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Cartmill EA, Beilock S, Goldin-Meadow S. A word in the hand: action, gesture and mental representation in humans and non-human primates. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2012; 367:129-43. [PMID: 22106432 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2011.0162] [Citation(s) in RCA: 58] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
The movements we make with our hands both reflect our mental processes and help to shape them. Our actions and gestures can affect our mental representations of actions and objects. In this paper, we explore the relationship between action, gesture and thought in both humans and non-human primates and discuss its role in the evolution of language. Human gesture (specifically representational gesture) may provide a unique link between action and mental representation. It is kinaesthetically close to action and is, at the same time, symbolic. Non-human primates use gesture frequently to communicate, and do so flexibly. However, their gestures mainly resemble incomplete actions and lack the representational elements that characterize much of human gesture. Differences in the mirror neuron system provide a potential explanation for non-human primates' lack of representational gestures; the monkey mirror system does not respond to representational gestures, while the human system does. In humans, gesture grounds mental representation in action, but there is no evidence for this link in other primates. We argue that gesture played an important role in the transition to symbolic thought and language in human evolution, following a cognitive leap that allowed gesture to incorporate representational elements.
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Affiliation(s)
- Erica A Cartmill
- Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, 5848 South University Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637, USA.
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102
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Chater N, Johansson P, Hall L. The non-existence of risk attitude. Front Psychol 2011; 2:303. [PMID: 22110457 PMCID: PMC3216024 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00303] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/25/2011] [Accepted: 10/11/2011] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Nick Chater
- Behavioural Science Group, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick Warwick, UK
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103
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Abstract
Social transmission of behavior can be realized through distinct mechanisms. Research on primate social learning typically distinguishes two forms of information that a learner can extract from a demonstrator: copying actions (defined as imitation) or copying only the consequential results (defined as emulation). We propose a decomposition of these learning mechanisms (plus pure individual learning) that incorporates the core idea that social learning can be represented as a search for an optimal behavior that is constrained by different kinds of information. We illustrate our approach with an individual-based model in which individuals solve tasks in abstract "spaces" that represent behavioral actions, results, and benefits of those results. Depending on the learning mechanisms at their disposal, individuals have differential access to the information conveyed in these spaces. We show how different classes of tasks may provide distinct advantages to individuals with different learning mechanisms and discuss how our approach contributes to current empirical and theoretical research on social learning and culture.
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104
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Merola I, Prato-Previde E, Marshall-Pescini S. Social referencing in dog-owner dyads? Anim Cogn 2011; 15:175-85. [PMID: 21874515 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-011-0443-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 104] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2011] [Revised: 07/08/2011] [Accepted: 08/12/2011] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
Social referencing is the seeking of information from another individual to form one's own understanding and guide action. In this study, adult dogs were tested in a social referencing paradigm involving their owner and a potentially scary object. Dogs received either a positive or negative message from the owner. The aim was to evaluate the presence of referential looking to the owner, behavioural regulation based on the owner's (vocal and facial) emotional message and observational conditioning following the owner's actions towards the object. Most dogs (83%) looked referentially to the owner after looking at the strange object, thus they appear to seek information about the environment from the human, but little differences were found between dogs in the positive and negative groups as regards behavioural regulation: possible explanations for this are discussed. Finally, a strong effect of observational conditioning was found with dogs in the positive group moving closer to the fan and dogs in the negative group moving away, both mirroring their owner's behaviour. Results are discussed in relation to studies on human-dog communication, attachment and social learning.
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Affiliation(s)
- I Merola
- Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Biomediche, Sezione di Psicologia, Facoltà di Medicina, Università di Milano, Via F. Cervi 93, 20090, Segrate, MI, Italy
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105
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Whiten A, Hinde RA, Laland KN, Stringer CB. Culture evolves. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2011; 366:938-48. [PMID: 21357216 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2010.0372] [Citation(s) in RCA: 98] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/17/2023] Open
Abstract
Culture pervades human lives and has allowed our species to create niches all around the world and its oceans, in ways quite unlike any other primate. Indeed, our cultural nature appears so distinctive that it is often thought to separate humanity from the rest of nature and the Darwinian forces that shape it. A contrary view arises through the recent discoveries of a diverse range of disciplines, here brought together to illustrate the scope of a burgeoning field of cultural evolution and to facilitate cross-disciplinary fertilization. Each approach emphasizes important linkages between culture and evolutionary biology rather than quarantining one from the other. Recent studies reveal that processes important in cultural transmission are more widespread and significant across the animal kingdom than earlier recognized, with important implications for evolutionary theory. Recent archaeological discoveries have pushed back the origins of human culture to much more ancient times than traditionally thought. These developments suggest previously unidentified continuities between animal and human culture. A third new array of discoveries concerns the later diversification of human cultures, where the operations of Darwinian-like processes are identified, in part, through scientific methods borrowed from biology. Finally, surprising discoveries have been made about the imprint of cultural evolution in the predispositions of human minds for cultural transmission.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrew Whiten
- Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, School of Psychology, St Andrews, UK.
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106
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Whiten A. The scope of culture in chimpanzees, humans and ancestral apes. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2011; 366:997-1007. [PMID: 21357222 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2010.0334] [Citation(s) in RCA: 130] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
More studies have focused on aspects of chimpanzee behaviour and cognition relevant to the evolution of culture than on any other species except our own. Accordingly, analysis of the features shared by chimpanzees and humans is here used to infer the scope of cultural phenomena in our last common ancestor, at the same time clarifying the nature of the special characteristics that advanced further in the hominin line. To do this, culture is broken down into three major aspects: the large scale, population-level patterning of traditions; social learning mechanisms; and the behavioural and cognitive contents of culture. Each of these is further dissected into subcomponents. Shared features, as well as differences, are identified in as many as a dozen of these, offering a case study for the comparative analysis of culture across animal taxa and a deeper understanding of the roots of our own cultural capacities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrew Whiten
- Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, School of Psychology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK.
