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Author Meunier, H.; Leca, J.B.; Deneubourg, J.L.; Petit, O. doi  openurl
  Title Group movement decisions in capuchin monkeys: the utility of an experimental study and a mathematical model to explore the relationship between individual and collective behaviours Type Journal Article
  Year 2006 Publication Behaviour Abbreviated Journal Behaviour  
  Volume 143 Issue Pages 1511-1527  
  Keywords animal society – collective decision-making – primates – group movement – mathematical modeling  
  Abstract In primate groups, collective movements are typically described as processes dependent on leadership mechanisms. However, in some species, decision-making includes negotiations and distributed leadership. These facts suggest that simple underlying processes may explain certain decision mechanisms during collective movements. To study such processes, we have designed experiments on white-faced capuchin monkeys (Cebus capucinus) during which we provoked collective movements involving a binary choice. These experiments enabled us to analyse the spatial decisions of individuals in the group. We found that the underlying process includes anonymous mimetism, which means that each individual may influence all members of the group. To support this result, we created a mathematical model issued from our experimental data. A totally anonymous model does not fit perfectly with our experimental distribution. A more individualised model, which takes into account the specific behaviour of social peripheral individuals, revealed the validity of the mimetism hypothesis. Even though white-faced capuchins have complex cognitive abilities, a coexistence of anonymous and social mechanisms appears to influence their choice of direction during collective movements. The present approach may offer vital insights into the relationships between individual behaviours and their emergent collective acts.  
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  Call Number Serial 2066  
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Author Whiten, A. openurl 
  Title Social complexity and social intelligence Type Conference Article
  Year 2000 Publication Novartis Foundation Symposium Abbreviated Journal Novartis Found Symp  
  Volume 233 Issue Pages 185-96; discussion 196-201  
  Keywords Animals; Brain/anatomy & histology/*physiology; Humans; *Intelligence/physiology; Learning; Models, Psychological; Primates; *Social Behavior; Social Problems  
  Abstract When we talk of the 'nature of intelligence', or any other attribute, we may be referring to its essential structure, or to its place in nature, particularly the function it has evolved to serve. Here I examine both, from the perspective of the evolution of intelligence in primates. Over the last 20 years, the Social (or 'Machiavellian') Intelligence Hypothesis has gained empirical support. Its core claim is that the intelligence of primates is primarily an adaptation to the special complexities of primate social life. In addition to this hypothesis about the function of intellect, a secondary claim is that the very structure of intelligence has been moulded to be 'social' in character, an idea that presents a challenge to orthodox views of intelligence as a general-purpose capacity. I shall outline the principal components of social intelligence and the environment of social complexity it engages with. This raises the question of whether domain specificity is an appropriate characterization of social intelligence and its subcomponents, like theory of mind. As a counter-argument to such specificity I consider the hypothesis that great apes exhibit a cluster of advanced cognitive abilities that rest on a shared capacity for second-order mental representation.  
  Address School of Psychology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9JU, UK  
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  Language English Summary Language Original Title (up)  
  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 1528-2511 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:11276903 Approved no  
  Call Number Serial 2084  
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Author Barrett, L.; Henzi, P. doi  openurl
  Title The social nature of primate cognition Type Journal Article
  Year 2005 Publication Proceedings. Biological Sciences / The Royal Society Abbreviated Journal Proc Biol Sci  
  Volume 272 Issue 1575 Pages 1865-1875  
  Keywords Animals; Brain/anatomy & histology/*physiology; Cognition/*physiology; *Evolution; Intelligence/*physiology; Primates/*physiology; *Social Behavior  
  Abstract The hypothesis that the enlarged brain size of the primates was selected for by social, rather than purely ecological, factors has been strongly influential in studies of primate cognition and behaviour over the past two decades. However, the Machiavellian intelligence hypothesis, also known as the social brain hypothesis, tends to emphasize certain traits and behaviours, like exploitation and deception, at the expense of others, such as tolerance and behavioural coordination, and therefore presents only one view of how social life may shape cognition. This review outlines work from other relevant disciplines, including evolutionary economics, cognitive science and neurophysiology, to illustrate how these can be used to build a more general theoretical framework, incorporating notions of embodied and distributed cognition, in which to situate questions concerning the evolution of primate social cognition.  
