1
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Dafreville M, Guidetti M, Bourjade M. Attention-sensitive signalling by 7- to 20-month-old infants in a comparative perspective. Front Psychol 2024; 15:1257324. [PMID: 38562240 PMCID: PMC10982422 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1257324] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/12/2023] [Accepted: 03/07/2024] [Indexed: 04/04/2024] Open
Abstract
Attention-sensitive signalling is the pragmatic skill of signallers who adjust the modality of their communicative signals to their recipient's attention state. This study provides the first comprehensive evidence for its onset and development in 7-to 20-month-olds human infants, and underlines its significance for language acquisition and evolutionary history. Mother-infant dyads (N = 30) were studied in naturalistic settings, sampled according to three developmental periods (in months); [7-10], [11-14], and [15-20]. Infant's signals were classified by dominant perceptible sensory modality and proportions compared according to their mother's visual attention, infant-directed speech and tactile contact. Maternal visual attention and infant-directed speech were influential on the onset and steepness of infants' communicative adjustments. The ability to inhibit silent-visual signals towards visually inattentive mothers (unimodal adjustment) predated the ability to deploy audible-or-contact signals in this case (cross-modal adjustment). Maternal scaffolding of infant's early pragmatic skills through her infant-directed speech operates on the facilitation of infant's unimodal adjustment, the preference for oral over gestural signals, and the audio-visual combinations of signals. Additionally, breakdowns in maternal visual attention are associated with increased use of the audible-oral modality/channel. The evolutionary role of the sharing of attentional resources between parents and infants into the emergence of modern language is discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Marie Bourjade
- CLLE, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, Toulouse, France
- Institut Universitaire de France, Paris, France
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2
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Villa-Larenas F, Llorente M, Liebal K, Amici F. Gestural communication in wild spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi). Anim Cogn 2024; 27:18. [PMID: 38429467 PMCID: PMC10907450 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-024-01854-w] [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: 02/14/2023] [Revised: 10/10/2023] [Accepted: 10/20/2023] [Indexed: 03/03/2024]
Abstract
Gestures play a central role in the communication systems of several animal families, including primates. In this study, we provide a first assessment of the gestural systems of a Platyrrhine species, Geoffroy's spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi). We observed a wild group of 52 spider monkeys and assessed the distribution of visual and tactile gestures in the group, the size of individual repertoires and the intentionality and effectiveness of individuals' gestural production. Our results showed that younger spider monkeys were more likely than older ones to use tactile gestures. In contrast, we found no inter-individual differences in the probability of producing visual gestures. Repertoire size did not vary with age, but the probability of accounting for recipients' attentional state was higher for older monkeys than for younger ones, especially for gestures in the visual modality. Using vocalizations right before the gesture increased the probability of gesturing towards attentive recipients and of receiving a response, although age had no effect on the probability of gestures being responded. Overall, our study provides first evidence of gestural production in a Platyrrhine species, and confirms this taxon as a valid candidate for research on animal communication.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Miquel Llorente
- Fundació UdG: Innovació I Formació, Universitat de Girona, Girona, Spain
- Departament de Psicologia, Facultat d'Educació I Psicologia, Universitat de Girona, Girona, Spain
| | - Katja Liebal
- Human Biology and Primate Cognition, Institute of Biology, Faculty of Life Science, Leipzig University, Talstraße 33, 04103, Leipzig, Germany
- Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Federica Amici
- Human Biology and Primate Cognition, Institute of Biology, Faculty of Life Science, Leipzig University, Talstraße 33, 04103, Leipzig, Germany.
- Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.
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3
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Thierry B. The deductive, inductive, and comparative approaches: What drives primate studies. Primates 2023:10.1007/s10329-023-01073-w. [PMID: 37341864 DOI: 10.1007/s10329-023-01073-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/17/2023] [Accepted: 05/24/2023] [Indexed: 06/22/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Bernard Thierry
- Laboratoire de Psychologie Sociale et Cognitive, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université Clermont Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, France.
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4
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Bourjade M, Dafreville M, Scola C, Jover M. Six-month-old infants' communication in a comparative perspective: Do maternal attention and interaction matter? J Exp Child Psychol 2023; 231:105651. [PMID: 36842316 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2023.105651] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/20/2022] [Revised: 01/25/2023] [Accepted: 01/25/2023] [Indexed: 02/27/2023]
Abstract
Developmental precursors of the prelinguistic transition from gestures to word use can be found in the early pragmatic usage of auditory and visual signals across contexts. This study examined whether 6-month-old infants are capable of attention-sensitive communication with their mother, that is, adjusting the sensory modality of their communicative signals to their mother's attention. Proxies of maternal attention implemented in experimental conditions were the mother's visual attention (attentive/inattentive), interaction directed at the infant (interactive/non-interactive), and distance (far/close). The infants' signals were coded as either visual or auditory, following an ethological coding. Infants adjusted the sensory modality of their communicative signals mostly to maternal interaction. More auditory signals were produced when the mother was non-interactive than when she was interactive. Interactive conditions were characterized by higher rates of visual signaling and of gaze-coordinated non-vocal oral sounds. The more time infants spent looking at their attentive mother, the more they produced auditory signals, specifically non-vocal oral sounds. These findings are discussed within the articulated frameworks of evolutionary developmental psychology and early pragmatics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marie Bourjade
- Cognition Langues Langage Ergonomie (CLLE), Université de Toulouse, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), 31058 Toulouse, France; Institut Universitaire de France, 75005 Paris, France.