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107
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Rendell L, Boyd R, Enquist M, Feldman MW, Fogarty L, Laland KN. How copying affects the amount, evenness and persistence of cultural knowledge: insights from the social learning strategies tournament. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2011; 366:1118-28. [PMID: 21357234 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2010.0376] [Citation(s) in RCA: 46] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Darwinian processes should favour those individuals that deploy the most effective strategies for acquiring information about their environment. We organized a computer-based tournament to investigate which learning strategies would perform well in a changing environment. The most successful strategies relied almost exclusively on social learning (here, learning a behaviour performed by another individual) rather than asocial learning, even when environments were changing rapidly; moreover, successful strategies focused learning effort on periods of environmental change. Here, we use data from tournament simulations to examine how these strategies might affect cultural evolution, as reflected in the amount of culture (i.e. number of cultural traits) in the population, the distribution of cultural traits across individuals, and their persistence through time. We found that high levels of social learning are associated with a larger amount of more persistent knowledge, but a smaller amount of less persistent expressed behaviour, as well as more uneven distributions of behaviour, as individuals concentrated on exploiting a smaller subset of behaviour patterns. Increased rates of environmental change generated increases in the amount and evenness of behaviour. These observations suggest that copying confers on cultural populations an adaptive plasticity, allowing them to respond to changing environments rapidly by drawing on a wider knowledge base.
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Affiliation(s)
- L Rendell
- Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, School of Biology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife, UK.
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108
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van Schaik CP, Burkart JM. Social learning and evolution: the cultural intelligence hypothesis. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2011; 366:1008-16. [PMID: 21357223 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2010.0304] [Citation(s) in RCA: 148] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Abstract
If social learning is more efficient than independent individual exploration, animals should learn vital cultural skills exclusively, and routine skills faster, through social learning, provided they actually use social learning preferentially. Animals with opportunities for social learning indeed do so. Moreover, more frequent opportunities for social learning should boost an individual's repertoire of learned skills. This prediction is confirmed by comparisons among wild great ape populations and by social deprivation and enculturation experiments. These findings shaped the cultural intelligence hypothesis, which complements the traditional benefit hypotheses for the evolution of intelligence by specifying the conditions in which these benefits can be reaped. The evolutionary version of the hypothesis argues that species with frequent opportunities for social learning should more readily respond to selection for a greater number of learned skills. Because improved social learning also improves asocial learning, the hypothesis predicts a positive interspecific correlation between social-learning performance and individual learning ability. Variation among primates supports this prediction. The hypothesis also predicts that more heavily cultural species should be more intelligent. Preliminary tests involving birds and mammals support this prediction too. The cultural intelligence hypothesis can also account for the unusual cognitive abilities of humans, as well as our unique mechanisms of skill transfer.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carel P van Schaik
- Anthropologisches Institut and Museum, Universität Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland.
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109
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Laidre ME. Meaningful gesture in monkeys? Investigating whether mandrills create social culture. PLoS One 2011; 6:e14610. [PMID: 21311591 PMCID: PMC3032724 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0014610] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/24/2009] [Accepted: 06/14/2010] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Human societies exhibit a rich array of gestures with cultural origins. Often these gestures are found exclusively in local populations, where their meaning has been crafted by a community into a shared convention. In nonhuman primates like African monkeys, little evidence exists for such culturally-conventionalized gestures. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Here I report a striking gesture unique to a single community of mandrills (Mandrillus sphinx) among nineteen studied across North America, Africa, and Europe. The gesture was found within a community of 23 mandrills where individuals old and young, female and male covered their eyes with their hands for periods which could exceed 30 min, often while simultaneously raising their elbow prominently into the air. This 'Eye covering' gesture has been performed within the community for a decade, enduring deaths, removals, and births, and it persists into the present. Differential responses to Eye covering versus controls suggested that the gesture might have a locally-respected meaning, potentially functioning over a distance to inhibit interruptions as a 'do not disturb' sign operates. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE The creation of this gesture by monkeys suggests that the ability to cultivate shared meanings using novel manual acts may be distributed more broadly beyond the human species. Although logistically difficult with primates, the translocation of gesturers between communities remains critical to experimentally establishing the possible cultural origin and transmission of nonhuman gestures.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mark E Laidre
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, United States of America.
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110
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Rendell L, Fogarty L, Hoppitt WJE, Morgan TJH, Webster MM, Laland KN. Cognitive culture: theoretical and empirical insights into social learning strategies. Trends Cogn Sci 2011; 15:68-76. [PMID: 21215677 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2010.12.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 290] [Impact Index Per Article: 22.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/01/2010] [Revised: 12/06/2010] [Accepted: 12/06/2010] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Research into social learning (learning from others) has expanded significantly in recent years, not least because of productive interactions between theoretical and empirical approaches. This has been coupled with a new emphasis on learning strategies, which places social learning within a cognitive decision-making framework. Understanding when, how and why individuals learn from others is a significant challenge, but one that is critical to numerous fields in multiple academic disciplines, including the study of social cognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Luke Rendell
- Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, School of Biology, University of St. Andrews, Bute Medical Building, St. Andrews, Fife KY16 9TS, UK.
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111
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Schmidt MFH, Rakoczy H, Tomasello M. Young children attribute normativity to novel actions without pedagogy or normative language. Dev Sci 2010; 14:530-9. [PMID: 21477192 DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2010.01000.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 82] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Young children interpret some acts performed by adults as normatively governed, that is, as capable of being performed either rightly or wrongly. In previous experiments, children have made this interpretation when adults introduced them to novel acts with normative language (e.g. 'this is the way it goes'), along with pedagogical cues signaling culturally important information, and with social-pragmatic marking that this action is a token of a familiar type. In the current experiment, we exposed children to novel actions with no normative language, and we systematically varied pedagogical and social-pragmatic cues in an attempt to identify which of them, if either, would lead children to normative interpretations. We found that young 3-year-old children inferred normativity without any normative language and without any pedagogical cues. The only cue they used was adult social-pragmatic marking of the action as familiar, as if it were a token of a well-known type (as opposed to performing it, as if inventing it on the spot). These results suggest that - in the absence of explicit normative language - young children interpret adult actions as normatively governed based mainly on the intentionality (perhaps signaling conventionality) with which they are performed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marco F H Schmidt
- Department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany.
