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Author Whiten, A.
Title The second inheritance system of chimpanzees and humans Type Journal Article
Year 2005 Publication Nature Abbreviated Journal Nature
Volume 437 Issue 7055 Pages 52-55
Keywords (up) Animals; Animals, Wild/physiology/psychology; Behavior, Animal/*physiology; *Culture; Female; Humans; Imitative Behavior; Learning/*physiology; Pan troglodytes/*physiology/psychology; *Social Behavior; Technology
Abstract Half a century of dedicated field research has brought us from ignorance of our closest relatives to the discovery that chimpanzee communities resemble human cultures in possessing suites of local traditions that uniquely identify them. The collaborative effort required to establish this picture parallels the one set up to sequence the chimpanzee genome, and has revealed a complex social inheritance system that complements the genetic picture we are now developing.
Address Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, and Scottish Primate Research Group, School of Psychology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9JP, UK. a.whiten@st-and.ac.uk
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 1476-4687 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:16136127 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 730
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Author Janik, V.M.
Title Whistle matching in wild bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) Type Journal Article
Year 2000 Publication Science (New York, N.Y.) Abbreviated Journal Science
Volume 289 Issue 5483 Pages 1355-1357
Keywords (up) Animals; Animals, Wild/physiology; Dolphins/*physiology; *Imitative Behavior; *Learning; *Social Behavior; *Vocalization, Animal
Abstract Dolphin communication is suspected to be complex, on the basis of their call repertoires, cognitive abilities, and ability to modify signals through vocal learning. Because of the difficulties involved in observing and recording individual cetaceans, very little is known about how they use their calls. This report shows that wild, unrestrained bottlenose dolphins use their learned whistles in matching interactions, in which an individual responds to a whistle of a conspecific by emitting the same whistle type. Vocal matching occurred over distances of up to 580 meters and is indicative of animals addressing each other individually.
Address School of Biology, University of St. Andrews, Bute Building, Fife KY16 9TS, UK
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 0036-8075 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:10958783 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 550
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Author Lonsdorf, E.V.
Title What is the role of mothers in the acquisition of termite-fishing behaviors in wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii)? Type Journal Article
Year 2006 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.
Volume 9 Issue 1 Pages 36-46
Keywords (up) Animals; Animals, Wild; *Behavior, Animal; Cooking and Eating Utensils; Feeding Behavior/*psychology; Female; *Imitative Behavior; Learning; Mothers/*psychology; Motor Skills; Pan troglodytes/*psychology; Problem Solving
Abstract This paper explores the role of maternal influences on the acquisition of a tool-using task in wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) in order to build on and complement previous work done in captivity. Young chimpanzees show a long period of offspring dependency on mothers and it is during this period that offspring learn several important skills, especially how to and on what to forage. At Gombe National Park, one skill that is acquired during dependency is termite-fishing, a complex behavior that involves inserting a tool made from the surrounding vegetation into a termite mound and extracting the termites that attack and cling to the tool. All chimpanzees observed at Gombe have acquired the termite-fishing skill by the age of 5.5 years. Since the mother is the primary source of information throughout this time period, I investigated the influence of mothers' individual termite-fishing characteristics on their offsprings' speed of acquisition and proficiency at the skill once acquired. Mother's time spent alone or with maternal family members, which is highly correlated to time spent termite-fishing, was positively correlated to offspring's acquisition of critical elements of the skill. I also investigated the specific types of social interactions that occur between mothers and offspring at the termite mound and found that mothers are highly tolerant to offspring, even when the behavior of the offspring may disrupt the termite-fishing attempt. However, no active facilitation by mothers of offsprings' attempts were observed.
Address Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA. elonsdorf@lpzoo.org
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 1435-9448 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:16195914 Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2480
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Author Whiten, A.
Title Imitation of the sequential structure of actions by chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) Type Journal Article
Year 1998 Publication Journal of comparative psychology (Washington, D.C. : 1983) Abbreviated Journal J Comp Psychol
Volume 112 Issue 3 Pages 270-281
Keywords (up) Animals; Appetitive Behavior/physiology; *Ceremonial Behavior; Exploratory Behavior/physiology; Female; Fruit; Imitative Behavior/*physiology; Learning/*physiology; Male; Pan troglodytes/*psychology; Practice (Psychology); Problem Solving/*physiology
Abstract Imitation was studied experimentally by allowing chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) to observe alternative patterns of actions for opening a specially designed “artificial fruit.” Like problematic foods primates deal with naturally, with the test fruit several defenses had to be removed to gain access to an edible core, but the sequential order and method of defense removal could be systematically varied. Each subject repeatedly observed 1 of 2 alternative techniques for removing each defense and 1 of 2 alternative sequential patterns of defense removal. Imitation of sequential organization emerged after repeated cycles of demonstration and attempts at opening the fruit. Imitation in chimpanzees may thus have some power to produce cultural convergence, counter to the supposition that individual learning processes corrupt copied actions. Imitation of sequential organization was accompanied by imitation of some aspects of the techniques that made up the sequence.