| | - Mawa Dafreville
- Cognition Langues Langage Ergonomie (CLLE), Université de Toulouse, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), 31058 Toulouse, France
| | - Céline Scola
- Aix Marseille Université, Centre de Recherche en Psychologie de la Connaissance, du Langage et de l'Émotion (PSYCLE), EA 3273, 13621 Aix-en-Provence, France
| | - Marianne Jover
- Aix Marseille Université, Centre de Recherche en Psychologie de la Connaissance, du Langage et de l'Émotion (PSYCLE), EA 3273, 13621 Aix-en-Provence, France
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5
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Heesen R, Fröhlich M, Sievers C, Woensdregt M, Dingemanse M. Coordinating social action: a primer for the cross-species investigation of communicative repair. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2022; 377:20210110. [PMID: 35876201 PMCID: PMC9310172 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2021.0110] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/13/2021] [Accepted: 12/06/2021] [Indexed: 09/14/2023] Open
Abstract
Human joint action is inherently cooperative, manifested in the collaborative efforts of participants to minimize communicative trouble through interactive repair. Although interactive repair requires sophisticated cognitive abilities, it can be dissected into basic building blocks shared with non-human animal species. A review of the primate literature shows that interactionally contingent signal sequences are at least common among species of non-human great apes, suggesting a gradual evolution of repair. To pioneer a cross-species assessment of repair this paper aims at (i) identifying necessary precursors of human interactive repair; (ii) proposing a coding framework for its comparative study in humans and non-human species; and (iii) using this framework to analyse examples of interactions of humans (adults/children) and non-human great apes. We hope this paper will serve as a primer for cross-species comparisons of communicative breakdowns and how they are repaired. This article is part of the theme issue 'Revisiting the human 'interaction engine': comparative approaches to social action coordination'.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Marlen Fröhlich
- Department of Anthropology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Paleoanthropology, Institute of Archaeological Sciences, Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironment, University of Tübingen, Germany
| | | | - Marieke Woensdregt
- Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Mark Dingemanse
- Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
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6
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Sievers C. Interaction and ostension: the myth of 4th-order intentionality. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2022; 377:20210105. [PMID: 35876199 PMCID: PMC9310185 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2021.0105] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/27/2021] [Accepted: 03/14/2022] [Indexed: 09/14/2023] Open
Abstract
Research in comparative cognition on allegedly uniquely human capacities considers the identification of these human capacities in other species as one of their main points of inquiry. Capacities are applied in their theoretical descriptions to promising empirical data. The conclusion then often is that even though, on a behavioural level, the human and nonhuman cases appear related, on a cognitive level there is no relation whatsoever because the underlying cognitive states diverge in quality. This result seems dissatisfying for two reasons: (1) there is ample empirical evidence that suggests the presence of the capacities in other species, and (2) the claim that the underlying states diverge often hinges on the reference to the theoretical definitions of these capacities only. This opinion piece focuses on the capacity of ostensive intentional communication to demonstrate that the original theoretical analyses often are not befitting a comparative endeavour and should therefore not be used as pivotal reference within comparative research. An outlook will be provided on more promising approaches to identifying ostensive communication, namely an interactive approach that will allow for ostension to not be perceived as a one-turn signalling behaviour, but as interactive, with the possibility of being established in a trial-and-error manner. This article is part of the theme issue 'Revisiting the human 'interaction engine': comparative approaches to social action coordination'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christine Sievers
- Walter Benjamin Kolleg, University of Bern, 3012 Bern, Switzerland
- Institute of Philosophy, University of Bern, 3012 Bern, Switzerland
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7
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Come with me: experimental evidence for intentional recruitment in Tonkean macaques. Anim Cogn 2022; 25:1505-1515. [PMID: 35570243 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-022-01631-7] [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: 12/02/2021] [Revised: 04/20/2022] [Accepted: 04/22/2022] [Indexed: 11/01/2022]
Abstract
Recruitment is a process by which animals can initiate collective movements: the action of an individual prompts conspecifics to follow. Although it has been hypothesized that animals may be able to intentionally recruit others, there is no experimental evidence of this to date. We tested this hypothesis in two pairs of Tonkean macaques in a situation requiring the subjects to find a food site in a 2800 m2 area, and approach the site together to release rewards. Each subject was informed of the location of either highly or little-valued rewards. We recorded attention-action sequences in which an individual checked that his partner was attending to him before moving, and also simple departures (i.e., not preceded by eye contact). Analyses showed that sequences were more often followed by recruitment and leading the partner to a baited site than simple departures were. Moreover, subjects used attention-action sequences more frequently when informed of the location of the highly valued reward. This may be explained by the fact that the more motivated they were by the expected rewards, the more likely they were to actively recruit their partner. No such effect was found when subjects performed simple departures. We conclude that Tonkean macaques are capable of intentional recruitment because the subjects voluntarily behaved with the goal of influencing their partner's movement: they checked that the partner was paying attention to them and prompted him to follow by moving. Such performances can be accounted for either by associative learning or by intentional communication.
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8
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Schel AM, Bono A, Aychet J, Pika S, Lemasson A. Intentional gestural communication amongst red-capped mangabeys (Cercocebus torquatus). Anim Cogn 2022; 25:1313-1330. [PMID: 35362785 PMCID: PMC9617956 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-022-01615-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/08/2020] [Revised: 01/26/2022] [Accepted: 03/16/2022] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Apes, human’s closest living relatives, are renowned for their intentional and highly flexible use of gestural communication. In stark contrast, evidence for flexible and intentional gestural communication in monkeys is scarce. Here, we investigated the intentionality and flexibility of spontaneous gesture use in red-capped mangabeys (Cercocebus torquatus). We applied established methods used in ape gesture research to analyse whether the body acts produced by a total of 17 individuals living in three different groups in captivity qualified as intentionally produced gesture instances. Results showed that signallers showed all hallmarks of intentionality during the production of 20 out of a total of 21 different types of body acts. These were only produced in the presence of other individuals, and the monkeys showed audience checking, sensitivity to the attentional states of recipients, adjustment of signal modality, and response waiting relative to their production. Moreover, in case of communication failure, the monkeys showed goal persistence, and regarding the production contexts they showed some signs of means–ends dissociation. Therefore, these monkeys are capable of flexible and intentional gestural communication and use this to communicate with conspecifics. Our results corroborate recent findings showing that intentional gestural communication was already present in the monkey lineage of catarrhine primates. We discuss our results in light of the comparative approach towards human language evolution and highlight our finding that these monkeys also showed flexible and intentional use of four ‘free’ manual gesture types.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anne Marijke Schel
- Animal Behaviour and Cognition, Utrecht University, Padualaan 8, 3584 CH, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
| | - Axelle Bono
- Université de Rennes, Normandie Université, CNRS, EthoS (Éthologie Animale et Humaine), UMR 6552, 35000, Rennes, France
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, Universite de Lausanne, Biophore, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Juliette Aychet
- Université de Rennes, Normandie Université, CNRS, EthoS (Éthologie Animale et Humaine), UMR 6552, 35000, Rennes, France
| | - Simone Pika
- Comparative BioCognition, Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Osnabrück, 49076, Osnabrück, Germany
| | - Alban Lemasson
- Université de Rennes, Normandie Université, CNRS, EthoS (Éthologie Animale et Humaine), UMR 6552, 35000, Rennes, France
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9
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Meguerditchian A. On the gestural origins of language: what baboons’ gestures and brain have told us after 15 years of research. ETHOL ECOL EVOL 2022. [DOI: 10.1080/03949370.2022.2044388] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Adrien Meguerditchian
- Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive (LPC) UMR7290, CNRS, Aix-Marseille Université, Institut Language, Communication and the Brain (ILCB), Marseille, France
- Station de Primatologie UAR846, CNRS-CELPHEDIA, Rousset, France
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10
