1
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Li X, Yow WQ. Younger, not older, children trust an inaccurate human informant more than an inaccurate robot informant. Child Dev 2024; 95:988-1000. [PMID: 38041211 DOI: 10.1111/cdev.14048] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/05/2023] [Revised: 10/30/2023] [Accepted: 11/15/2023] [Indexed: 12/03/2023]
Abstract
This study examined preschoolers' trust toward accurate and inaccurate robot informants versus human informants. Singaporean children aged 3-5 years (N = 120, 57 girls, mostly Asian; data collected from 2017 to 2018) viewed either a robot or a human adult label familiar objects either accurately or inaccurately. Children's trust was assessed by examining their subsequent willingness to accept novel object labels provided by the same informant. Regardless of age, children trusted accurate robots to a similar extent as accurate humans. However, while older children (dis)trusted inaccurate robots and humans comparably, younger children trusted inaccurate robots less than inaccurate humans. The results indicate a developmental change in children's reliance on informants' characteristics to decide whom to trust.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaoqian Li
- Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore
| | - W Quin Yow
- Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore
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2
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Baumann AE, Goldman EJ, Cobos MGM, Poulin-Dubois D. Do preschoolers trust a competent robot pointer? J Exp Child Psychol 2024; 238:105783. [PMID: 37804786 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2023.105783] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/15/2023] [Revised: 08/09/2023] [Accepted: 09/07/2023] [Indexed: 10/09/2023]
Abstract
How young children learn from different informants has been widely studied. However, most studies investigate how children learn verbally conveyed information. Furthermore, most studies investigate how children learn from humans. This study sought to investigate how 3-year-old children learn from, and come to trust, a competent robot versus an incompetent human when competency is established using a pointing paradigm. During an induction phase, a robot informant pointed at a toy inside a transparent box, whereas a human pointed at an empty box. During the test phase, both agents pointed at opaque boxes. We found that young children asked the robot for help to locate a hidden toy more than the human (ask questions) and correctly identified the robot to be accurate (judgment questions). However, children equally endorsed the locations pointed at by both the robot and the human (endorse questions). This suggests that 3-year-olds are sensitive to the epistemic characteristics of the informant even when its displayed social properties are minimal.
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3
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Li E, Campbell C, Midgley N, Luyten P. Epistemic trust: a comprehensive review of empirical insights and implications for developmental psychopathology. RESEARCH IN PSYCHOTHERAPY (MILANO) 2023; 26:704. [PMID: 38156560 PMCID: PMC10772859 DOI: 10.4081/ripppo.2023.704] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/07/2023] [Accepted: 10/27/2023] [Indexed: 12/30/2023]
Abstract
Originally rooted in philosophy and sociology, the concept of epistemic trust has recently transitioned to developmental psychopathology, illuminating social-cognitive processes in psychopathology. This narrative review synthesizes empirical evidence on epistemic trust to inform future research. A literature search highlighted 3 areas: i) the development of selective trust in children; ii) epistemic trust in non-clinical adults; iii) its link to mental health. Young children demonstrate selective learning from reliable sources using epistemic cues. Empirical studies beyond childhood were greatly facilitated in the last 2 years with the introduction of the Epistemic Trust, Mistrust and Credulity Questionnaire, a self-report scale measuring epistemic stance. Cross-sectional studies pinpointed dysfunctional epistemic strategies as factors in mental health vulnerability, and some qualitative work offered initial evidence linking restored epistemic trust to effective psychotherapy. For future research, we propose focusing on 3 primary areas. First, empirical investigations in adolescent samples are needed, as adolescence seems to be a pivotal phase in the development of epistemic trust. Second, more experimental research is required to assess dysfunctional and functional epistemic stances and how they relate to vulnerability to mental health disorders. Finally, intervention studies should explore the dynamics of epistemic stances within and between therapy sessions and their impact on therapeutic outcomes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elizabeth Li
- Research Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College London; Anna Freud Centre, London.
| | - Chloe Campbell
- Research Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College London; Anna Freud Centre, London.
| | - Nick Midgley
- Research Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College London; Anna Freud Centre, London.
| | - Patrick Luyten
- Research Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College London, United Kingdom; Anna Freud Centre, London, United Kingdom; Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Leuven.
