. This prominence derives in part from these primates being those with whom we share the most recent common ancestry, thus offering clues to the origins of our own thoroughgoing reliance on cumulative cultural achievements. In addition, the intense research focus on these species has spawned an unprecedented diversity of complementary methodological approaches, the results of which suggest that cultural phenomena pervade the lives of these apes, with potentially major implications for their broader evolutionary biology. Here I review what this extremely broad array of observational and experimental methodologies has taught us about the cultural lives of chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans and consider the ways in which this knowledge extends our wider understanding of primate biology and the processes of adaptation and evolution that shape it. I address these issues first by evaluating the extent to which the results of cultural inheritance echo a suite of core principles that underlie organic Darwinian evolution but also extend them in new ways and then by assessing the principal causal interactions between the primary, genetically based organic processes of evolution and the secondary system of cultural inheritance that is based on social learning from others.
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32
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Clay Z, Tennie C. Is Overimitation a Uniquely Human Phenomenon? Insights From Human Children as Compared to Bonobos. Child Dev 2017; 89:1535-1544. [DOI: 10.1111/cdev.12857] [Citation(s) in RCA: 61] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Zanna Clay
- University of Birmingham
- Durham University
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33
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The Question of Capacity: Why Enculturated and Trained Animals have much to Tell Us about the Evolution of Language. Psychon Bull Rev 2017; 24:85-90. [DOI: 10.3758/s13423-016-1129-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
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34
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McGuigan N, Burgess V. Is the tendency to conform influenced by the age of the majority? J Exp Child Psychol 2017; 157:49-65. [PMID: 28110153 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2016.12.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/18/2016] [Revised: 12/19/2016] [Accepted: 12/19/2016] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
The aim of the current study was to explore the influence that the age and the familiarity of a group majority has on copying fidelity in 4- to 6-year-old children. In Experiment 1, participants (N=120, Mage=68months) viewed five child models, all of whom were either younger than, the same age as, or older than themselves, open a puzzle box using an inefficient technique (four models) or an efficient technique (one model). In Experiment 2 (N=82, Mage=71months), the identical task was presented by groups of unfamiliar models. In both Experiments 1 and 2, a group of control participants saw an equal number of inefficient and efficient models. Results showed that the participants displayed conformity irrespective of the age, or the familiarity, of the individuals comprising the majority. However, the participants varied in their level of imitative fidelity depending on the identity of the group majority, with majorities that were either the same age as, or considerably older than, the participants eliciting the highest levels of over-imitation. In contrast, groups comprising individuals who were younger than the participants elicited a significantly lower level of over-imitation than that elicited by the same-aged and older majorities. We suggest that these findings demonstrate an interplay between conformist and model-based transmission biases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicola McGuigan
- Department of Psychology, School of Life Sciences, Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, UK.
| | - Vanessa Burgess
- Department of Psychology, School of Life Sciences, Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, UK
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35
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Mother-infant interactions in captive and wild chimpanzees. Infant Behav Dev 2016; 48:20-29. [PMID: 27887738 DOI: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2016.11.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/02/2015] [Revised: 11/02/2016] [Accepted: 11/02/2016] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
We review studies on mother-infant interactions in chimpanzees, our closest living relatives, in captive and wild environments. Infant cognitive development is formed through mother-infant interactions during the long dependent period, which is approximately 5 years. Patterns of interaction between mothers and infants are different from those observed in adult chimpanzees. Mother-infant interactions are relatively altruistic, although solicitation by infants is almost always required. Active teaching has rarely been reported in chimpanzees; instead, infants socially learn new skills through long-term observation. Case studies describing rearing of a disabled infant by a multiparous but inexperienced chimpanzee, and the carrying of dead infants in the wild chimpanzees of Bossou reveal the strong affectionate bond between mothers and infants. Characteristics of human mother-infant interaction are highlighted through comparisons with chimpanzees.