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Dafreville M, Hobaiter C, Guidetti M, Sillam-Dussès D, Bourjade M. Sensitivity to the communicative partner's attentional state: A developmental study on mother-infant dyads in wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii). Am J Primatol 2021; 83:e23339. [PMID: 34633101 DOI: 10.1002/ajp.23339] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/26/2021] [Revised: 09/09/2021] [Accepted: 10/02/2021] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Gestural communication permeates all domains of chimpanzees' social life and is intentional in use. However, we still have only limited information on how young apes develop the sociocognitive skills needed for intentional communication. In this cross-sectional study, we document the development of behavioral adjustment to the recipient's visual attention-considered a hallmark of intentional communication-in wild immature chimpanzees' gestural communication. We studied 11 immature chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii): three infants, four juveniles, and four adolescents gesturing towards their mother. We quantified silent-visual, audible, and contact gestures indexed to maternal visual attention and inattention. We investigated unimodal adjustment, defined by the capacity of young chimpanzees to deploy fewer silent-visual signals when their mothers did not show full visual attention towards them as compared with when they did. We then examined cross-modal adjustment, defined as the capacity of chimpanzees to deploy more audible-or-contact gestures than silent-visual gestures in the condition where their mothers did not show full visual attention as compared to when they did. Our results show a gradual decline in the use of silent-visual gestures when the mother is not visually attentive with increasing age. The absence of silent-visual gesture production toward a visually inattentive recipient (complete unimodal adjustment) was not fully in place until adolescence. Immature chimpanzees used more audible-or-contact gestures than silent-visual ones when their mothers did not show visual attention and vice-versa when they did. This cross-modal adjustment was expressed in juveniles and adolescents but not in infants. Overall, this study shows that infant chimpanzees were limited in their sensitivity to maternal attention when gesturing, whereas adolescent chimpanzees adjusted their communication appropriately. Juveniles present an intermediate pattern with cross-modal adjustment preceding unimodal adjustment and with variability in the age of onset.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Catherine Hobaiter
- Origins of Mind, School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Scotland
| | | | - David Sillam-Dussès
- Laboratoire d'Ethologie Expérimentale et Comparée UR 4443, Université Sorbonne Paris Nord, Villetaneuse, France
| | - Marie Bourjade
- CLLE, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, Toulouse, France.,Institut Universitaire de France, Paris, France
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11
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Rodrigues ED, Marôco J, Frota S. Communicative gestures in 7–12‐month infants: A phylogenetic comparative approach. INFANT AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT 2021. [DOI: 10.1002/icd.2262] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Evelina D. Rodrigues
- Center of Linguistics, School of Arts and Humanities University of Lisbon Lisbon Portugal
- WJCR—William James Center for Research ISPA‐Instituto Universitário Lisbon Portugal
| | - João Marôco
- WJCR—William James Center for Research ISPA‐Instituto Universitário Lisbon Portugal
| | - Sónia Frota
- Center of Linguistics, School of Arts and Humanities University of Lisbon Lisbon Portugal
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12
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Bourjade M, Cochet H, Molesti S, Guidetti M. Is Conceptual Diversity an Advantage for Scientific Inquiry? A Case Study on the Concept of 'Gesture' in Comparative Psychology. Integr Psychol Behav Sci 2021; 54:805-832. [PMID: 32207081 DOI: 10.1007/s12124-020-09516-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
Growing scientific fields often involve multidisciplinary investigations in which the same concepts may have different meanings. Here, we examine the case of 'gesture' in comparative research to depict how conceptual diversity hidden by the label 'gesture' can lead to consistently divergent interpretations in humans and nonhuman primates. We show that definitions of 'gesture' drastically differ regarding the forms of a gesture and the cognitive processes inferred from it, and that these differences emerge from implicit assumptions which have pervasive consequences on the interpretations claimed by researchers. We then demonstrate that implicit assumptions about scientific concepts can be made explicit using a finite set of operational criteria. We argue that developing theoretical definitions systematically associated with operational conceptual boundaries would allow to tackle both the challenges of maintaining high internal coherence within studies and of improving comparability and replicability of scientific results. We thus offer an easy-to-implement conceptual tool that should help ground valid comparisons between studies and serve scientific inquiry.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marie Bourjade
- CLLE - Cognition, Langues, Langage, Ergonomie, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, Toulouse, 31058, France.
| | - Hélène Cochet
- CLLE - Cognition, Langues, Langage, Ergonomie, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, Toulouse, 31058, France
| | - Sandra Molesti
- CLLE - Cognition, Langues, Langage, Ergonomie, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, Toulouse, 31058, France
- PSYCLE EA3273, Aix-Marseille Université, Aix-en-Provence, France
| | - Michèle Guidetti
- CLLE - Cognition, Langues, Langage, Ergonomie, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, Toulouse, 31058, France
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13
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Feline communication strategies when presented with an unsolvable task: the attentional state of the person matters. Anim Cogn 2021; 24:1109-1119. [PMID: 33797625 PMCID: PMC8360888 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-021-01503-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/18/2020] [Revised: 03/01/2021] [Accepted: 03/06/2021] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Research on social cognitive ability in domestic cats is limited. The current study investigated social referencing in cats when exposed to first, a solvable, and then, an unsolvable scenario (i.e., reachable and unreachable treats) in the presence of either an attentive or an inattentive caregiver. Cats expressed more gaze alternation (P = 0.013), but less interaction with the caregiver (P = 0.048) and approached the treat container less frequently (P = 0.017) during the unsolvable test, compared to the solvable test. When in the presence of an attentive caregiver, cats initiated first gaze at the caregiver faster (P = 0.001); gazed at the caregiver for longer (P = 0.034); and approached the treat more frequently (P = 0.040), compared to when the caregiver was inattentive. Significant interaction was observed between test and caregiver’s attentional state on the expression of sequential behavior, a type of showing behavior. Cats exhibited this behavior marginally more with attentive caregivers, compared to inattentive caregivers, but only during the unsolvable test. There was a decrease in sequential behavior during the unsolvable test, compared to solvable test, but this was only seen with inattentive caregivers (P = 0.018). Our results suggest that gaze alternation is a behavior reliably indicating social referencing in cats and that cats’ social communication with humans is affected by the person’s availability for visual interaction.
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14
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De Marco A, Cozzolino R, Thierry B. Coping with mortality: responses of monkeys and great apes to collapsed, inanimate and dead conspecifics. ETHOL ECOL EVOL 2021. [DOI: 10.1080/03949370.2021.1893826] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/25/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Arianna De Marco
- Fondazione Ethoikos, Radicondoli (Siena), Italy
- Parco Faunistico di Piano dell’Abatino, Poggio San Lorenzo (Rieti), Italy
| | | | - Bernard Thierry
- Physiologie de La Reproduction et des Comportements, CNRS, INRAE, Université de Tours, Nouzilly, France
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15
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Castellano-Navarro A, Macanás-Martínez E, Xu Z, Guillén-Salazar F, MacIntosh AJJ, Amici F, Albiach-Serrano A. Japanese Macaques' (Macaca fuscata) sensitivity to human gaze and visual perspective in contexts of threat, cooperation, and competition. Sci Rep 2021; 11:5264. [PMID: 33664316 PMCID: PMC7933183 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-84250-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/17/2020] [Accepted: 02/10/2021] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Gaze sensitivity allows us to interpret the visual perspective of others, inferring their intentions and attentional states. In order to clarify the evolutionary history of this ability, we assessed the response of free-ranging Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) to human gaze in three contexts: threat (Experiment 1), cooperation (Experiment 2), and competition (Experiment 3). Subjects interpreted the direct gaze of an approaching human as a sign of threat, showing a greater flight initiation distance and more threats towards the human in this condition than when the human gazed in another direction. Subjects also adapted their behavior to the attentional cues of a human who gave them food, by for example moving into his visual field. However, the macaques did not seem to take the visual perspective of a human competing with them over food, as they failed to first retrieve the food that was not visible to the human (i.e., located behind an opaque barrier). Our results support the idea that Japanese macaques can respond to a human’s gaze flexibly depending on the context. Moreover, they highlight the importance of studying animal behavior across different species and contexts to better understand the selective pressures that might have led to its evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alba Castellano-Navarro
- Ethology and Animal Welfare Section, Universidad Cardenal Herrera-CEU, CEU Universities, Tirant lo Blanc 7, 46115, Alfara del Patriarca, Valencia, Spain.