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4
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Wang C, Wang Z. The effects of model age and familiarity on children's reproduction of ritual behaviour. BRITISH JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY 2023; 41:259-275. [PMID: 37019847 DOI: 10.1111/bjdp.12448] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/30/2022] [Accepted: 03/23/2023] [Indexed: 04/07/2023]
Abstract
Rituals are fundamental social acts that structure relationships and enable the filtering of important cognitive attributes (e.g. working memory and inhibitory control) that make humans what they are today. This study investigated the influence of model age and familiarity on the reproduction of ritual behaviour in five-year-old children. Through an exploration of these factors, this study sheds light on the cognitive mechanisms children use to comprehend and replicate rituals. Ninety-eight five-year-old children were divided into two groups: an experimental group, which observed an adult or child model, either familiar or unfamiliar to them, demonstrating eight ritual acts; and a control group, which received no video demonstration. The results revealed that children who observed an adult reproduced more ritual acts than those who observed a child, and children who observed unfamiliar models reproduced ritual acts more frequently than those who observed familiar ones. Additionally, when exposed to unfamiliar models, children's reproductive fidelity was higher. These findings suggest that children have the ability to address new adaptation challenges by participating in rituals at an early age and that they generate suitable solutions depending on the model's characteristics. This provides evidence for the adaptive bias in children's cultural learning from a ritual perspective.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chang Wang
- School of Education Science, Jiangsu Normal University, Xuzhou, China
| | - Zhidan Wang
- School of Education Science, Jiangsu Normal University, Xuzhou, China
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5
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Dragon M, Poulin-Dubois D. To copy or not to copy: A comparison of selective trust and overimitation in young children. COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT 2023. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cogdev.2023.101316] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/06/2023]
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6
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Stengelin R, Ball R, Maurits L, Kanngiesser P, Haun DBM. Children over-imitate adults and peers more than puppets. Dev Sci 2023; 26:e13303. [PMID: 35818836 DOI: 10.1111/desc.13303] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/12/2021] [Revised: 06/24/2022] [Accepted: 06/28/2022] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Researchers commonly use puppets in development science. Amongst other things, puppets are employed to reduce social hierarchies between child participants and adult experimenters akin to peer interactions. However, it remains controversial whether children treat puppets like real-world social partners in these settings. This study investigated children's imitation of causally irrelevant actions (i.e., over-imitation) performed by puppet, adult, or child models. Seventy-two German children (AgeRange = 4.6-6.5 years; 36 girls) from urban, socioeconomically diverse backgrounds observed a model retrieving stickers from reward containers. The model performed causally irrelevant actions either in contact with the reward container or not. Children were more likely to over-imitate adults' and peers' actions as compared to puppets' actions. Across models, they copied contact actions more than no-contact actions. While children imitate causally irrelevant actions from puppet models to some extent, their social learning from puppets does not necessarily match their social learning from real-world social agents, such as children or adults. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: We examined children's over-imitation from adult, child, and puppet models to validate puppetry as an approach to simulate non-hierarchical interactions. Children imitated adults and child models at slightly higher rates than puppets. This effect was present regardless of whether the irrelevant actions involved physical contact to the reward container or not. In our study children's social learning from puppets does not match their social learning from human models.
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Affiliation(s)
- Roman Stengelin
- Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.,Department of Psychology and Social Work, University of Namibia, Windhoek, Namibia
| | - Rabea Ball
- Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Luke Maurits
- Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | | | - Daniel B M Haun
- Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
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7
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Aboody R, Huey H, Jara-Ettinger J. Preschoolers decide who is knowledgeable, who to inform, and who to trust via a causal understanding of how knowledge relates to action. Cognition 2022; 228:105212. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2022.105212] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/11/2021] [Revised: 05/12/2022] [Accepted: 06/23/2022] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
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8
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Zhang B, Deng Z, Zhang H, Chen Y. Do preschoolers always trust the majority? The influence of familiarity and expertise of a dissenter in a Chinese sample. INFANT AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT 2022. [DOI: 10.1002/icd.2303] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Bixi Zhang
- College of Education Michigan State University East Lansing Michigan USA
| | - Zhijun Deng
- School of Child Development and Education China Women's University Beijing China
| | - Heyi Zhang
- Institute (Department) of Early Childhood Education Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University Beijing China
| | - Yinghe Chen
- Institute of Developmental Psychology School of Psychology, Beijing Normal University Beijing China
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9
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Development of strategic social information seeking: Implications for cumulative culture. PLoS One 2021; 16:e0256605. [PMID: 34428243 PMCID: PMC8384161 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0256605] [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: 03/21/2021] [Accepted: 08/10/2021] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Human learners are rarely the passive recipients of valuable social information. Rather, learners usually have to actively seek out information from a variety of potential others to determine who is in a position to provide useful information. Yet, the majority of developmental social learning paradigms do not address participants’ ability to seek out information for themselves. To investigate age-related changes in children’s ability to seek out appropriate social information, 3- to 8-year-olds (N = 218) were presented with a task requiring them to identify which of four possible demonstrators could provide critical information for unlocking a box. Appropriate information seeking improved significantly with age. The particularly high performance of 7- and 8-year-olds was consistent with the expectation that older children’s increased metacognitive understanding would allow them to identify appropriate information sources. Appropriate social information seeking may have been overlooked as a significant cognitive challenge involved in fully benefiting from others’ knowledge, potentially influencing understanding of the phylogenetic distribution of cumulative culture.