  Address School of Biological Sciences, University of Liverpool, Crown Street, Liverpool L69 7ZB, UK. louiseb@liv.ac.uk  
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  Language English Summary Language Original Title (up)  
  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0962-8452 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:16191591 Approved no  
  Call Number Serial 2086  
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Author Hoff, M.P.; Powell, D.M.; Lukas, K.E.; Maple, T.L. url  doi
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  Title Individual and social behavior of lowland gorillas in outdoor exhibits compared with indoor holding areas Type Journal Article
  Year 1997 Publication Applied Animal Behaviour Science Abbreviated Journal Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci.  
  Volume 54 Issue 4 Pages 359-370  
  Keywords Behavior; Agonistic behavior; Spatial distribution; Primates; Social behavior; Housing; Zoo animals; Gorilla  
  Abstract The behavior of nine lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) living in three social groups at Zoo Atlanta was compared in an indoor holding area versus an outdoor exhibit. Focal animal data were collected for each animal during 15 min observation sessions, alternating between indoors and outdoors. A variety of solitary and social behaviors differed in the two conditions. All individual and social behaviors that showed a difference, except eating, occurred more indoors than outdoors. These included aggressive displays, reclining, self manipulation, and social examination of others. Additionally, the gorillas spent more time closer together in the indoor condition. A variety of other behaviors measured did not change between the two environments. There was a clear effect on behavior of the different housing conditions in which the gorillas were kept. It is suggested that the differences in aggressive behavior may be related to environmental complexity. It is further suggested that zoos should be aware that differences in behavior reported by caretaking staff, researchers and visitors may be a reflection of the differing environmental circumstances in which the animals are observed.  
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  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Serial 2143  
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Author Reader, S.M.; Laland, K.N. doi  openurl
  Title Social intelligence, innovation, and enhanced brain size in primates Type Journal Article
  Year 2002 Publication Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Abbreviated Journal Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.  
  Volume 99 Issue 7 Pages 4436-4441  
  Keywords Animals; Brain/*anatomy & histology; Evolution; *Intelligence; Learning; Primates/*anatomy & histology/*psychology; Social Behavior  
  Abstract Despite considerable current interest in the evolution of intelligence, the intuitively appealing notion that brain volume and “intelligence” are linked remains untested. Here, we use ecologically relevant measures of cognitive ability, the reported incidence of behavioral innovation, social learning, and tool use, to show that brain size and cognitive capacity are indeed correlated. A comparative analysis of 533 instances of innovation, 445 observations of social learning, and 607 episodes of tool use established that social learning, innovation, and tool use frequencies are positively correlated with species' relative and absolute “executive” brain volumes, after controlling for phylogeny and research effort. Moreover, innovation and social learning frequencies covary across species, in conflict with the view that there is an evolutionary tradeoff between reliance on individual experience and social cues. These findings provide an empirical link between behavioral innovation, social learning capacities, and brain size in mammals. The ability to learn from others, invent new behaviors, and use tools may have played pivotal roles in primate brain evolution.  
  Address Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, High Street, Madingley, Cambridge CB3 8AA, United Kingdom  
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  Language English Summary Language Original Title (up)  
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  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0027-8424 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:11891325 Approved no  
  Call Number Serial 2149  
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Author Bshary, R.; Wickler, W.; Fricke, H. doi  openurl
  Title Fish cognition: a primate's eye view Type Journal Article
  Year 2002 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.  