| | - Emilio Macanás-Martínez
- Ethology and Animal Welfare Section, Universidad Cardenal Herrera-CEU, CEU Universities, Tirant lo Blanc 7, 46115, Alfara del Patriarca, Valencia, Spain
| | - Zhihong Xu
- Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Kanrin 41-2, Inuyama, Aichi, 484-8506, Japan
| | - Federico Guillén-Salazar
- Ethology and Animal Welfare Section, Universidad Cardenal Herrera-CEU, CEU Universities, Tirant lo Blanc 7, 46115, Alfara del Patriarca, Valencia, Spain
| | - Andrew J J MacIntosh
- Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Kanrin 41-2, Inuyama, Aichi, 484-8506, Japan
| | - Federica Amici
- Research Group Primate Behavioral Ecology, Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103, Leipzig, Germany.,Behavioral Ecology Research Group, Institute of Biology, Faculty of Life Science, University of Leipzig, Talstraße 33, 04103, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Anna Albiach-Serrano
- Ethology and Animal Welfare Section, Universidad Cardenal Herrera-CEU, CEU Universities, Tirant lo Blanc 7, 46115, Alfara del Patriarca, Valencia, Spain
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16
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Red-capped mangabeys (Cercocebus torquatus) adapt their interspecific gestural communication to the recipient's behaviour. Sci Rep 2020; 10:12843. [PMID: 32732945 PMCID: PMC7393380 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-69847-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2020] [Accepted: 07/17/2020] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Sensitivity to recipient’s attention and responsiveness are critical markers of intentional communication. Although previous research showed that ape gestures can be intentional, few studies have yet addressed this question concerning monkeys. Here, we characterise the effect of a recipient’s presence, attentional state and responsiveness on the interspecific gestural communication of captive red-capped mangabeys (Cercocebus torquatus). Previous reports showed that they produced learnt begging gestures towards a human recipient preferentially when the latter was facing them. We used here a novel setup that allows subjects to move around an experimenter and to use different modalities (visual and acoustic) to communicate. We found that when the recipient was not facing them, mangabeys moved to a position in the visual field of their recipient rather than using attention-getters. Interestingly, unlike apes, they did not elaborate their communication visually or acoustically when the experimenter did not respond favourably to their begging. However, our results may suggest that begging gestures were goal-directed, since mangabeys inhibited them when the experimenter was not available to answer immediately (i.e. give a reward). Overall, red-capped mangabeys’ interspecific visual communication presented intentionality features, but their use of begging gestures was less flexible than that of great apes in similar situations.
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Prieur J, Barbu S, Blois‐Heulin C, Lemasson A. The origins of gestures and language: history, current advances and proposed theories. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc 2019; 95:531-554. [DOI: 10.1111/brv.12576] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/24/2019] [Revised: 11/30/2019] [Accepted: 12/03/2019] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Jacques Prieur
- Department of Education and PsychologyComparative Developmental Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin Berlin Germany
- Univ Rennes, Normandie Univ, CNRS, EthoS (Ethologie animale et humaine) – UMR 6552 F‐35380 Paimpont France
| | - Stéphanie Barbu
- Univ Rennes, Normandie Univ, CNRS, EthoS (Ethologie animale et humaine) – UMR 6552 F‐35380 Paimpont France
| | - Catherine Blois‐Heulin
- Univ Rennes, Normandie Univ, CNRS, EthoS (Ethologie animale et humaine) – UMR 6552 F‐35380 Paimpont France
| | - Alban Lemasson
- Univ Rennes, Normandie Univ, CNRS, EthoS (Ethologie animale et humaine) – UMR 6552 F‐35380 Paimpont France
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18
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Gestural communication in olive baboons (Papio anubis): repertoire and intentionality. Anim Cogn 2019; 23:19-40. [DOI: 10.1007/s10071-019-01312-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/16/2019] [Revised: 09/06/2019] [Accepted: 09/21/2019] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
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19
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Abstract
As an increasing number of researchers investigate the cognitive abilities of an ever-wider range of animals, animal cognition is currently among the most exciting fields within animal behavior. Tinbergen would be proud: all four of his approaches are being pursued and we are learning much about how animals collect information and how they use that information to make decisions for their current and future states as well as what animals do not perceive or choose to ignore. Here I provide an overview of this productivity, alighting only briefly on any single example, to showcase the diversity of species, of approaches and the sheer mass of research effort currently under way. We are getting closer to understanding the minds of other animals and the evolution of cognition at an increasingly rapid rate.
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Affiliation(s)
- Susan D Healy
- School of Biology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK
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20
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Fagot J, Boë LJ, Berthomier F, Claidière N, Malassis R, Meguerditchian A, Rey A, Montant M. The baboon: A model for the study of language evolution. J Hum Evol 2018; 126:39-50. [PMID: 30583843 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2018.10.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/16/2018] [Revised: 10/06/2018] [Accepted: 10/15/2018] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
Comparative research on the origins of human language often focuses on a limited number of language-related cognitive functions or anatomical structures that are compared across species. The underlying assumption of this approach is that a single or a limited number of factors may crucially explain how language appeared in the human lineage. Another potentially fruitful approach is to consider human language as the result of a (unique) assemblage of multiple cognitive and anatomical components, some of which are present in other species. This paper is a first step in that direction. It focuses on the baboon, a non-human primate that has been studied extensively for years, including several brain, anatomical, cognitive and cultural dimensions that are involved in human language. This paper presents recent data collected on baboons regarding (1) a selection of domain-general cognitive functions that are core functions for language, (2) vocal production, (3) gestural production and cerebral lateralization, and (4) cumulative culture. In all these domains, it shows that the baboons share with humans many cognitive or brain mechanisms which are central for language. Because of the multidimensionality of the knowledge accumulated on the baboon, that species is an excellent nonhuman primate model for the study of the evolutionary origins of language.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joël Fagot
- Laboratory of Cognitive Psychology, CNRS and Aix-Marseille University, Marseille, France.