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Nielsen M, Fong FTK, Whiten A. Social learning from media: The need for a culturally diachronic developmental psychology. ADVANCES IN CHILD DEVELOPMENT AND BEHAVIOR 2021; 61:317-334. [PMID: 34266569 DOI: 10.1016/bs.acdb.2021.04.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
Since the proliferation of television sets into households began over half a century ago there has been widespread interest in the impact that viewing has on young children's development. Such interest has grown with the increasing availability of smart phones and tablets. In this review we examine the literature documenting human social learning and how this learning is impacted when the instructing agent appears on a screen instead of face-to-face. We then explore the shifting nature of screen-based media, with a focus on the increasingly socio-normative manner information is portrayed. We discuss how the changing nature of screen technology might be altering how children interpret what they see, and raise the possibility that this may render prevailing evidence as historical documentation, rather than setting out established developmental milestones that transcend the period in which they were documented. We contend that recognizing the significance of historically changing contexts in developmental psychology is timely when the COVID-19 climate is pushing data collection on-line for many labs, often using tasks that were developed primarily for face-to-face contexts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mark Nielsen
- School of Psychology, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD, Australia; Faculty of Humanities, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa.
| | - Frankie T K Fong
- School of Psychology, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD, Australia; Department of Psychology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, United States
| | - Andrew Whiten
- School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, United Kingdom
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11
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Ehmann B, van Schaik CP, Ashbury AM, Mörchen J, Musdarlia H, Utami Atmoko S, van Noordwijk MA, Schuppli C. Immature wild orangutans acquire relevant ecological knowledge through sex-specific attentional biases during social learning. PLoS Biol 2021; 19:e3001173. [PMID: 34010339 PMCID: PMC8133475 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3001173] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/11/2020] [Accepted: 03/05/2021] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
As a part of growing up, immature orangutans must acquire vast repertoires of skills and knowledge, a process that takes several years of observational social learning and subsequent practice. Adult female and male orangutans show behavioral differences including sex-specific foraging patterns and male-biased dispersal. We investigated how these differing life trajectories affect social interest and emerging ecological knowledge in immatures. We analyzed 15 years of detailed observational data on social learning, associations, and diet repertoires of 50 immatures (16 females and 34 males), from 2 orangutan populations. Specific to the feeding context, we found sex differences in the development of social interest: Throughout the dependency period, immature females direct most of their social attention at their mothers, whereas immature males show an increasing attentional preference for individuals other than their mothers. When attending to non-mother individuals, males show a significant bias toward immigrant individuals and a trend for a bias toward adult males. In contrast, females preferentially attend to neighboring residents. Accordingly, by the end of the dependency period, immature females show a larger dietary overlap with their mothers than do immature males. These results suggest that immature orangutans show attentional biases through which they learn from individuals with the most relevant ecological knowledge. Diversifying their skills and knowledge likely helps males when they move to a new area. In sum, our findings underline the importance of fine-grained social inputs for the acquisition of ecological knowledge and skills in orangutans and likely in other apes as well.
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Affiliation(s)
- Beatrice Ehmann
- Department of Anthropology, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
| | | | - Alison M. Ashbury
- Department for the Ecology of Animal Societies, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Konstanz, Germany
- Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany
| | - Julia Mörchen
- Behavioral Ecology Research Group, Institute of Biology, Faculty of Life Science, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
- Research Group Primate Behavioural Ecology, Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Helvi Musdarlia
- Department of Biology, Graduate School, Universitas Nasional, Jakarta, Indonesia
| | - Suci Utami Atmoko
- Faculty of Biology and Primate Research Center, Universitas Nasional, Jakarta, Indonesia
| | | | - Caroline Schuppli
- Department of Anthropology, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
- Leipzig Research Center for Early Child Development, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
- Development and Evolution of Cognition Research Group, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Konstanz, Germany
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12
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Valence or traits? Developmental change in children’s use of facial features to make inferences about others. COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT 2020. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cogdev.2020.100948] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
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13
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Einav S, Levey A, Patel P, Westwood A. Epistemic vigilance online: Textual inaccuracy and children's selective trust in webpages. BRITISH JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY 2020; 38:566-579. [DOI: 10.1111/bjdp.12335] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/19/2019] [Revised: 02/27/2020] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Shiri Einav
- School of Psychology University of Nottingham UK
| | | | - Priya Patel
- School of Psychology University of Nottingham UK
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14
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A cognitive developmental approach is essential to understanding cumulative technological culture. Behav Brain Sci 2020; 43:e159. [DOI: 10.1017/s0140525x20000175] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Abstract
Osiurak and Reynaud argue that children are not a good methodological choice to examine cumulative technological culture (CTC). However, the paper ignores other current work that suggests that young children do display some aspects of creative problem-solving. We argue that using multiple methodologies and examining how technical-reasoning develops in children will provide crucial support for a cognitive approach to CTC.