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112
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Abstract
Traditionally, experiments on social learning (in both humans and nonhumans) involve dyads, with an experimenter or experimenter-trained conspecific serving as the demonstrator and the participant as the observer. But social learning in nature often involves multiple potential models, and the models themselves were once learners. We discuss our studies of social learning by adult humans in interactive group settings in the absence of formal demonstrations by experimenters, which tracked transmission over multiple learner generations. In these experiments, we found evidence for cumulative learning over generations. This has allowed us to manipulate learning conditions in order to test hypotheses regarding the necessary conditions for cumulative culture. We also report results from a further experiment using similar methods, which compared conditions of varying cohort size. Participants were given the task to build a paper airplane to fly as far as possible. Contrary to expectations, there was no advantage for larger cohort sizes, in terms of the cumulative effects observed.
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113
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Abstract
New Caledonian (NC) crows are the most sophisticated tool manufacturers other than humans. The diversification and geographical distribution of their three Pandanus tool designs that differ in complexity, as well as the lack of ecological correlates, suggest that cumulative technological change has taken place. To investigate the possibility that high-fidelity social transmission mediated this putative ratchet-like process, we studied the ontogeny of Pandanus tool manufacture and social organization in free-living NC crows. We found that juvenile crows took more than 1 year to reach adult proficiency in their Pandanus tool skills. Although trial-and-error learning is clearly important, juveniles have ample opportunity to learn about Pandanus tool manufacture by both observing their parents and interacting with artifactual material. The crows' social system seems likely to promote the faithful social transmission of local tool designs by both favoring the vertical transmission of tool information and minimizing horizontal transmission. We suggest that NC crows develop their Pandanus tool skills in a highly scaffolded learning environment that facilitates the cumulative technological evolution of tool designs.
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114
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Tennie C, Call J, Tomasello M. Evidence for emulation in chimpanzees in social settings using the floating peanut task. PLoS One 2010; 5:e10544. [PMID: 20485684 PMCID: PMC2868881 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0010544] [Citation(s) in RCA: 80] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/22/2009] [Accepted: 04/02/2010] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND It is still unclear which observational learning mechanisms underlie the transmission of difficult problem-solving skills in chimpanzees. In particular, two different mechanisms have been proposed: imitation and emulation. Previous studies have largely failed to control for social factors when these mechanisms were targeted. METHODS In an attempt to resolve the existing discrepancies, we adopted the 'floating peanut task', in which subjects need to spit water into a tube until it is sufficiently full for floating peanuts to be grasped. In a previous study only a few chimpanzees were able to invent the necessary solution (and they either did so in their first trials or never). Here we compared success levels in baseline tests with two experimental conditions that followed: 1) A full model condition to test whether social demonstrations would be effective, and 2) A social emulation control condition, in which a human experimenter poured water from a bottle into the tube, to test whether results information alone (present in both experimental conditions) would also induce successes. Crucially, we controlled for social factors in both experimental conditions. Both types of demonstrations significantly increased successful spitting, with no differences between demonstration types. We also found that younger subjects were more likely to succeed than older ones. Our analysis showed that mere order effects could not explain our results. CONCLUSION The full demonstration condition (which potentially offers additional information to observers, in the form of actions), induced no more successes than the emulation condition. Hence, emulation learning could explain the success in both conditions. This finding has broad implications for the interpretation of chimpanzee traditions, for which emulation learning may perhaps suffice.
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Affiliation(s)
- Claudio Tennie
- Department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.
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115
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Bastian ML, Zweifel N, Vogel ER, Wich SA, van Schaik CP. Diet traditions in wild orangutans. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 2010; 143:175-87. [DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.21304] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
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116
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Birch SAJ, Akmal N, Frampton KL. Two-year-olds are vigilant of others' non-verbal cues to credibility. Dev Sci 2010; 13:363-9. [PMID: 20136933 DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2009.00906.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 95] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Data from three experiments provide the first evidence that children, at least as young as age two, are vigilant of others' non-verbal cues to credibility, and flexibly use these cues to facilitate learning. Experiment 1 revealed that 2- and 3-year-olds prefer to learn about objects from someone who appears, through non-verbal cues, to be confident in performing actions on those objects than from someone who appears uncertain when performing actions on those objects. Experiment 2 revealed that when 2-year-olds observe only one model perform a single action, either confidently or unconfidently, they do not use the model's level of confidence in this single instance to influence their learning. Experiment 3 revealed that 2-year-olds will use a single model's level of confidence to guide their learning if they have observed that the model has a history of being either consistently confident or consistently uncertain. These findings reveal that young children selectively alter their learning based on others' non-verbal cues of credibility, and underscore the importance of an early sensitivity to socio-cognitive cues for human learning and development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Susan A J Birch
- Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
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117
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Fitch WT, Huber L, Bugnyar T. Social cognition and the evolution of language: constructing cognitive phylogenies. Neuron 2010; 65:795-814. [PMID: 20346756 PMCID: PMC4415479 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2010.03.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 147] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/09/2010] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Abstract
Human language and social cognition are closely linked: advanced social cognition is necessary for children to acquire language, and language allows forms of social understanding (and, more broadly, culture) that would otherwise be impossible. Both "language" and "social cognition" are complex constructs, involving many independent cognitive mechanisms, and the comparative approach provides a powerful route to understanding the evolution of such mechanisms. We provide a broad comparative review of mechanisms underlying social intelligence in vertebrates, with the goal of determining which human mechanisms are broadly shared, which have evolved in parallel in other clades, and which, potentially, are uniquely developed in our species. We emphasize the importance of convergent evolution for testing hypotheses about neural mechanisms and their evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- W Tecumseh Fitch
- Department of Cognitive Biology, Althanstrasse 14, University of Vienna, A-1090 Vienna, Austria.