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Burdett ERR, Lucas AJ, Buchsbaum D, McGuigan N, Wood LA, Whiten A. Do Children Copy an Expert or a Majority? Examining Selective Learning in Instrumental and Normative Contexts. PLoS One 2016; 11:e0164698. [PMID: 27768716 PMCID: PMC5074571 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0164698] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/29/2016] [Accepted: 09/29/2016] [Indexed: 11/27/2022] Open
Abstract
This study examined whether instrumental and normative learning contexts differentially influence 4- to 7-year-old children’s social learning strategies; specifically, their dispositions to copy an expert versus a majority consensus. Experiment 1 (N = 44) established that children copied a relatively competent “expert” individual over an incompetent individual in both kinds of learning context. In experiment 2 (N = 80) we then tested whether children would copy a competent individual versus a majority, in each of the two different learning contexts. Results showed that individual children differed in strategy, preferring with significant consistency across two different test trials to copy either the competent individual or the majority. This study is the first to show that children prefer to copy more competent individuals when shown competing methods of achieving an instrumental goal (Experiment 1) and provides new evidence that children, at least in our “individualist” culture, may consistently express either a competency or majority bias in learning both instrumental and normative information (Experiment 2). This effect was similar in the instrumental and normative learning contexts we applied.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emily R. R. Burdett
- Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, School of Psychology & Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, United Kingdom
| | - Amanda J. Lucas
- Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, School of Psychology & Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, United Kingdom
- Centre for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom
| | - Daphna Buchsbaum
- Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, School of Psychology & Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, United Kingdom
- Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
| | - Nicola McGuigan
- School of Life Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
| | - Lara A. Wood
- Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, School of Psychology & Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, United Kingdom
| | - Andrew Whiten
- Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, School of Psychology & Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, United Kingdom
- * E-mail:
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Subiaul F. What's Special about Human Imitation? A Comparison with Enculturated Apes. Behav Sci (Basel) 2016; 6:bs6030013. [PMID: 27399786 PMCID: PMC5039513 DOI: 10.3390/bs6030013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/20/2016] [Revised: 06/25/2016] [Accepted: 06/28/2016] [Indexed: 12/04/2022] Open
Abstract
What, if anything, is special about human imitation? An evaluation of enculturated apes’ imitation skills, a “best case scenario” of non-human apes’ imitation performance, reveals important similarities and differences between this special population of apes and human children. Candidates for shared imitation mechanisms include the ability to imitate various familiar transitive responses and object–object actions that involve familiar tools. Candidates for uniquely derived imitation mechanisms include: imitating novel transitive actions and novel tool-using responses as well as imitating opaque or intransitive gestures, regardless of familiarity. While the evidence demonstrates that enculturated apes outperform non-enculturated apes and perform more like human children, all apes, regardless of rearing history, generally excel at imitating familiar, over-rehearsed responses and are poor, relative to human children, at imitating novel, opaque or intransitive responses. Given the similarities between the sensory and motor systems of preschool age human children and non-human apes, it is unlikely that differences in sensory input and/or motor-output alone explain the observed discontinuities in imitation performance. The special rearing history of enculturated apes—including imitation-specific training—further diminishes arguments suggesting that differences are experience-dependent. Here, it is argued that such differences are best explained by distinct, specialized mechanisms that have evolved for copying rules and responses in particular content domains. Uniquely derived social and imitation learning mechanisms may represent adaptations for learning novel communicative gestures and complex tool-use. Given our species’ dependence on both language and tools, mechanisms that accelerated learning in these domains are likely to have faced intense selective pressures, starting with the earliest of human ancestors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francys Subiaul
- Department of Speech & Hearing Science, The George Washington University, 2115 G Street, NW # 204, Washington, DC 20052, USA.
- Department of Anthropology, Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, The George Washington University, 2115 G Street, NW # 204, Washington, DC 20052, USA.
- GW Institute for Neuroscience, The George Washington University, 2115 G Street, NW # 204, Washington, DC 20052, USA.