| | | | | | - Nicolas Claidière
- Laboratory of Cognitive Psychology, CNRS and Aix-Marseille University, Marseille, France
| | - Raphaelle Malassis
- Laboratory of Cognitive Psychology, CNRS and Aix-Marseille University, Marseille, France
| | - Adrien Meguerditchian
- Laboratory of Cognitive Psychology, CNRS and Aix-Marseille University, Marseille, France
| | - Arnaud Rey
- Laboratory of Cognitive Psychology, CNRS and Aix-Marseille University, Marseille, France
| | - Marie Montant
- Laboratory of Cognitive Psychology, CNRS and Aix-Marseille University, Marseille, France
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21
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Manipulating social cues in baboon gesture learning: what does it tell us about the evolution of communication? Anim Cogn 2018; 22:113-125. [DOI: 10.1007/s10071-018-1227-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/22/2018] [Revised: 11/07/2018] [Accepted: 11/24/2018] [Indexed: 02/05/2023]
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22
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Liebal K, Schneider C, Errson-Lembeck M. How primates acquire their gestures: evaluating current theories and evidence. Anim Cogn 2018; 22:473-486. [DOI: 10.1007/s10071-018-1187-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/06/2017] [Revised: 04/09/2018] [Accepted: 04/30/2018] [Indexed: 10/17/2022]
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23
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Deshpande A, Gupta S, Sinha A. Intentional communication between wild bonnet macaques and humans. Sci Rep 2018; 8:5147. [PMID: 29650972 PMCID: PMC5897542 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-22928-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/15/2016] [Accepted: 03/05/2018] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Comparative studies of nonhuman communication systems could provide insights into the origins and evolution of a distinct dimension of human language: intentionality. Recent studies have provided evidence for intentional communication in different species but generally in captive settings. We report here a novel behaviour of food requesting from humans displayed by wild bonnet macaques Macaca radiata, an Old World cercopithecine primate, in the Bandipur National Park of southern India. Using both natural observations and field experiments, we examined four different behavioural components—coo-calls, hand-extension gesture, orientation, and monitoring behaviour—of food requesting for their conformity with the established criteria of intentional communication. Our results suggest that food requesting by bonnet macaques is potentially an intentionally produced behavioural strategy as all the food requesting behaviours except coo-calls qualify the criteria for intentionality. We comment on plausible hypotheses for the origin and spread of this novel behavioural strategy in the study macaque population and speculate that the cognitive precursors for language production may be manifest in the usage of combination of signals of different modalities in communication, which could have emerged in simians earlier than in the anthropoid apes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adwait Deshpande
- Consciousness Studies Programme, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, India.
| | - Shreejata Gupta
- Animal Behaviour and Cognition Programme, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, India
| | - Anindya Sinha
- Consciousness Studies Programme, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, India.,Animal Behaviour and Cognition Programme, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, India.,Primate Programme, Nature Conservation Foundation, Mysore, India.,Centre for Neuroscience, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India.,Dhole's Den Research Foundation, Bandipur National Park, Karnataka, India
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24
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Meunier H. The Pertinence of Studying Neuroethology in Nonhuman Primates for Human Behavior in Groups and Organizations. ORGANIZATIONAL RESEARCH METHODS 2018. [DOI: 10.1177/1094428118756741] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Are we the only living beings endowed with a complex communicative system and sharp sociocognitive skills? How did these remarkable abilities develop? Even raised several centuries ago, those questions are still nourishing the current research and debates. A relevant approach for identifying the dynamics in the evolution of humans’ social and communicative abilities appears to study our closest living relatives, the nonhuman primates. In this article I focus on two abilities that drove the building of our unique sociality and are still playing a crucial role in daily human behaviors in groups and organizations: (a) the origins of human language, through the study of nonhuman primates gestures, vocalizations, and facial expressions and (b) the precursors and underpinning neural mechanisms of our ability to assess others’ mental states, that is, theory of mind. In each part, examples illustrate the advantages and limitations of the different methodological approaches used in research on nonhuman primates’ communication and social abilities and discuss the results in light of the current hypotheses and still open debates on what make the singularity of our species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hélène Meunier
- Centre de Primatologie de l’Université de Strasbourg, Fort Foch, Niederhausbergen, France
- Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives et Adaptatives (LNCA), Université de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France
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25
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Fischer J, Price T. Meaning, intention, and inference in primate vocal communication. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2017; 82:22-31. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2016.10.014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 73] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/08/2016] [Revised: 09/20/2016] [Accepted: 10/18/2016] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
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26
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Gonseth C, Kawakami F, Ichino E, Tomonaga M. The higher the farther: distance-specific referential gestures in chimpanzees ( Pan troglodytes). Biol Lett 2017; 13:20170398. [PMID: 29142043 PMCID: PMC5719372 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2017.0398] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/20/2017] [Accepted: 10/25/2017] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Referential signals, such as manual pointing or deictic words, allow individuals to efficiently locate a specific entity in the environment, using distance-specific linguistic and/or gestural units. To explore the evolutionary prerequisites of such deictic ability, the present study investigates the ability of chimpanzees to adjust their communicative signals to the distance of a referent. A food-request paradigm in which the chimpanzees had to request a close or distant piece of food on a table in the presence/absence of an experimenter was employed. Our main finding concerns the chimpanzees adjusting their requesting behaviours to the distance of the food such that higher manual gestures and larger mouth openings were used to request the distant piece of food. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate that chimpanzees are able to use distance-specific gestures.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chloe Gonseth
- Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Inuyama 484-8506, Japan
| | - Fumito Kawakami
- Kyoto University Institute for Advanced Study, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan
| | - Etsuko Ichino
- Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Inuyama 484-8506, Japan
| | - Masaki Tomonaga
- Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Inuyama 484-8506, Japan
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27
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28
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Lucca K, MacLean EL, Hare B. The development and flexibility of gaze alternations in bonobos and chimpanzees. Dev Sci 2017; 21:e12598. [PMID: 28812318 DOI: 10.1111/desc.12598] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/27/2017] [Accepted: 06/19/2017] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Infants' early gaze alternations are one of their first steps towards a sophisticated understanding of the social world. This ability, to gaze alternate between an object of interest and another individual also attending to that object, has been considered foundational to the development of many complex social-cognitive abilities, such as theory of mind and language. However, to understand the evolution of these abilities, it is important to identify whether and how gaze alternations are used and develop in our closest living relatives, bonobos (Pan paniscus) and chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Here, we evaluated the development of gaze alternations in a large, developmental sample of bonobos (N = 17) and chimpanzees (N = 35). To assess the flexibility of ape gaze alternations, we tested whether they produced gaze alternations when requesting food from a human who was either visually attentive or visually inattentive. Similarly to human infants, both bonobos and chimpanzees produced gaze alternations, and did so more frequently when a human communicative partner was visually attentive. However, unlike humans, who gaze alternate frequently from early in development, chimpanzees did not begin to gaze alternate frequently until adulthood. Bonobos produced very few gaze alternations, regardless of age. Thus, it may be the early emergence of gaze alternations, as opposed gaze alternations themselves, that is derived in the human lineage. The distinctively early emergence of gaze alternations in humans may be a critical underpinning for the development of complex human social-cognitive abilities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kelsey Lucca
- Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Evan L MacLean
- School of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
| | - Brian Hare
- Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
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29
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Lamaury A, Cochet H, Bourjade M. Acquisition of joint attention by olive baboons gesturing toward humans. Anim Cogn 2017; 22:567-575. [PMID: 28695348 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-017-1111-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/20/2017] [Revised: 06/13/2017] [Accepted: 07/04/2017] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Abstract
Joint attention is a core ability of human social cognition which broadly refers to the coordination of attention with both the presence and activity of social partners. In both human and non-human primates, joint attention can be assessed from behaviour; gestures and gaze alternation between the partner and a distal object are standard behavioural manifestations of joint attention. Here we examined the acquisition of joint attention in olive baboons as a function of their individual experience of a human partner's attentional states during training regimes. Eleven olive baboons (Papio anubis) were observed during their training to perform food-requesting gestures, which occurred either by (1) a human facing them (face condition), or (2) by a human positioned in profile who never turned to them (profile condition). We found neither gestures nor gaze alternation were present at the start of the training but rather developed over the training period. Only baboons in the face condition showed an increase in the number of gaze alternations, and their gaze pattern progressively shifted to a coordinated sequence in which gazes and gestures were coordinated in time. In contrast, baboons trained by a human in profile showed significantly less coordination of gazes with gestures but still learned to request food with their gestures. These results suggest that the partner's social attention plays an important role in the acquisition of visual joint attention and, to a lesser extent, in gesture learning in baboons. Interspecific interactions appear to offer rich opportunities to manipulate and thus identify the social contexts in which socio-communicative skills develop.