Address Scottish Primate Research Group, School of Psychology, University of St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland. a.whiten@st-andrews.ac.uk
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 0735-7036 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:9770315 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 743
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Author Akins, C.K.; Zentall, T.R.
Title Imitative learning in male Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica) using the two-action method Type Journal Article
Year 1996 Publication Journal of comparative psychology (Washington, D.C. : 1983) Abbreviated Journal J Comp Psychol
Volume 110 Issue 3 Pages 316-320
Keywords (up) Animals; Appetitive Behavior; *Attention; *Coturnix; *Imitative Behavior; Male; *Motivation; Transfer (Psychology)
Abstract The study of imitative learning in animals has suffered from the presence of a number of confounding motivational and attentional factors (e.g., social facilitation and stimulus enhancement). The two-action method avoids these problems by exposing observers to demonstrators performing a response (e.g., operating a treadle) using 1 of 2 distinctive topographies (e.g., by pecking or by stepping). Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica) observers exposed to conspecific demonstrators showed a high correlation between the topography of the response they observed and the response they performed. These data provide strong evidence for the existence of true imitative learning in an active, precocious bird under conditions that control for alternative accounts.
Address Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, Lexington 40506-0044, USA
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 0735-7036 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:8858851 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 254
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Author Akins, C.K.; Klein, E.D.; Zentall, T.R.
Title Imitative learning in Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica) using the bidirectional control procedure Type Journal Article
Year 2002 Publication Animal learning & behavior Abbreviated Journal Anim Learn Behav
Volume 30 Issue 3 Pages 275-281
Keywords (up) Animals; Attention; Behavior, Animal; Coturnix; *Discrimination Learning; *Imitative Behavior; Male; Smell
Abstract In the bidirectional control procedure, observers are exposed to a conspecific demonstrator responding to a manipulandum in one of two directions (e.g., left vs. right). This procedure controls for socially mediated effects (the mere presence of a conspecific) and stimulus enhancement (attention drawn to a manipulandum by its movement), and it has the added advantage of being symmetrical (the two different responses are similar in topography). Imitative learning is demonstrated when the observers make the response in the direction that they observed it being made. Recently, however, it has been suggested that when such evidence is found with a predominantly olfactory animal, such as the rat, it may result artifactually from odor cues left on one side of the manipulandum by the demonstrator. In the present experiment, we found that Japanese quail, for which odor cues are not likely to play a role, also showed significant correspondence between the direction in which the demonstrator and the observer push a screen to gain access to reward. Furthermore, control quail that observed the screen move, when the movement of the screen was not produced by the demonstrator, did not show similar correspondence between the direction of screen movement observed and that performed by the observer. Thus, with the appropriate control, the bidirectional procedure appears to be useful for studying imitation in avian species.
Address University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40506-0044, USA
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 0090-4996 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:12391793 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 239
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Author Biederman, G.B.; Robertson, H.A.; Vanayan, M.
Title Observational learning of two visual discriminations by pigeons: a within-subjects design Type Journal Article
Year 1986 Publication Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior Abbreviated Journal J Exp Anal Behav
Volume 46 Issue 1 Pages 45-49
Keywords (up) Animals; Attention; Columbidae; Conditioning, Operant; Cues; *Discrimination Learning; *Imitative Behavior; Male; Visual Perception
Abstract Pigeon's observational learning of successive visual discrimination was studied using within-subject comparisons of data from three experimental conditions. Two pairs of discriminative stimuli were used; each bird was exposed to two of the three experimental conditions, with different pairs of stimuli used in a given bird's two conditions. In one condition, observers were exposed to visual discriminative stimuli only. In a second condition, subjects were exposed to a randomly alternating sequence of two stimuli where the one that would subsequently be used as S+ was paired with the operation of the grain magazine. In a third experimental condition, subjects were exposed to the performance of a conspecific in the operant discrimination procedure. After exposures to conspecific performances, there was facilitation of discriminative learning, relative to that which followed exposures to stimulus and reinforcement sequences or exposures to stimulus sequences alone. Exposure to stimulus and food-delivery sequences enhanced performance relative to exposure to stimulus sequences alone. The differential effects of these three types of exposure were not attributable to order effects or to task difficulty; rather, they clearly were due to the type of exposure.