- Mind-Brain Institute, The George Washington University, 2115 G Street, NW # 204, Washington, DC 20052, USA.
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Moraru CA, Gomez JC, McGuigan N. Developmental changes in the influence of conventional and instrumental cues on over-imitation in 3- to 6-year-old children. J Exp Child Psychol 2016; 145:34-47. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2015.11.017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/29/2015] [Revised: 11/05/2015] [Accepted: 11/06/2015] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
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Reader SM, Morand-Ferron J, Flynn E. Animal and human innovation: novel problems and novel solutions. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2016; 371:20150182. [PMID: 26926273 PMCID: PMC4780525 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2015.0182] [Citation(s) in RCA: 58] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 01/14/2016] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
This theme issue explores how and why behavioural innovation occurs, and the consequences of innovation for individuals, groups and populations. A vast literature on human innovation exists, from the development of problem-solving in children, to the evolution of technology, to the cultural systems supporting innovation. A more recent development is a growing literature on animal innovation, which has demonstrated links between innovation and personality traits, cognitive traits, neural measures, changing conditions, and the current state of the social and physical environment. Here, we introduce these fields, define key terms and discuss the potential for fruitful exchange between the diverse fields researching innovation. Comparisons of innovation between human and non-human animals provide opportunities, but also pitfalls. We also summarize some key findings specifying the circumstances in which innovation occurs, discussing factors such as the intrinsic nature of innovative individuals and the environmental and socio-ecological conditions that promote innovation, such as necessity, opportunity and free resources. We also highlight key controversies, including the relationship between innovation and intelligence, and the notion of innovativeness as an individual-level trait. Finally, we discuss current research methods and suggest some novel approaches that could fruitfully be deployed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Simon M Reader
- Department of Biology, McGill University, 1205 avenue Docteur Penfield, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 1B1
| | - Julie Morand-Ferron
- Department of Biology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1N 6N5
| | - Emma Flynn
- School of Education, Durham University, Durham DH1 1TE, UK
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Carr K, Kendal RL, Flynn EG. Imitate or innovate? Children’s innovation is influenced by the efficacy of observed behaviour. Cognition 2015; 142:322-32. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2015.05.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 48] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/23/2014] [Revised: 05/05/2015] [Accepted: 05/06/2015] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
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Leavens DA, Reamer LA, Mareno MC, Russell JL, Wilson D, Schapiro SJ, Hopkins WD. Distal Communication by Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes): Evidence for Common Ground? Child Dev 2015; 86:1623-38. [PMID: 26292996 PMCID: PMC4697278 DOI: 10.1111/cdev.12404] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
van der Goot et al. (2014) proposed that distal, deictic communication indexed the appreciation of the psychological state of a common ground between a signaler and a receiver. In their study, great apes did not signal distally, which they construed as evidence for the human uniqueness of a sense of common ground. This study exposed 166 chimpanzees to food and an experimenter, at an angular displacement, to ask, "Do chimpanzees display distal communication?" Apes were categorized as (a) proximal or (b) distal signalers on each of four trials. The number of chimpanzees who communicated proximally did not statistically differ from the number who signaled distally. Therefore, contrary to the claim by van der Goot et al., apes do communicate distally.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Lisa A Reamer
- Michale E. Keeling Center for Comparative Medicine and Research