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Affiliation(s)
- Augustine Lamaury
- UMR 5263 Cognition Langues Langage Ergonomie - Laboratoire Travail et Cognition (CLLE-LTC) Maison de la recherche C-616, Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès, 5 allées Antonio Machado, 31058, Toulouse Cedex, France
| | - Hélène Cochet
- UMR 5263 Cognition Langues Langage Ergonomie - Laboratoire Travail et Cognition (CLLE-LTC) Maison de la recherche C-616, Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès, 5 allées Antonio Machado, 31058, Toulouse Cedex, France
| | - Marie Bourjade
- UMR 5263 Cognition Langues Langage Ergonomie - Laboratoire Travail et Cognition (CLLE-LTC) Maison de la recherche C-616, Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès, 5 allées Antonio Machado, 31058, Toulouse Cedex, France.
- Station de Primatologie UPS 846, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Rousset, France.
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30
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Marie D, Roth M, Lacoste R, Nazarian B, Bertello A, Anton JL, Hopkins WD, Margiotoudi K, Love SA, Meguerditchian A. Left Brain Asymmetry of the Planum Temporale in a Nonhominid Primate: Redefining the Origin of Brain Specialization for Language. Cereb Cortex 2017; 28:1808-1815. [DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhx096] [Citation(s) in RCA: 42] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/02/2016] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Damien Marie
- Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive, UMR7290, Université Aix-Marseille, CNRS, 13331 Marseille, France
- Station de Primatologie CNRS, UPS846, 13790 Rousset, France
| | - Muriel Roth
- Institut des Neurosciences de la Timone, UMR7289, Université Aix-Marseille, CNRS, 13005 Marseille, France
| | - Romain Lacoste
- Station de Primatologie CNRS, UPS846, 13790 Rousset, France
| | - Bruno Nazarian
- Institut des Neurosciences de la Timone, UMR7289, Université Aix-Marseille, CNRS, 13005 Marseille, France
| | - Alice Bertello
- Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive, UMR7290, Université Aix-Marseille, CNRS, 13331 Marseille, France
- Station de Primatologie CNRS, UPS846, 13790 Rousset, France
| | - Jean-Luc Anton
- Institut des Neurosciences de la Timone, UMR7289, Université Aix-Marseille, CNRS, 13005 Marseille, France
| | - William D Hopkins
- The Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA
- Neuroscience Institute and the Language Research Center, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30302, USA
- IMéRA – Institut d’Etudes Avancées, Université Aix-Marseille, 13004 Marseille, France
- Brain & Language Research Institute, Université Aix-Marseille, CNRS, 13604 Aix-en-Provence, France
| | - Konstantina Margiotoudi
- Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive, UMR7290, Université Aix-Marseille, CNRS, 13331 Marseille, France
- Station de Primatologie CNRS, UPS846, 13790 Rousset, France
| | - Scott A Love
- Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive, UMR7290, Université Aix-Marseille, CNRS, 13331 Marseille, France
- Station de Primatologie CNRS, UPS846, 13790 Rousset, France
- Institut des Neurosciences de la Timone, UMR7289, Université Aix-Marseille, CNRS, 13005 Marseille, France
| | - Adrien Meguerditchian
- Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive, UMR7290, Université Aix-Marseille, CNRS, 13331 Marseille, France
- Station de Primatologie CNRS, UPS846, 13790 Rousset, France
- Brain & Language Research Institute, Université Aix-Marseille, CNRS, 13604 Aix-en-Provence, France
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31
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Nawroth C, McElligott AG. Human head orientation and eye visibility as indicators of attention for goats ( Capra hircus). PeerJ 2017; 5:e3073. [PMID: 28289568 PMCID: PMC5346283 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.3073] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/16/2016] [Accepted: 02/07/2017] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Animals domesticated for working closely with humans (e.g. dogs) have been shown to be remarkable in adjusting their behaviour to human attentional stance. However, there is little evidence for this form of information perception in species domesticated for production rather than companionship. We tested domestic ungulates (goats) for their ability to differentiate attentional states of humans. In the first experiment, we investigated the effect of body and head orientation of one human experimenter on approach behaviour by goats. Test subjects (N = 24) significantly changed their behaviour when the experimenter turned its back to the subjects, but did not take into account head orientation alone. In the second experiment, goats (N = 24) could choose to approach one of two experimenters, while only one was paying attention to them. Goats preferred to approach humans that oriented their body and head towards the subject, whereas head orientation alone had no effect on choice behaviour. In the third experiment, goats (N = 32) were transferred to a separate test arena and were rewarded for approaching two experimenters providing a food reward during training trials. In subsequent probe test trials, goats had to choose between the two experimenters differing in their attentional states. Like in Experiments 1 and 2, goats did not show a preference for the attentive person when the inattentive person turned her head away from the subject. In this last experiment, goats preferred to approach the attentive person compared to a person who closed their eyes or covered the whole face with a blind. However, goats showed no preference when one person covered only the eyes. Our results show that animals bred for production rather than companionship show differences in their approach and choice behaviour depending on human attentive state. However, our results contrast with previous findings regarding the use of the head orientation to attribute attention and show the importance of cross-validating results.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christian Nawroth
- Biological and Experimental Psychology, School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London , London, UK
| | - Alan G McElligott
- Biological and Experimental Psychology, School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London , London, UK
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32
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Meunier H. Do monkeys have a theory of mind? How to answer the question? Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2016; 82:110-123. [PMID: 27871788 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2016.11.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/27/2016] [Revised: 10/22/2016] [Accepted: 11/09/2016] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
Since Premack and Woodruf (1978), the study of mindreading abilities in nonhumans, especially primates, has been thoroughly investigated. But attempts to understand the evolution of this aspect of human intelligence have mainly focused on comparisons between apes and human infants, while relatively little is known about the abilities of monkeys. This lack of data on monkeys seems mainly due to the hypothesis of a cognitive "gap" between apes and monkeys. However, in recent years monkeys have been featuring more prominently in the landscape of social cognition research, and some of these systematic studies appear promising. This paper reviews i) current knowledge about monkeys' socio-cognitive abilities, especially regarding gaze processing, attention and intention reading, and perspective-taking, ii) alternative hypotheses regarding the underlying mechanisms of such complex behaviors, and iii) potential new perspectives and future directions for studying ToM in monkeys.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hélène Meunier
- Centre de Primatologie de l'Université de Strasbourg, 67207 Niederhausbergen, France; Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives et Adaptatives, UMR 7364, CNRS et Université de Strasbourg, France.