  Volume 5 Issue 1 Pages 1-13  
  Keywords Animals; Cognition/*physiology; Evolution; Fishes/*physiology; Intelligence; Learning; Primates/*physiology; Social Behavior  
  Abstract We provide selected examples from the fish literature of phenomena found in fish that are currently being examined in discussions of cognitive abilities and evolution of neocortex size in primates. In the context of social intelligence, we looked at living in individualized groups and corresponding social strategies, social learning and tradition, and co-operative hunting. Regarding environmental intelligence, we searched for examples concerning special foraging skills, tool use, cognitive maps, memory, anti-predator behaviour, and the manipulation of the environment. Most phenomena of interest for primatologists are found in fish as well. We therefore conclude that more detailed studies on decision rules and mechanisms are necessary to test for differences between the cognitive abilities of primates and other taxa. Cognitive research can benefit from future fish studies in three ways: first, as fish are highly variable in their ecology, they can be used to determine the specific ecological factors that select for the evolution of specific cognitive abilities. Second, for the same reason they can be used to investigate the link between cognitive abilities and the enlargement of specific brain areas. Third, decision rules used by fish could be used as 'null-hypotheses' for primatologists looking at how monkeys might make their decisions. Finally, we propose a variety of fish species that we think are most promising as study objects.  
  Address University of Cambridge, Department of Zoology, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK. rb286@cam.ac.uk  
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  ISSN 1435-9448 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes PMID:11957395 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2617  
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Author Marino, L. doi  openurl
  Title Convergence of complex cognitive abilities in cetaceans and primates Type Journal Article
  Year 2002 Publication Brain, Behavior and Evolution Abbreviated Journal Brain Behav Evol  
  Volume 59 Issue 1-2 Pages 21-32  
  Keywords Animal Communication; Animals; Brain/physiology; Cerebral Cortex/physiology; Cetacea/*physiology; Cognition/*physiology; *Evolution; Humans; Intelligence; Primates/*physiology  
  Abstract What examples of convergence in higher-level complex cognitive characteristics exist in the animal kingdom? In this paper I will provide evidence that convergent intelligence has occurred in two distantly related mammalian taxa. One of these is the order Cetacea (dolphins, whales and porpoises) and the other is our own order Primates, and in particular the suborder anthropoid primates (monkeys, apes, and humans). Despite a deep evolutionary divergence, adaptation to physically dissimilar environments, and very different neuroanatomical organization, some primates and cetaceans show striking convergence in social behavior, artificial 'language' comprehension, and self-recognition ability. Taken together, these findings have important implications for understanding the generality and specificity of those processes that underlie cognition in different species and the nature of the evolution of intelligence.  
  Address Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology Program, Emory University, Atlanta, Ga. 30322, USA. lmarino@emory.edu  
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  ISSN 0006-8977 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes PMID:12097858 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4158  
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Author Boyd, R.; Richerson, P.J. url  openurl
  Title Why Culture is Common, but Cultural Evolution is Rare Type Journal Article
  Year 1996 Publication Proceedings of the British Academy Abbreviated Journal Proc Br Acad  
  Volume 88 Issue Pages 73-93  
  Keywords cultural distributed evolution primates  
  Abstract If culture is defined as variation acquired and maintained by social learning, then culture is common in nature. However, cumulative cultural evolution resulting in behaviors that no individual could invent on their own is limited to humans, song birds, and perhaps chimpanzees. Circumstantial evidence suggests that cumulative cultural evolution requires the capacity for observational learning. Here, we analyze two models the evolution of psychological capacities that allow cumulative cultural evolution. Both models suggest that the conditions which allow the evolution of such capacities when rare are much more stringent than the conditions which allow the maintenance of the capacities when common. This result follows from the fact that the assumed benefit of the capacities, cumulative cultural adaptation, cannot occur when the capacities are rare. These results suggest why such capacities may be rare in nature.  
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  Notes http://www.proc.britac.ac.uk/cgi-bin/somsid.cgi?page=summaries/pba88#boyd Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4195  
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Author Janson, C.; Byrne, R. url  doi
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  Title What wild primates know about resources: opening up the black box Type Journal Article
  Year 2007 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.  