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Legare CH, Wen NJ, Herrmann PA, Whitehouse H. Imitative flexibility and the development of cultural learning. Cognition 2015; 142:351-61. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2015.05.020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 82] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/13/2014] [Revised: 04/21/2015] [Accepted: 05/26/2015] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
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van de Waal E, Claidière N, Whiten A. Wild vervet monkeys copy alternative methods for opening an artificial fruit. Anim Cogn 2014; 18:617-27. [PMID: 25539772 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-014-0830-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 46] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/13/2014] [Revised: 12/11/2014] [Accepted: 12/15/2014] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Experimental studies of animal social learning in the wild remain rare, especially those that employ the most discriminating tests in which alternative means to complete naturalistic tasks are seeded in different groups. We applied this approach to wild vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus aethiops) using an artificial fruit ('vervetable') opened by either lifting a door panel or sliding it left or right. In one group, a trained model lifted the door, and in two others, the model slid it either left or right. Members of each group then watched their model before being given access to multiple baited vervetables with all opening techniques possible. Thirteen of these monkeys opened vervetables, displaying a significant tendency to use the seeded technique on their first opening and over the course of the experiment. The option preferred in these monkeys' first successful manipulation session was also highly correlated with the proportional frequency of the option they had previously witnessed. The social learning effects thus documented go beyond mere stimulus enhancement insofar as the same door knob was grasped for either technique. Results thus suggest that through imitation, emulation or both, new foraging techniques will spread across groups of wild vervet monkeys to create incipient foraging traditions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Erica van de Waal
- Scottish Primate Research Group, Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, South Street, St Andrews, KY16 9JP, UK,
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Working memory constraints on imitation and emulation. J Exp Child Psychol 2014; 128:190-200. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2014.07.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/01/2014] [Revised: 07/08/2014] [Accepted: 07/10/2014] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
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Benson-Amram S, Heinen VK, Gessner A, Weldele ML, Holekamp KE. Limited social learning of a novel technical problem by spotted hyenas. Behav Processes 2014; 109 Pt B:111-20. [PMID: 25245305 DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2014.09.019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/25/2014] [Revised: 09/08/2014] [Accepted: 09/12/2014] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
Social learning can have profound evolutionary consequences because it drives the diffusion of novel behaviours among individuals and promotes the maintenance of traditions within populations. We inquired whether spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta), generalist carnivores living in complex, primate-like societies, acquire information from conspecifics about a novel problem-solving task. Previously, we presented wild hyenas with a food-access puzzle and found that social learning opportunities did not affect problem-solving success among observers, but did reduce observers' neophobia. However, we had little control over which individuals observed conspecifics solve the problem, and few wild hyenas were successful. Therefore, we conducted an experiment in captivity where we controlled observer access to two demonstration styles. Again, social learning opportunities did not affect problem-solving success, but tended to reduce neophobia among captive observers. Social learning opportunities also influenced problem-solving style. Captive hyenas showed limited evidence for directed social learning; low-ranking individuals paid closer attention to demonstrators than high-ranking individuals, although this greater attention did not result in greater success. We conclude that wild and captive hyenas exploit social learning opportunities similarly, and that the limited social learning shown by hyenas on this task is likely based on localized stimulus enhancement.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah Benson-Amram
- Department of Zoology and Physiology, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming, 82071 USA.