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118
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Jaeggi AV, Dunkel LP, Van Noordwijk MA, Wich SA, Sura AAL, Van Schaik CP. Social learning of diet and foraging skills by wild immature Bornean orangutans: implications for culture. Am J Primatol 2010; 72:62-71. [PMID: 19790189 DOI: 10.1002/ajp.20752] [Citation(s) in RCA: 104] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022]
Abstract
Studies of social learning in the wild are important to complement findings from experiments in captivity. In this field study, immature Bornean orangutans rarely foraged independently but consistently followed their mothers' choices. Their diets were essentially identical to their mothers' even though not all mothers had the same diet. This suggests vertical transmission of diet by enhancement. Also, immatures selectively observed their mothers during extractive foraging, which increased goal-directed practice but not general manipulation of similar objects, suggesting observational forms of learning of complex skills. Teaching was not observed. These results are consistent with the reported presence of food traditions and skill cultures in wild orangutans. We suggest that food traditions can develop wherever association commonly allows for social learning. However, the capacity for observational learning, and thus more complex culture, is more likely to evolve among extractive foragers with prolonged association between adults and immatures.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adrian V Jaeggi
- Anthropological Institute & Museum, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
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119
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Dissecting the imitation faculty: The multiple imitation mechanisms (MIM) hypothesis. Behav Processes 2010; 83:222-34. [DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2009.12.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/21/2009] [Revised: 11/30/2009] [Accepted: 12/01/2009] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
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120
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Hopper LM. ‘Ghost’ experiments and the dissection of social learning in humans and animals. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc 2010; 85:685-701. [DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-185x.2010.00120.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 41] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
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121
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Lehner SR, Burkart JM, van Schaik CP. An evaluation of the geographic method for recognizing innovations in nature, using zoo orangutans. Primates 2010; 51:101-18. [PMID: 20072848 DOI: 10.1007/s10329-009-0184-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/08/2009] [Accepted: 12/17/2009] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
Innovation and social learning are the raw materials for traditions and culture. Of these two, innovation has received far less scrutiny, largely because of difficulties assessing the innovation status of behaviors. A recent attempt proposes recognition of innovations in natural populations based on assessment of the behavior's properties and its geographic and local prevalence. Here we examine the validity of this approach and the list of 43 potential innovations it generated for wild orangutans by extending the comparison to zoo orangutans. First, we created an inventory of the behavioral repertoire in the zoo population. Four of ten putative innovations recognized in the field and potentially present in captivity did not occur despite appropriate conditions, suggesting they are indeed innovations. Second, we experimentally produced relevant conditions to evaluate whether another five potential innovations could be elicited. Based on their continued absence or on their latencies relative to known behaviors, four of the potential innovations could be assessed as innovations and one as a modification. Because 53% of relevant innovations recognized in the field could be confirmed in this analysis, and another 27% assigned possible innovation status, we conclude that the geographic method for detecting innovation in the wild is valid. However, the experiments also yielded up to 13 additional innovations, suggesting that zoo orangutans are far more innovative than wild ones. We discuss the implications of this latter finding with regard to limiting factors for the expansion of cultural repertoires in wild orangutans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephan R Lehner
- Anthropological Institute and Museum, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057, Zurich, Switzerland.
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122
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Hopper LM, Flynn EG, Wood LAN, Whiten A. Observational learning of tool use in children: Investigating cultural spread through diffusion chains and learning mechanisms through ghost displays. J Exp Child Psychol 2010; 106:82-97. [PMID: 20064644 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2009.12.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 52] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/27/2009] [Accepted: 12/01/2009] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
In the first of two experiments, we demonstrate the spread of a novel form of tool use across 20 "cultural generations" of child-to-child transmission. An experimentally seeded technique spread with 100% fidelity along twice as many "generations" as has been investigated in recent exploratory "diffusion" experiments of this type. This contrasted with only a single child discovering the technique spontaneously in a comparable group tested individually without any model. This study accordingly documents children's social learning of tool use on a new, population-level scale that characterizes real-world cultural phenomena. In a second experiment, underlying social learning processes were investigated with a focus on the contrast between imitation (defined as copying actions) and emulation (defined as learning from the results of actions only). In two different "ghost" conditions, children were presented with the task used in the first experiment but now operated without sight of an agent performing the task, thereby presenting only the information used in emulation. Children in ghost conditions were less successful than those who had watched a model in action and showed variable matching to what they had seen. These findings suggest the importance of observational learning of complex tool use through imitation rather than only through emulation. Results of the two experiments are compared with those of similar experiments conducted previously with chimpanzees and are discussed in relation to the wider perspective of human culture and the influence of task complexity on social learning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lydia M Hopper
- Language Research Center, Department of Psychology, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30302, USA.
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123
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Dillis C, Humle T, Snowdon CT. Socially biased learning among adult cottontop tamarins (Saguinus oedipus). Am J Primatol 2009; 72:287-95. [PMID: 20014273 DOI: 10.1002/ajp.20778] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Abstract
We presented adult cottontop tamarins (Saguinus oedipus) with a novel foraging task that had been used previously to examine socially biased learning of juvenile observers [Humle & Snowdon, Animal Behaviour 75:267-277, 2008]. The task could be solved in one of two ways, and thus allowed for an analysis of behavioral matching between an observer and a skilled demonstrator (trained to use one of the two methods exclusively). Because the demonstrator was an adult in both this study and the juvenile study, the influence of the observer's age could be isolated and examined, as well as the behavior of demonstrators toward observers of different ages. Our main goals were to (1) compare adults and juveniles acquiring the same task to identify how the age of the observer affects socially biased learning and (2) examine the relationship between socially biased learning and behavioral matching in adults. Although adults spent less time observing the trained demonstrators than did juveniles, the adults were more proficient at solving the task. Furthermore, even though observers did not overtly match the behavior of the demonstrator, observation remained an important factor in the success of these individuals. The findings suggested that adult observers could extract information needed to solve a novel foraging task without explicitly matching the behavior of the demonstrator. Adult observers begged much less than juveniles and demonstrators did not respond to begging from adult. Skill acquisition and the process of socially biased learning are, therefore, age-dependent and are influenced by the behavioral interactions between observer and demonstrator. To what extent this holds true for other primates or animal species still needs to be more fully investigated and considered when designing experiments and interpreting results.