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15
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Palmquist CM, Cheries EW, DeAngelis ER. Looking smart: Preschoolers’ judgements about knowledge based on facial appearance. BRITISH JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY 2019; 38:31-41. [DOI: 10.1111/bjdp.12303] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/30/2019] [Revised: 08/20/2019] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Affiliation(s)
| | - Erik W. Cheries
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences University of Massachusetts–Amherst Massachusetts USA
| | - Erika R. DeAngelis
- Institute of Child Development University of Minnesota Minneapolis Minnesota USA
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16
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Tong Y, Wang F, Danovitch J. The role of epistemic and social characteristics in children's selective trust: Three meta-analyses. Dev Sci 2019; 23:e12895. [PMID: 31433880 DOI: 10.1111/desc.12895] [Citation(s) in RCA: 42] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/29/2019] [Revised: 06/29/2019] [Accepted: 07/29/2019] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
Abstract
Over the last 15 years, researchers have been increasingly interested in understanding the nature and development of children's selective trust. Three meta-analyses were conducted on a total of 51 unique studies (88 experiments) to provide a quantitative overview of 3- to 6-year-old children's selective trust in an informant based on the informant's epistemic or social characteristics, and to examine the relation between age and children's selective trust decisions. The first and second meta-analyses found that children displayed medium-to-large pooled effects in favor of trusting the informant who was knowledgeable or the informant with positive social characteristics. Moderator analyses revealed that 4-year-olds were more likely to endorse knowledgeable informants than 3-year-olds. The third meta-analysis examined cases where two informants simultaneously differed in their epistemic and social characteristics. The results revealed that 3-year-old children did not selectively endorse informants who were more knowledgeable but had negative social characteristics over informants who were less knowledgeable but had positive social characteristics. However, 4- to 6-year-olds consistently prioritized epistemic cues over social characteristics when deciding who to trust. Together, these meta-analyses suggest that epistemic and social characteristics are both valuable to children when they evaluate the reliability of informants. Moreover, with age, children place greater value on epistemic characteristics when deciding whether to endorse an informant's testimony. Implications for the development of epistemic trust and the design of studies of children's selective trust are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yu Tong
- School of Psychology, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, China
| | - Fuxing Wang
- School of Psychology, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, China
| | - Judith Danovitch
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, USA
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17
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Primates are living links to our past: The contribution of comparative studies with wild vervet monkeys to the field of social cognition. Cortex 2019; 118:65-81. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2019.03.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/30/2018] [Revised: 10/29/2018] [Accepted: 03/13/2019] [Indexed: 01/14/2023]
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18
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Tamariz M. Replication and emergence in cultural transmission. Phys Life Rev 2019; 30:47-71. [PMID: 31005570 DOI: 10.1016/j.plrev.2019.04.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/03/2019] [Accepted: 04/09/2019] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Abstract
Humans are fundamentally defined by our socially transmitted, often long-lived, sophisticated cultural traits. The nature of cultural transmission is the subject of ongoing debate: while some emphasize that it is a biased, transformational process, others point out that high-fidelity transmission is required to explain the quintessentially cumulative nature of human culture. This paper integrates both views into a model that has two main components: First, actions - observable motor-behavioural patterns - are inherited with high fidelity, or replicated, when they are copied, largely independently of their normal, effective or conventional function, by naive learners. Replicative action copying is the unbiased transmission process that ensures the continuity of cultural traditions. Second, mental culture - knowledge, skills, attitudes and values - is not inherited directly or faithfully, but instead emerges, or develops, during usage, when individuals learn the associations between actions and their contexts and outcomes. Mental cultural traits remain stable over generations to the extent that they are informed by similar (replicated) motor patterns unfolding in similar environments. The arguments in support of this model rest on clear distinctions between inheritance and usage; between public-behavioural and private-mental culture; and between selection for fidelity and selection for function.