| | - Virginia K Heinen
- Department of Zoology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824 USA; Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, Minnesota 55108 USA
| | - Amelia Gessner
- Department of Zoology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824 USA
| | - Mary L Weldele
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720 USA
| | - Kay E Holekamp
- Department of Zoology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824 USA
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García RR, Zamorano F, Aboitiz F. From imitation to meaning: circuit plasticity and the acquisition of a conventionalized semantics. Front Hum Neurosci 2014; 8:605. [PMID: 25152726 PMCID: PMC4126550 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2014.00605] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/02/2013] [Accepted: 07/20/2014] [Indexed: 12/04/2022] Open
Abstract
The capacity for language is arguably the most remarkable innovation of the human brain. A relatively recent interpretation prescribes that part of the language-related circuits were co-opted from circuitry involved in hand control—the mirror neuron system (MNS), involved both in the perception and in the execution of voluntary grasping actions. A less radical view is that in early humans, communication was opportunistic and multimodal, using signs, vocalizations or whatever means available to transmit social information. However, one point that is not yet clear under either perspective is how learned communication acquired a semantic property thereby allowing us to name objects and eventually describe our surrounding environment. Here we suggest a scenario involving both manual gestures and learned vocalizations that led to the development of a primitive form of conventionalized reference. This proposal is based on comparative evidence gathered from other species and on neurolinguistic evidence in humans, which points to a crucial role for vocal learning in the early development of language. Firstly, the capacity to direct the attention of others to a common object may have been crucial for developing a consensual referential system. Pointing, which is a ritualized grasping gesture, may have been crucial to this end. Vocalizations also served to generate joint attention among conversants, especially when combined with gaze direction. Another contributing element was the development of pantomimic actions resembling events or animals. In conjunction with this mimicry, the development of plastic neural circuits that support complex, learned vocalizations was probably a significant factor in the evolution of conventionalized semantics in our species. Thus, vocal imitations of sounds, as in onomatopoeias (words whose sound resembles their meaning), are possibly supported by mirror system circuits, and may have been relevant in the acquisition of early meanings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ricardo R García
- Centro de Estudios Cognitivos, Facultad de Filosofía y Humanidades, Universidad de Chile Santiago, Chile
| | - Francisco Zamorano
- División de Neurociencia, Centro de Investigación en Complejidad Social, Facultad de Gobierno, Universidad del Desarrollo Santiago, Chile
| | - Francisco Aboitiz
- Departamento de Psiquiatría, Escuela de Medicina, y Centro Interdisciplinario de Neurociencia, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile Santiago, Chile
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González-Fierro M, Balaguer C, Swann N, Nanayakkara T. Full-Body Postural Control of a Humanoid Robot with Both Imitation Learning and Skill Innovation. INT J HUM ROBOT 2014. [DOI: 10.1142/s0219843614500121] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
In this paper, we present a novel methodology to obtain imitative and innovative postural movements in a humanoid based on human demonstrations in a different kinematic scale. We collected motion data from a group of human participants standing up from a chair. Modeling the human as an actuated 3-link kinematic chain, and by defining a multi-objective reward function of zero moment point and joint torques to represent the stability and effort, we computed reward profiles for each demonstration. Since individual reward profiles show variability across demonstrating trials, the underlying state transition probabilities were modeled using a Markov chain. Based on the argument that the reward profiles of the robot should show the same temporal structure of those of the human, we used differential evolution to compute a trajectory that fits all humanoid constraints and minimizes the difference between the robot reward profile and the predicted profile if the robot imitates the human. Therefore, robotic imitation involves developing a policy that results in a temporal reward structure, matching that of a group of human demonstrators across an array of demonstrations. Skill innovation was achieved by optimizing a signed reward error after imitation was achieved. Experimental results using the humanoid HOAP-3 are shown.
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Affiliation(s)
- Miguel González-Fierro
- Robotics Lab, Universidad Carlos III of Madrid, Avda. de la Universidad 30, Leganés, Madrid 28912, Spain
| | - Carlos Balaguer
- Robotics Lab, Universidad Carlos III of Madrid, Avda. de la Universidad 30, Leganés, Madrid 28912, Spain
| | - Nicola Swann
- School of Life Sciences, Kingston University, Penrhyn Road, Kingston Uppon Thames, KT1 2EE, UK
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Rizzolatti G. Imitation: mechanisms and importance for human culture. RENDICONTI LINCEI-SCIENZE FISICHE E NATURALI 2014. [DOI: 10.1007/s12210-014-0310-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
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49
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Watson CF, Buchanan-Smith HM, Caldwell CA. Call playback artificially generates a temporary cultural style of high affiliation in marmosets. Anim Behav 2014. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2014.04.027] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
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Williams JHG, Casey JM, Braadbaart L, Culmer PR, Mon-Williams M. Kinematic Measures of Imitation Fidelity in Primary School Children. JOURNAL OF COGNITION AND DEVELOPMENT 2014. [DOI: 10.1080/15248372.2013.771265] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
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