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124
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Price EE, Caldwell CA, Whiten A. Comparative cultural cognition. WILEY INTERDISCIPLINARY REVIEWS. COGNITIVE SCIENCE 2009; 1:23-31. [PMID: 26272835 DOI: 10.1002/wcs.14] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Cultural learning is an adaptive mechanism which can lead to changes in behavior and cognition much faster than naturally selected genetic change. Although social learning is prevalent in many species, the capacity for significant cumulative culture remains restricted to humans. This capacity has been a driving force behind the evolution of complexity in our technologies and societies, and has allowed us to become the most widespread mammal on earth. The comparative study of cultural cognition assesses where important differences lie between species. A combination of observational studies in the wild, experimental studies in captivity, and field experiments together provide the most comprehensive methods with which to tackle the question. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elizabeth E Price
- Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, School of Psychology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, KY16 9JU, UK
| | | | - Andrew Whiten
- Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, School of Psychology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, KY16 9JU, UK
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125
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Dindo M, Whiten A, de Waal FBM. In-group conformity sustains different foraging traditions in capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella). PLoS One 2009; 4:e7858. [PMID: 19924242 PMCID: PMC2773420 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0007858] [Citation(s) in RCA: 68] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/25/2009] [Accepted: 10/16/2009] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Decades of research have revealed rich cultural repertoires encompassing multiple traditions in wild great apes, a picture crucially complemented by experimental simulations with captive apes. Studies with wild capuchin monkeys, the most encephalized simian species, have indicated a New World convergence on these cultural phenomena, involving multiple traditions and tool use. However, experimental studies to date are in conflict with such findings in concluding that capuchins, like other monkeys, show minimal capacities for social learning. Methodology/Principal Findings Here we report a new experimental approach in which the alpha male of each of two groups of capuchins was trained to open an artificial foraging device in a quite different way, using either a slide or lift action, then reunited with his group. In each group a majority of monkeys, 8 of 11 and 13 of 14, subsequently mastered the task. Seventeen of the successful 21 monkeys discovered the alternative action to that seeded in the group, performing it a median of 4 times. Nevertheless, all 21 primarily adopted the technique seeded by their group's alpha male. Median proportions of slide versus lift were 0.96 for the group seeded with slide versus 0. 01 for the group seeded with lift. Conclusions/Significance These results suggest a striking effect of social conformity in learned behavioral techniques, consistent with field reports of capuchin traditions and convergent on the only other species in which such cultural phenomena have been reported, chimpanzees and humans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marietta Dindo
- Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, School of Psychology, University of St Andrews, Fife, United Kingdom
- Living Links, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America
| | - Andrew Whiten
- Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, School of Psychology, University of St Andrews, Fife, United Kingdom
- * E-mail:
| | - Frans B. M. de Waal
- Living Links, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America
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126
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Claidière N, Sperber D. Imitation explains the propagation, not the stability of animal culture. Proc Biol Sci 2009; 277:651-9. [PMID: 19889707 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2009.1615] [Citation(s) in RCA: 50] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
For acquired behaviour to count as cultural, two conditions must be met: it must propagate in a social group, and it must remain stable across generations in the process of propagation. It is commonly assumed that imitation is the mechanism that explains both the spread of animal culture and its stability. We review the literature on transmission chain studies in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and other animals, and we use a formal model to argue that imitation, which may well play a major role in the propagation of animal culture, cannot be considered faithful enough to explain its stability. We consider the contribution that other psychological and ecological factors might make to the stability of animal culture observed in the wild.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicolas Claidière
- Département d'Etudes Cognitives, Institut Jean Nicod, Ecole Normale Supérieure, 29, rue d'Ulm, 75005 Paris, France.
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127
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McGuigan N, Graham M. Cultural transmission of irrelevant tool actions in diffusion chains of 3- and 5-year-old children. EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY 2009. [DOI: 10.1080/17405620902858125] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
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128
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Huber L, Range F, Voelkl B, Szucsich A, Virányi Z, Miklosi A. The evolution of imitation: what do the capacities of non-human animals tell us about the mechanisms of imitation? Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2009; 364:2299-309. [PMID: 19620102 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2009.0060] [Citation(s) in RCA: 67] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
In this paper, we review reports and present new empirical data from studies with marmosets and dogs that address the correspondence problem of imitation research. We focus on the question of how it is possible to transform visual information into matching motor acts. Here, the important issue is not the learning of a complex skill, but determining the copying fidelity of animals at different levels of behavioural organization. As a theoretical framework, we suggest a classification in terms of movement, action and result, which shows a positive relationship between the organizational level of imitation and matching degree. While the monkey studies have provided evidence of very precise copying of movements and, to a lesser degree, of behaviours, the dog studies have provided evidence of action copying and the reproduction of results. In a Do-as-I-do study, a dog attempted to reproduce the results of demonstrated object manipulations at the expense of movement details. Transitive actions were more easily replicated than intransitive ones, and familiarity of actions had a major influence. The discussion of these findings addresses the question of the neuronal mechanisms underlying imitation and whether a single mechanism is sufficient to explain the different levels of copying fidelity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ludwig Huber
- Department of Neurobiology and Cognition Research, University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria.
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129
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Whiten A, McGuigan N, Marshall-Pescini S, Hopper LM. Emulation, imitation, over-imitation and the scope of culture for child and chimpanzee. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2009; 364:2417-28. [PMID: 19620112 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2009.0069] [Citation(s) in RCA: 329] [Impact Index Per Article: 21.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
We describe our recent studies of imitation and cultural transmission in chimpanzees and children, which question late twentieth-century characterizations of children as imitators, but chimpanzees as emulators. As emulation entails learning only about the results of others' actions, it has been thought to curtail any capacity to sustain cultures. Recent chimpanzee diffusion experiments have by contrast documented a significant capacity for copying local behavioural traditions. Additionally, in recent 'ghost' experiments with no model visible, chimpanzees failed to replicate the object movements on which emulation is supposed to focus. We conclude that chimpanzees rely more on imitation and have greater cultural capacities than previously acknowledged. However, we also find that they selectively apply a range of social learning processes that include emulation. Recent studies demonstrating surprisingly unselective 'over-imitation' in children suggest that children's propensity to imitate has been underestimated too. We discuss the implications of these developments for the nature of social learning and culture in the two species. Finally, our new experiments directly address cumulative cultural learning. Initial results demonstrate a relative conservatism and conformity in chimpanzees' learning, contrasting with cumulative cultural learning in young children. This difference may contribute much to the contrast in these species' capacities for cultural evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrew Whiten
- Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, School of Psychology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews KY16 9JP, UK.