  Volume 10 Issue 3 Pages 357-367  
  Keywords Cognitive map – Primate – Foraging – Ecology – Psychology  
  Abstract Abstract  We present the theoretical and practical difficulties of inferring the cognitive processes involved in spatial movement decisions of primates and other animals based on studies of their foraging behavior in the wild. Because the possible cognitive processes involved in foraging are not known a priori for a given species, some observed spatial movements could be consistent with a large number of processes ranging from simple undirected search processes to strategic goal-oriented travel. Two basic approaches can help to reveal the cognitive processes: (1) experiments designed to test specific mechanisms; (2) comparison of observed movements with predicted ones based on models of hypothesized foraging modes (ideally, quantitative ones). We describe how these two approaches have been applied to evidence for spatial knowledge of resources in primates, and for various hypothesized goals of spatial decisions in primates, reviewing what is now established. We conclude with a synthesis emphasizing what kinds of spatial movement data on unmanipulated primate populations in the wild are most useful in deciphering goal-oriented processes from random processes. Basic to all of these is an estimate of the animals ability to detect resources during search. Given knowledge of the animals detection ability, there are several observable patterns of resource use incompatible with a pure search process. These patterns include increasing movement speed when approaching versus leaving a resource, increasingly directed movement toward more valuable resources, and directed travel to distant resources from many starting locations. Thus, it should be possible to assess and compare spatial cognition across a variety of primate species and thus trace its ecological and evolutionary correlates.  
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  Call Number Admin @ knut @ Serial 4214  
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Author Müller, A. E.; Thalmann, U. url  openurl
  Title Origin and evolution of primate social organisation: a reconstruction Type Journal Article
  Year 2000 Publication Biological Reviews Abbreviated Journal  
  Volume 75 Issue Pages 405-435  
  Keywords social organisation; evolution; ancestral primate; strepsirhines; nocturnal prosimians; lemurs; lorisiforms; dispersed multi-male system; promiscuity.  
  Abstract Abstract

The evolution and origin of primate social organisation has attracted the attention of many researchers, and a solitary pattern, believed to be present in most nocturnal prosimians, has been generally considered as the most primitive system. Nocturnal prosimians are in fact mostly seen alone during their nightly activities and therefore termed “solitary foragers”, but that does not mean that they are not social. Moreover, designating their social organisation as “solitary”, implies that their way of life is uniform in all species. It has, however, emerged over the last decades that all of them exhibit not only some kind of social network but also that those networks differ among species. There is a need to classify these social networks in the same manner as with group-living (gregarious) animals if we wish to link up the different forms of primate social organisation with ecological, morphological or phylogenetic variables. In this review, we establish a basic classification based on spatial relations and sociality in order to describe and cope properly with the social organisation patterns of the different species of nocturnal prosimians and other mammals that do not forage in cohesive groups. In attempting to trace the ancestral pattern of primate social organisation, the Malagasy mouse and dwarf lemurs and the Afro-Asian bushbabies and lorises are of special interest because they are thought to approach the ancestral conditions most closely. These species have generally been believed to exhibit a dispersed harem system as their pattern of social organisation (“dispersed” means that individuals forage solitarily but exhibit a social network). Therefore, the ancestral pattern of primate social organisation was inferred to be a dispersed harem. In fact, new field data on cheirogaleids combined with a review of patterns of social organisation in strepsirhines (lemurs, bushbabies and lorises) revealed that they exhibit either dispersed multi-male systems or dispersed monogamy rather than a dispersed harem system. Therefore, the concept of a dispersed harem system as the ancestral condition of primate social organisation can no longer be supported. In combination with data on social organisation patterns in “primitive” placentals and marsupials, and in monotremes, it is in fact most probable that promiscuity is the ancestral pattern for mammalian social organisation. Subsequently, a dispersed multi-male system derived from promiscuity should be regarded as the ancestral condition for primates. We further suggest that the gregarious patterns of social organisation in Aotus and Avahi, and the dispersed form in Tarsius evolved from the gregarious patterns of diurnal primates rather than from the dispersed nocturnal type. It is consequently proposed that, in addition to Aotus and Tarsius, Avahi is also secondarily nocturnal.
 
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  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4257  
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