Address
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 0022-5002 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:3746187 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 853
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Author Stoinski, T.S.; Wrate, J.L.; Ure, N.; Whiten, A.
Title Imitative learning by captive western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) in a simulated food-processing task Type Journal Article
Year 2001 Publication Journal of comparative psychology (Washington, D.C. : 1983) Abbreviated Journal J Comp Psychol
Volume 115 Issue 3 Pages 272-281
Keywords (up) Animals; Behavior, Animal/physiology; *Discrimination Learning; Feeding Behavior/*physiology; Gorilla gorilla; *Imitative Behavior; Social Behavior
Abstract Although field studies have suggested the existence of cultural transmission of foraging techniques in primates, identification of transmission mechanisms has remained elusive. To test experimentally for evidence of imitation in the current study, we exposed gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) to an artificial fruit foraging task designed by A. Whiten and D. M. Custance (1996). Gorillas (n=6) watched a human model remove a series of 3 defenses around a fruit. Each of the defenses was removed using 1 of 2 alternative techniques. Subsequent video analysis of gorillas' behavior showed a significant tendency to copy the observed technique on 1 of the individual defenses and the direction of removal on another defense. This is the first statistically reliable evidence of imitation in gorillas. Sequence of defense removal was not replicated. The gorillas' responses were most similar to those of chimpanzees.
Address TECHlab, Zoo Atlanta, Georgia 30315, USA. stoinskit@mindspring.com
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 0735-7036 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:11594496 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 738
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Author Dorrance, B.R.; Zentall, T.R.
Title Imitation of conditional discriminations in pigeons (Columba livia) Type Journal Article
Year 2002 Publication Journal of comparative psychology (Washington, D.C. : 1983) Abbreviated Journal J Comp Psychol
Volume 116 Issue 3 Pages 277-285
Keywords (up) Animals; Behavior, Animal/physiology; Columbidae; Conditioning (Psychology)/*physiology; Discrimination Learning/*physiology; Habituation, Psychophysiologic; *Imitative Behavior; Light; Reinforcement (Psychology)
Abstract In the present experiments, the 2-action method was used to determine whether pigeons could learn to imitate a conditional discrimination. Demonstrator pigeons (Columba livia) stepped on a treadle in the presence of 1 light and pecked at the treadle in the presence of another light. Demonstration did not seem to affect acquisition of the conditional discrimination (Experiment 1) but did facilitate its reversal of the conditional discrimination (Experiments 2 and 3). The results suggest that pigeons are not only able to learn a specific behavior by observing another pigeon, but they can also learn under which circumstances to perform that behavior. The results have implications for proposed mechanisms of imitation in animals.
Address Department of Psychology, Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois 61201, USA. psdorrance@augustana.edu
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 0735-7036 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:12234078 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 240
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Author Nguyen, N.H.; Klein, E.D.; Zentall, T.R.
Title Imitation of a two-action sequence by pigeons Type Journal Article
Year 2005 Publication Psychonomic bulletin & review Abbreviated Journal Psychon Bull Rev
Volume 12 Issue 3 Pages 514-518
Keywords (up) Animals; Behavior, Animal; *Cognition; Columbidae; *Imitative Behavior; *Learning
Abstract Developmental psychologists have described imitation as a process that suggests perspective-taking abilities. However, imitative behavior has been found in animals, which are generally not considered capable of taking the perspective of another. Previous studies with birds have demonstrated the imitation of a single response (sometimes referred to as action-level imitation). In the present experiment, we examined the extent to which pigeons would imitate an unfamiliar sequence of two behaviors (sometimes referred to as program-level imitation). Our results indicate that, although there are individual differences, pigeons show a significant tendency to match a demonstrated sequence of behavior involving, first, a response to a treadle (pecking at it or stepping on it) and, second, pushing aside a screen that blocks access to food (a left-vs.-right push).
Address University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40506, USA
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 1069-9384 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:16235638 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 221
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