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130
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Whiten A, Schick K, Toth N. The evolution and cultural transmission of percussive technology: integrating evidence from palaeoanthropology and primatology. J Hum Evol 2009; 57:420-35. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2008.12.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 47] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/01/2007] [Revised: 04/15/2009] [Accepted: 12/31/2008] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
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131
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Catmur C, Walsh V, Heyes C. Associative sequence learning: the role of experience in the development of imitation and the mirror system. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2009; 364:2369-80. [PMID: 19620108 PMCID: PMC2865072 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2009.0048] [Citation(s) in RCA: 191] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
A core requirement for imitation is a capacity to solve the correspondence problem; to map observed onto executed actions, even when observation and execution yield sensory inputs in different modalities and coordinate frames. Until recently, it was assumed that the human capacity to solve the correspondence problem is innate. However, it is now becoming apparent that, as predicted by the associative sequence learning model, experience, and especially sensorimotor experience, plays a critical role in the development of imitation. We review evidence from studies of non-human animals, children and adults, focusing on research in cognitive neuroscience that uses training and naturally occurring variations in expertise to examine the role of experience in the formation of the mirror system. The relevance of this research depends on the widely held assumption that the mirror system plays a causal role in generating imitative behaviour. We also report original data supporting this assumption. These data show that theta-burst transcranial magnetic stimulation of the inferior frontal gyrus, a classical mirror system area, disrupts automatic imitation of finger movements. We discuss the implications of the evidence reviewed for the evolution, development and intentional control of imitation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Caroline Catmur
- Department of Psychology, University College London, London WC1H 0AP, UK
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132
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McGuigan N, Whiten A. Emulation and "overemulation" in the social learning of causally opaque versus causally transparent tool use by 23- and 30-month-olds. J Exp Child Psychol 2009; 104:367-81. [PMID: 19683722 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2009.07.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 57] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/03/2008] [Revised: 07/04/2009] [Accepted: 07/04/2009] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
We explored whether a rising trend to blindly "overcopy" a model's causally irrelevant actions between 3 and 5 years of age, found in previous studies, predicts a more circumspect disposition in much younger children. Children between 23 and 30 months of age observed a model use a tool to retrieve a reward from either a transparent or opaque puzzle box. Some of the tool actions were irrelevant to reward retrieval, whereas others were causally necessary. The causal relevance of the tool actions was highly visible in the transparent box condition, allowing the participants to potentially discriminate which actions were necessary. In contrast, the causal efficacy of the tool was hidden in the opaque box condition. When both the 23- and 30-month-olds were presented with either the transparent or opaque box, they were most commonly emulative rather than imitative, performing only the causally necessary actions. This strategy contrasts with the blanket imitation of both causally irrelevant and causally relevant actions witnessed at 3 and 5 years of age in our previous studies. The results challenge a current view of 1- and 2-year-olds as largely "blind imitators"; instead, they show that these young children have a variety of social learning processes available to them. More broadly the emerging patterns of results suggest, rather counterintuitively, that the human species becomes more imitative rather than less imitative with age, in some ways "mindlessly" so.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicola McGuigan
- School of Life Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, Scotland, UK.
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133
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Thornton A, Malapert A. Experimental evidence for social transmission of food acquisition techniques in wild meerkats. Anim Behav 2009. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2009.04.021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 69] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
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134
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Cognitive consequences of cooperative breeding in primates? Anim Cogn 2009; 13:1-19. [PMID: 19629551 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-009-0263-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 105] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/19/2008] [Revised: 07/01/2009] [Accepted: 07/02/2009] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
Several hypotheses propose that cooperative breeding leads to increased cognitive performance, in both nonhuman and human primates, but systematic evidence for such a relationship is missing. A causal link might exist because motivational and cognitive processes necessary for the execution and coordination of helping behaviors could also favor cognitive performance in contexts not directly related to caregiving. In callitrichids, which among primates rely most strongly on cooperative breeding, these motivational and cognitive processes include attentional biases toward monitoring others, the ability to coordinate actions spatially and temporally, increased social tolerance, increased responsiveness to others' signals, and spontaneous prosociality. These processes are likely to enhance performance particularly in socio-cognitive contexts. Therefore, cooperatively breeding primates are expected to outperform their independently breeding sister taxa in socio-cognitive tasks. We evaluate this prediction by reviewing the literature and comparing cognitive performance in callitrichids with that of their sister taxa, i.e. squirrel monkeys, which are independent breeders, and capuchin monkeys, which show an intermediate breeding system. Consistent with our prediction, this review reveals that callitrichids systematically and significantly outperform their sister taxa in the socio-cognitive, but not in the non-social domain. This comparison is complemented with more qualitative evaluations of prosociality and cognitive performance in non-primate cooperative breeders, which suggest that among mammals, cooperative breeding generally produces conditions conducive to socio-cognitive performance. In the hominid lineage, however, the adoption of extensive allomaternal care presumably resulted in more pervasive cognitive consequences, because the motivational consequences of cooperative breeding was added to an ape-level cognitive system already capable of understanding simple mental states, which enabled the emergence of shared intentionality.
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135
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Whitehead H, Richerson PJ. The evolution of conformist social learning can cause population collapse in realistically variable environments. EVOL HUM BEHAV 2009. [DOI: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2009.02.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 71] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
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136
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Tennie C, Glabsch E, Tempelmann S, Bräuer J, Kaminski J, Call J. Dogs, Canis familiaris, fail to copy intransitive actions in third-party contextual imitation tasks. Anim Behav 2009. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2009.03.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
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137
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Trade-offs between social learning and individual innovativeness in common marmosets, Callithrix jacchus. Anim Behav 2009. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2009.02.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
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138
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Tarnaud L, Yamagiwa J. Age-dependent patterns of intensive observation on elders by free-ranging juvenile Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata yakui) within foraging context on Yakushima. Am J Primatol 2009; 70:1103-13. [PMID: 18680177 DOI: 10.1002/ajp.20603] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Abstract
Early learning about edible food in the environment is a critical survival task for young nonhuman primates. Social learning and social facilitation are often cited to explain how youngsters learn to select and find their food. In this framework, we observed eight mother-youngster pairs of free-ranging Japanese macaques divided into two sets according to the age of the young (infants aged between 7 and 12 months and juveniles aged between 1.5 and 2 years) during three winter months. We systematically investigated the intensive observation directed by the youngsters toward elders by recording the target's identity (e.g. mother, subadult), the items manipulated by the elder and those items closely observed by the youngster, along with the behavior of the youngster preceding and immediately following an intensive observation period. The diet of the mothers and juveniles was estimated from time records of each feeding occurrence for each food item (identified to species level) and from the quantity of fresh matter ingested. The results show that intensive observation by both infants and juveniles were directed toward those elders engaged in plant and invertebrate foraging. Such behavior was age-dependent, being more frequent in infants than in juveniles. The majority of the intensive observations were directed toward the mother. Intensive observations also shaped a change in the behavior of infants by significantly stimulating the investigation of food items and locations otherwise not investigated by juveniles. Moreover, infants showed a particular interest in rare food items and especially invertebrates. Age differences between the two sets of young and their interest in rare foods are discussed with reference to the occurrence of intensive observation within the framework of kin relationships, social organization, and social transmission of information about food type and food location and its survival values.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laurent Tarnaud
- Laboratory of Human Evolution Sciences, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Sakyo-ku, Japan.