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Affiliation(s)
- Monica Tamariz
- Psychology, Heriot-Watt University, Riccarton Campus, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, UK.
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19
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Hoehl S, Keupp S, Schleihauf H, McGuigan N, Buttelmann D, Whiten A. ‘Over-imitation’: A review and appraisal of a decade of research. DEVELOPMENTAL REVIEW 2019. [DOI: 10.1016/j.dr.2018.12.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 49] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
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20
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Bono AE, Whiten A, van Schaik C, Krützen M, Eichenberger F, Schnider A, van de Waal E. Payoff- and Sex-Biased Social Learning Interact in a Wild Primate Population. Curr Biol 2018; 28:2800-2805.e4. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2018.06.015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/11/2018] [Revised: 03/23/2018] [Accepted: 06/11/2018] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
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21
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22
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Whiten A, van de Waal E. The pervasive role of social learning in primate lifetime development. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2018; 72:80. [PMID: 29755181 PMCID: PMC5934467 DOI: 10.1007/s00265-018-2489-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 54] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/11/2017] [Revised: 03/22/2018] [Accepted: 03/29/2018] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
In recent decades, an accelerating research effort has exploited a
substantial diversity of methodologies to garner mounting evidence for social
learning and culture in many species of primate. As in humans, the evidence suggests
that the juvenile phases of non-human primates’ lives represent a period of
particular intensity in adaptive learning from others, yet the relevant research
remains scattered in the literature. Accordingly, we here offer what we believe to
be the first substantial collation and review of this body of work and its
implications for the lifetime behavioral ecology of primates. We divide our analysis
into three main phases: a first phase of learning focused on primary attachment
figures, typically the mother; a second phase of selective learning from a widening
array of group members, including some with expertise that the primary figures may
lack; and a third phase following later dispersal, when a migrant individual
encounters new ecological and social circumstances about which the existing
residents possess expertise that can be learned from. Collating a diversity of
discoveries about this lifetime process leads us to conclude that social learning
pervades primate ontogenetic development, importantly shaping locally adaptive
knowledge and skills that span multiple aspects of the behavioral repertoire.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrew Whiten
- 1Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, and Scottish Primate Research Group, School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, KY16 9JP UK
| | - Erica van de Waal
- 2Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
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23
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Harris PL, Bartz DT, Rowe ML. Young children communicate their ignorance and ask questions. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2017; 114:7884-7891. [PMID: 28739959 PMCID: PMC5544273 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1620745114] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Children acquire information, especially about the culture in which they are being raised, by listening to other people. Recent evidence has shown that young children are selective learners who preferentially accept information, especially from informants who are likely to be representative of the surrounding culture. However, the extent to which children understand this process of information transmission and actively exploit it to fill gaps in their knowledge has not been systematically investigated. We review evidence that toddlers exhibit various expressive behaviors when faced with knowledge gaps. They look toward an available adult, convey ignorance via nonverbal gestures (flips/shrugs), and increasingly produce verbal acknowledgments of ignorance ("I don't know"). They also produce comments and questions about what their interlocutors might know and adopt an interrogative stance toward them. Thus, in the second and third years, children actively seek information from interlocutors via nonverbal gestures or verbal questions and display a heightened tendency to encode and retain such sought-after information.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paul L Harris
- Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138
| | - Deborah T Bartz
- Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138
| | - Meredith L Rowe
- Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138
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Abstract
Discoveries about the cultures and cultural capacities of the great apes have played a leading role in the recognition emerging in recent decades that cultural inheritance can be a significant factor in the lives not only of humans but also of nonhuman animals. This prominence derives in part from these primates being those with whom we share the most recent common ancestry, thus offering clues to the origins of our own thoroughgoing reliance on cumulative cultural achievements. In addition, the intense research focus on these species has spawned an unprecedented diversity of complementary methodological approaches, the results of which suggest that cultural phenomena pervade the lives of these apes, with potentially major implications for their broader evolutionary biology. Here I review what this extremely broad array of observational and experimental methodologies has taught us about the cultural lives of chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans and consider the ways in which this knowledge extends our wider understanding of primate biology and the processes of adaptation and evolution that shape it. I address these issues first by evaluating the extent to which the results of cultural inheritance echo a suite of core principles that underlie organic Darwinian evolution but also extend them in new ways and then by assessing the principal causal interactions between the primary, genetically based organic processes of evolution and the secondary system of cultural inheritance that is based on social learning from others.
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