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33
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Savalli C, Resende B, Gaunet F. Eye Contact Is Crucial for Referential Communication in Pet Dogs. PLoS One 2016; 11:e0162161. [PMID: 27626933 PMCID: PMC5023129 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0162161] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/27/2015] [Accepted: 08/18/2016] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Dogs discriminate human direction of attention cues, such as body, gaze, head and eye orientation, in several circumstances. Eye contact particularly seems to provide information on human readiness to communicate; when there is such an ostensive cue, dogs tend to follow human communicative gestures more often. However, little is known about how such cues influence the production of communicative signals (e.g. gaze alternation and sustained gaze) in dogs. In the current study, in order to get an unreachable food, dogs needed to communicate with their owners in several conditions that differ according to the direction of owners’ visual cues, namely gaze, head, eyes, and availability to make eye contact. Results provided evidence that pet dogs did not rely on details of owners’ direction of visual attention. Instead, they relied on the whole combination of visual cues and especially on the owners’ availability to make eye contact. Dogs increased visual communicative behaviors when they established eye contact with their owners, a different strategy compared to apes and baboons, that intensify vocalizations and gestures when human is not visually attending. The difference in strategy is possibly due to distinct status: domesticated vs wild. Results are discussed taking into account the ecological relevance of the task since pet dogs live in human environment and face similar situations on a daily basis during their lives.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carine Savalli
- Department of Public Policies and Collective Health, Federal University of São Paulo, Santos, São Paulo, Brazil
- * E-mail:
| | - Briseida Resende
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Florence Gaunet
- Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive, Aix-Marseille Université, Marseille, France
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34
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Parron C, Meguerditchian A. Gaze following in baboons (Papio anubis): juveniles adjust their gaze and body position to human's head redirections. Am J Primatol 2016; 78:1265-1271. [DOI: 10.1002/ajp.22580] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/16/2016] [Revised: 05/12/2016] [Accepted: 06/16/2016] [Indexed: 02/05/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Carole Parron
- Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive; CNRS/Aix-Marseille Université; Marseille France
- Station de Primatologie de Rousset; CNRS; Rousset France
| | - Adrien Meguerditchian
- Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive; CNRS/Aix-Marseille Université; Marseille France
- Station de Primatologie de Rousset; CNRS; Rousset France
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35
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Not here, there! Possible referential gesturing during allogrooming by wild bonnet macaques, Macaca radiata. Anim Cogn 2016; 19:1243-1248. [DOI: 10.1007/s10071-016-1012-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/18/2016] [Revised: 06/21/2016] [Accepted: 06/28/2016] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
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Malavasi R, Huber L. Evidence of heterospecific referential communication from domestic horses (Equus caballus) to humans. Anim Cogn 2016; 19:899-909. [PMID: 27098164 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-016-0987-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 45] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/07/2015] [Revised: 03/04/2016] [Accepted: 04/13/2016] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Referential communication occurs when a sender elaborates its gestures to direct the attention of a recipient to its role in pursuit of the desired goal, e.g. by pointing or showing an object, thereby informing the recipient what it wants. If the gesture is successful, the sender and the recipient focus their attention simultaneously on a third entity, the target. Here we investigated the ability of domestic horses (Equus caballus) to communicate referentially with a human observer about the location of a desired target, a bucket of food out of reach. In order to test six operational criteria of referential communication, we manipulated the recipient's (experimenter) attentional state in four experimental conditions: frontally oriented, backward oriented, walking away from the arena and frontally oriented with other helpers present in the arena. The rate of gaze alternation was higher in the frontally oriented condition than in all the others. The horses appeared to use both indicative (pointing) and non-indicative (nods and shakes) head gestures in the relevant test conditions. Horses also elaborated their communication by switching from a visual to a tactile signal and demonstrated perseverance in their communication. The results of the tests revealed that horses used referential gestures to manipulate the attention of a human recipient so to obtain an unreachable resource. These are the first such findings in an ungulate species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rachele Malavasi
- Study Center for Ethical Equitation, Equiluna A.S.D., Moncigoli Di Fivizzano, MS, Italy.
| | - Ludwig Huber
- Comparative Cognition, Messerli Research Institute, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Medical University of Vienna, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
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Maille A, Schradin C. Ecophysiology of cognition: How do environmentally induced changes in physiology affect cognitive performance? Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc 2016; 92:1101-1112. [PMID: 27020603 DOI: 10.1111/brv.12270] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/16/2015] [Revised: 02/29/2016] [Accepted: 03/01/2016] [Indexed: 12/29/2022]
Abstract
Cognitive performance is based on brain functions, which have energetic demands and are modulated by physiological parameters such as metabolic hormones. As both environmental demands and environmental energy availability change seasonally, we propose that cognitive performance in free-living animals might also change seasonally due to phenotypic plasticity. This is part of an emerging research field, the 'ecophysiology of cognition': environmentally induced changes in physiological traits, such as blood glucose and hormone levels, are predicted to influence cognitive performance in free-living animals. Energy availability for the brain might change, and as such cognition, with changing energetic demands (e.g. reproduction) and changes of energy availability in the environment (e.g. winter, drought). Individuals spending more energy than they can currently obtain from their environment (allostatic overload type I) are expected to trade off energy investment between cognition and other life-sustaining processes or even reproduction. Environmental changes reducing energy availability might thus impair cognition. However, selection pressures such as predation risk, mate choice or social demands may act on the trade-off between energy saving and cognition. We assume that different environmental conditions can lead to three different trade-off outcomes: cognitive impairment, resilience or enhancement. Currently we cannot understand these trade-offs, because we lack information about changes in cognitive performance due to seasonal changes in energy availability and both the resulting changes in homeostasis (for example, blood glucose levels) and the associated changes in the mechanisms of allostasis (for example, hormone levels). Additionally, so far we know little about the fitness consequences of individual variation in cognitive performance. General cognitive abilities, such as attention and associative learning, might be more important in determining fitness than complex and specialized cognitive abilities, and easier to use for comparative study in a large number of species. We propose to study seasonal changes in cognitive performance depending on energy availability in populations facing different predation risks, and the resulting fitness consequences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Audrey Maille
- IPHC-DEPE, Université de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, 67087, France.,CNRS, UMR7178, Strasbourg, 67087, France.,School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, Wits, 2050, South Africa.,UMR 7206 Eco-anthropologie et Ethnobiologie, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, site du Musée de l'Homme, 17 place du trocadéro, Paris, 75016, France.,Département des Jardins Botaniques et Zoologiques, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, 57 rue Cuvier, Paris, 75005, France
| | - Carsten Schradin
- IPHC-DEPE, Université de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, 67087, France.,CNRS, UMR7178, Strasbourg, 67087, France.,School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, Wits, 2050, South Africa.,University of Strasbourg Institute for Advanced Study (USIAS), Strasbourg, F-67083, France
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'Goats that stare at men'--revisited: do dwarf goats alter their behaviour in response to eye visibility and head direction of a human? Anim Cogn 2016; 19:667-72. [PMID: 26820558 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-016-0957-6] [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: 07/06/2015] [Revised: 12/18/2015] [Accepted: 01/15/2016] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
Abstract
Being able to recognise when one is being observed by someone else is thought to be adaptive during cooperative or competitive events. In particular for prey species, this ability should be of use in the context of predation. A previous study reported that goats (Capra aegagrus hircus) alter their behaviour according to the body and head orientation of a human experimenter. During a food anticipation task, an experimenter remained in a particular posture for 30 s before delivering a reward, and the goats' active anticipation and standing alert behaviour were analysed. To further evaluate the specific mechanisms at work, we here present two additional test conditions. In particular, we investigated the effects of the eye visibility and head orientation of a human experimenter on the behaviour of the goats (N = 7). We found that the level of the subjects' active anticipatory behaviour was highest in the conditions where the experimenter was directing his head and body towards the goat ('Control' and 'Eyes closed' conditions), but the anticipatory behaviour was significantly decreased when the body ('Head only') or the head and body of the experimenter were directed away from the subject ('Back' condition). For standing alert, we found no significant differences between the three conditions in which the experimenter was directing his head towards the subject ('Control', 'Eyes closed' and 'Head only'). This lack of differences in the expression of standing alert suggests that goats evaluate the direction of a human's head as an important cue in their anticipatory behaviour. However, goats did not respond to the visibility of the experimenter's eyes alone.