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139
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McElreath R, Bell AV, Efferson C, Lubell M, Richerson PJ, Waring T. Beyond existence and aiming outside the laboratory: estimating frequency-dependent and pay-off-biased social learning strategies. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2008; 363:3515-28. [PMID: 18799416 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2008.0131] [Citation(s) in RCA: 130] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
The existence of social learning has been confirmed in diverse taxa, from apes to guppies. In order to advance our understanding of the consequences of social transmission and evolution of behaviour, however, we require statistical tools that can distinguish among diverse social learning strategies. In this paper, we advance two main ideas. First, social learning is diverse, in the sense that individuals can take advantage of different kinds of information and combine them in different ways. Examining learning strategies for different information conditions illuminates the more detailed design of social learning. We construct and analyse an evolutionary model of diverse social learning heuristics, in order to generate predictions and illustrate the impact of design differences on an organism's fitness. Second, in order to eventually escape the laboratory and apply social learning models to natural behaviour, we require statistical methods that do not depend upon tight experimental control. Therefore, we examine strategic social learning in an experimental setting in which the social information itself is endogenous to the experimental group, as it is in natural settings. We develop statistical models for distinguishing among different strategic uses of social information. The experimental data strongly suggest that most participants employ a hierarchical strategy that uses both average observed pay-offs of options as well as frequency information, the same model predicted by our evolutionary analysis to dominate a wide range of conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Richard McElreath
- Department of Anthropology, University of California Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
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140
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Whiten A, Mesoudi A. Review. Establishing an experimental science of culture: animal social diffusion experiments. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2008; 363:3477-88. [PMID: 18799418 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2008.0134] [Citation(s) in RCA: 165] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
A growing set of observational studies documenting putative cultural variations in wild animal populations has been complemented by experimental studies that can more rigorously distinguish between social and individual learning. However, these experiments typically examine only what one animal learns from another. Since the spread of culture is inherently a group-level phenomenon, greater validity can be achieved through 'diffusion experiments', in which founder behaviours are experimentally manipulated and their spread across multiple individuals tested. Here we review the existing corpus of 33 such studies in fishes, birds, rodents and primates and offer the first systematic analysis of the diversity of experimental designs that have arisen. We distinguish three main transmission designs and seven different experimental/control approaches, generating an array with 21 possible cells, 15 of which are currently represented by published studies. Most but not all of the adequately controlled diffusion experiments have provided robust evidence for cultural transmission in at least some taxa, with transmission spreading across populations of up to 24 individuals and along chains of up to 14 transmission events. We survey the achievements of this work, its prospects for the future and its relationship to diffusion studies with humans discussed in this theme issue and elsewhere.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrew Whiten
- Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, School of Psychology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK.
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141
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Mesoudi A, Whiten A. Review. The multiple roles of cultural transmission experiments in understanding human cultural evolution. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2008; 363:3489-501. [PMID: 18801720 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2008.0129] [Citation(s) in RCA: 152] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
In this paper, we explore how experimental studies of cultural transmission in adult humans can address general questions regarding the 'who, what, when and how' of human cultural transmission, and consequently inform a theory of human cultural evolution. Three methods are discussed. The transmission chain method, in which information is passed along linear chains of participants, has been used to identify content biases in cultural transmission. These concern the kind of information that is transmitted. Several such candidate content biases have now emerged from the experimental literature. The replacement method, in which participants in groups are gradually replaced or moved across groups, has been used to study phenomena such as cumulative cultural evolution, cultural group selection and cultural innovation. The closed-group method, in which participants learn in groups with no replacement, has been used to explore issues such as who people choose to learn from and when they learn culturally as opposed to individually. A number of the studies reviewed here have received relatively little attention within their own disciplines, but we suggest that these, and future experimental studies of cultural transmission that build on them, can play an important role in a broader science of cultural evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alex Mesoudi
- Department of Social and Developmental Psychology, University of Cambridge, Free School Lane, Cambridge, UK.
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142
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143
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Rymer T, Schradin C, Pillay N. Social transmission of information about novel food in two populations of the African striped mouse, Rhabdomys pumilio. Anim Behav 2008. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2008.06.014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
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144
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Hrubesch C, Preuschoft S, van Schaik C. Skill mastery inhibits adoption of observed alternative solutions among chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Anim Cogn 2008; 12:209-16. [PMID: 18766391 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-008-0183-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 96] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/06/2007] [Revised: 06/07/2008] [Accepted: 08/03/2008] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Geographic variation in socially transmitted skills and signals, similar to human culture, has been well documented for great apes. The rules governing the adoption of novel behaviours, however, are still largely unknown. We conducted an innovation-and-transmission experiment with two groups of chimpanzees living at hopE Primate Sanctuary Gänserndorf, Austria, presenting a board on which food had to be manoeuvred around obstacles to be acquired. Most chimpanzees used sticks to acquire the food, but five adults independently invented a novel technique, rattling, which was subsequently tested by almost all group members. However, individuals who had become proficient with sticks were reluctant to switch to rattling, despite it being more efficient. Similarly, after rattling was prevented, rattle specialists kept trying to rattle and made no attempt to use the stick technique, despite their knowledge about its existence. We conclude that innovators stimulate others to experiment with the solutions they display, but that chimpanzees are nevertheless conservative; mastery of a skill inhibits further exploration, and hence adoption of alternative techniques even if these are more efficient. Consequently, conformity among group members should not be expected in great apes when individuals develop proficiency at different techniques. Conservatism thus joins conformity as a mechanism to bring about cultural uniformity and stability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christine Hrubesch
- Anthropological Institute and Museum, University of Zurich-Irchel, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057, Zurich, Switzerland.
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145
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Zlatev J. From proto-mimesis to language: evidence from primatology and social neuroscience. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2008; 102:137-51. [PMID: 18502623 DOI: 10.1016/j.jphysparis.2008.03.016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 50] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
How can we reconcile the conception of language as a conventional-normative semiotic system with a perception/action-based account of its structure and meaning? And why should linguistic meaning--as opposed to linguistic expression--be so closely related to motor activity and its neural underpinnings, as suggested by recent findings? A conceptual framework and evolutionary scenario building on the concept of bodily mimesis [Zlatev, J., 2005. What's in a schema? Bodily mimesis and the grounding of language. In: Hampe, B. (Ed.), From Perception to Meaning: Image Schemas in Cognitive Linguistics. Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin, pp. 313-343] imply answers to these questions. The article presents evidence for a particular evolutionary stage model by reviewing recent evidence on the capacity of non-human primates for intersubjectivity, imitation and gestural communication, and from neuroscientific studies of these capacities in monkeys and human subjects. It is argued that "mirror neuron" systems can subserve basic motoric and social capacities, but they need to be considerably extended in order to provide an efficient basis for bodily mimesis, and even more so for language. It is argued that while language may be ultimately "grounded" in perception and action, it is essential not to try to reduce it to them.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jordan Zlatev
- Lund University, Centre for Languages and Literature, Box 201, 221 00 Lund, Sweden.
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146
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Hopper LM, Lambeth SP, Schapiro SJ, Whiten A. Observational learning in chimpanzees and children studied through 'ghost' conditions. Proc Biol Sci 2008; 275:835-40. [PMID: 18182368 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2007.1542] [Citation(s) in RCA: 95] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Emulation has been distinguished from imitation as a form of observational learning because it focuses not on the model's actions but on the action's environmental results. Whether a species emulates, imitates or displays only simpler observational learning is expected to have profound implications for its capacity for cultural transmission. Chimpanzees' observational learning has been suggested to be primarily emulative, but this is an inference largely based upon low fidelity copying in experiments when comparing chimpanzees with humans rather than direct testing. Here we test directly for emulation learning by chimpanzees and children using a 'ghost' condition in which a sliding door obscuring a reward was moved to left or right with no agent visible, a context associated with the only published evidence for emulation learning in a non-human species (pigeons). Both children and chimpanzees matched the observed direction of ghost door movement on their first test trial. This is the first evidence for emulation in a non-human primate in the restricted context of a ghost condition. However, only the children continued to match in later trials. Individuals of both species continued to match with 99% or better fidelity when viewing a conspecific model operates the door. We conclude that chimpanzees can and will display emulation learning when the task is as simple as the present one, which contrasts with a failure to do so in a more complex manipulative task tested earlier. However, even with a simple task, emulation alone creates only fleeting fidelity compared with the opportunity to copy a conspecific, when considerable conformity is displayed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lydia M Hopper
- Scottish Primate Research Group, Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, School of Psychology, University of St Andrews, Fife KY16 9JP, UK
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147
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Subiaul F, Vonk J, Okamoto-Barth S, Barth J. Do chimpanzees learn reputation by observation? Evidence from direct and indirect experience with generous and selfish strangers. Anim Cogn 2008; 11:611-23. [DOI: 10.1007/s10071-008-0151-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 46] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/20/2007] [Revised: 02/20/2008] [Accepted: 02/22/2008] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
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148
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Williamson RA, Meltzoff AN, Markman EM. Prior experiences and perceived efficacy influence 3-year-olds' imitation. Dev Psychol 2008; 44:275-85. [PMID: 18194026 DOI: 10.1037/0012-1649.44.1.275] [Citation(s) in RCA: 85] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Children are selective and flexible imitators. They combine their own prior experiences and the perceived causal efficacy of the model to determine whether and what to imitate. In Experiment 1, children were randomly assigned to have either a difficult or an easy experience achieving a goal. They then saw an adult use novel means to achieve the goal. Children with a difficult prior experience were more likely to imitate the adult's precise means. Experiment 2 showed further selectivity--children preferentially imitated causally efficacious versus nonefficacious acts. In Experiment 3, even after an easy prior experience led children to think their own means would be effective, they still encoded the novel means performed by the model. When a subsequent manipulation rendered the children's means ineffective, children recalled and imitated the model's means. The research shows that children integrate information from their own prior interventions and their observations of others to guide their imitation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rebecca A Williamson
- Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences, Box 357988, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
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149
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Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and the question of cumulative culture: an experimental approach. Anim Cogn 2008; 11:449-56. [PMID: 18204869 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-007-0135-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 94] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/28/2007] [Revised: 12/12/2007] [Accepted: 12/19/2007] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
Abstract
There is increasing evidence for cultural variations in behaviour among non-human species, but human societies additionally display elaborate cumulative cultural evolution, with successive generations building on earlier achievements. Evidence for cumulative culture in non-human species remains minimal and controversial. Relevant experiments are also lacking. Here we present a first experiment designed to examine chimpanzees' capacity for cumulative social learning. Eleven young chimpanzees were presented with a foraging device, which afforded both a relatively simple and a more complex tool-use technique for extracting honey. The more complex 'probing' technique incorporated the core actions of the simpler 'dipping' one and was also much more productive. In a baseline, exploration condition only two subjects discovered the dipping technique and a solitary instance of probing occurred. Demonstrations of dipping by a familiar human were followed by acquisition of this technique by the five subjects aged three years or above, whilst younger subjects showed a significant increase only in the elements of the dipping technique. By contrast, subsequent demonstrations of the probing task were not followed by acquisition of this more productive technique. Subjects stuck to their habitual dipping method despite an escalating series of demonstrations eventually exceeding 200. Supplementary tests showed this technique is within the capability of chimpanzees of this age. We therefore tentatively conclude that young chimpanzees exhibit a tendency to become 'stuck' on a technique they initially learn, inhibiting cumulative social learning and possibly constraining the species' capacity for cumulative cultural evolution.
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150
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Hoppitt W, Laland KN. Chapter 3 Social Processes Influencing Learning in Animals: A Review of the Evidence. ADVANCES IN THE STUDY OF BEHAVIOR 2008. [DOI: 10.1016/s0065-3454(08)00003-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 210] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/03/2022]
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