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Genty E, Neumann C, Zuberbühler K. Bonobos modify communication signals according to recipient familiarity. Sci Rep 2015; 5:16442. [PMID: 26552655 PMCID: PMC4639733 DOI: 10.1038/srep16442] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/02/2015] [Accepted: 10/14/2015] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Human and nonhuman primate communication differs in various ways. In particular, humans base communicative efforts on mutual knowledge and conventions shared between interlocutors. In this study, we experimentally tested whether bonobos (Pan paniscus), a close relative to humans, are able to take into account the familiarity, i.e. the shared interaction history, when communicating with a human partner. In five experimental conditions we found that subjects took the recipients' attentional state and their own communicative effectiveness into account by adjusting signal production accordingly. More importantly, in case of communicative failure, subjects repeated previously successful signals more often with a familiar than unfamiliar recipient, with whom they had no previous interactions, and elaborated by switching to new signals more with the unfamiliar than the familiar one, similar to what has previously been found in two year-old children. We discuss these findings in relation to the human capacity to establish common ground between interlocutors, a crucial aspect of human cooperative communication.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emilie Genty
- Department of Comparative Cognition, Institute of Biology, University of Neuchâtel, rue Emile Argand 11, 2000 Neuchâtel, Switzerland
| | - Christof Neumann
- Department of Comparative Cognition, Institute of Biology, University of Neuchâtel, rue Emile Argand 11, 2000 Neuchâtel, Switzerland
| | - Klaus Zuberbühler
- Department of Comparative Cognition, Institute of Biology, University of Neuchâtel, rue Emile Argand 11, 2000 Neuchâtel, Switzerland
- School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, KY16 9JP, Scotland (UK)
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Intentional gestural communication and discrimination of human attentional states in rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta). Anim Cogn 2015; 18:875-83. [PMID: 25749401 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-015-0856-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/12/2014] [Revised: 02/10/2015] [Accepted: 03/02/2015] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Abstract
The present study tested intentionality of a learned begging gesture and attention-reading abilities in rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta). Subjects were trained to produce a begging gesture towards a hidden food reward that could be delivered by a human experimenter. More specifically, we investigated which attentional cues--body, face and/or eyes orientation of a human partner--were taken into account by the macaques in order to communicate with her. Our results provide strong evidence of intentional communication: the monkeys adjusted their behaviour to that of the partner. The latter's attentional state influenced the monkeys' likelihood of performing begging gestures and showing gaze alternation between the partner and the hidden food. By contrast, we found no evidence of attention-getting behaviours, persistence or elaboration of new communicative behaviours. Our results also showed that rhesus macaques discriminated gross cues including the presence, body and face orientation of the human experimenter but not her eyes. However, the monkeys emitted more gaze alternation and monitored the human's attentional state more closely when she also displayed gaze alternation, suggesting an important role of joint attention in gestural communication.
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Do Tonkean macaques (Macaca tonkeana) tailor their gestural and visual signals to fit the attentional states of a human partner? Anim Cogn 2014; 18:451-61. [DOI: 10.1007/s10071-014-0814-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2014] [Revised: 09/26/2014] [Accepted: 10/07/2014] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
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Training experience in gestures affects the display of social gaze in baboons' communication with a human. Anim Cogn 2014; 18:239-50. [PMID: 25138999 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-014-0793-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/29/2014] [Revised: 06/12/2014] [Accepted: 07/30/2014] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
Abstract
Gaze behaviour, notably the alternation of gaze between distal objects and social partners that accompanies primates' gestural communication is considered a standard indicator of intentionality. However, the developmental precursors of gaze behaviour in primates' communication are not well understood. Here, we capitalized on the training in gestures dispensed to olive baboons (Papio anubis) as a way of manipulating individual communicative experience with humans. We aimed to delineate the effects of such a training experience on gaze behaviour displayed by the monkeys in relation with gestural requests. Using a food-requesting paradigm, we compared subjects trained in requesting gestures (i.e. trained subjects) to naïve subjects (i.e. control subjects) for their occurrences of (1) gaze behaviour, (2) requesting gestures and (3) temporal combination of gaze alternation with gestures. We found that training did not affect the frequencies of looking at the human's face, looking at food or alternating gaze. Hence, social gaze behaviour occurs independently from the amount of communicative experience with humans. However, trained baboons-gesturing more than control subjects-exhibited most gaze alternation combined with gestures, whereas control baboons did not. By reinforcing the display of gaze alternation along with gestures, we suggest that training may have served to enhance the communicative function of hand gestures. Finally, this study brings the first quantitative report of monkeys producing requesting gestures without explicit training by humans (controls). These results may open a window on the developmental mechanisms (i.e. incidental learning vs. training) underpinning gestural intentional communication in primates.
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Lack of evidence that Tonkean macaques understand what others can hear. Anim Cogn 2014; 18:251-8. [PMID: 25120070 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-014-0795-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/20/2014] [Accepted: 07/30/2014] [Indexed: 02/05/2023]
Abstract
By distinguishing the attentional cues of their mates, animals can learn what part of their environment is of potential interest. However, recognizing the attentional states of others through auditory perception appears to be difficult, since these states are generally not accompanied by ostensive signals liable to reveal them. In this context, one study found that rhesus macaques withhold their action when unobserved, then concluding that they know what others can hear. We replicated this study by testing 18 Tonkean macaques in an experimental setting where subjects had to choose between two boxes containing a food reward. One box made a noise when opened, and the other opened silently. An experimenter was present and could either have her back to subjects or be facing them. If subjects aimed to avoid attracting the experimenter's attention, they were expected to select the silent box while the experimenter's back was turned. Results showed that subjects did not discriminate between boxes, whatever the experimenter's position. We thus found no evidence that Tonkean macaques are able to take the auditory attentional states of a human into account. It is therefore premature to conclude that monkeys can establish a link between hearing and knowing.
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‘Goats that stare at men’: dwarf goats alter their behaviour in response to human head orientation, but do not spontaneously use head direction as a cue in a food-related context. Anim Cogn 2014; 18:65-73. [DOI: 10.1007/s10071-014-0777-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/04/2014] [Revised: 06/05/2014] [Accepted: 06/24/2014] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
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