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Author Seyfarth, R.M.; Cheney, D.L. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Social cognition Type Journal Article
  Year 2015 Publication Animal Behaviour Abbreviated Journal  
  Volume 103 Issue Pages 191-202  
  Keywords evolution; fitness; future research; personality; selective pressure; skill; social cognition  
  Abstract The social intelligence hypothesis argues that competition and cooperation among individuals have shaped the evolution of cognition in animals. What do we mean by social cognition? Here we suggest that the building blocks of social cognition are a suite of skills, ordered roughly according to the cognitive demands they place upon individuals. These skills allow an animal to recognize others by various means; to recognize and remember other animals' relationships; and, perhaps, to attribute mental states to them. Some skills are elementary and virtually ubiquitous in the animal kingdom; others are more limited in their taxonomic distribution. We treat these skills as the targets of selection, and assume that more complex levels of social cognition evolve only when simpler methods are inadequate. As a result, more complex levels of social cognition indicate greater selective pressures in the past. The presence of each skill can be tested directly through field observations and experiments. In addition, the same methods that have been used to compare social cognition across species can also be used to measure individual differences within species and to test the hypothesis that individual differences in social cognition are linked to differences in reproductive success.  
  Address  
  Corporate Author Thesis  
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  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0003-3472 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 6025  
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Author Cheney, D. l .; Seyfarth, R. M. url  openurl
  Title Social complexity and the information acquired during eavesdropping by primates and other animals Type Book Chapter
  Year 2004 Publication Animal Communication networks Abbreviated Journal  
  Volume Issue Pages  
  Keywords  
  Abstract In many of the studies reviewed in this book, eavesdropping takes the

following form: a subject has the opportunity to monitor, or eavesdrop upon, an

interaction between two other animals,Aand B. The subject then uses the information

obtained through these observations to assess A`s and B`s relative dominance

or attractiveness as a mate (e.g. Mennill et al., 2002; Ch. 2). For example, Oliveira

et al. (1998) found that male fighting fish Betta splendens that had witnessed two

other males involved in an aggressive interaction subsequently responded more

strongly to the loser of that interaction than the winner. Subjects-behaviour could

not have been influenced by any inherent differences between the two males, because

subjects responded equally strongly to the winner and the loser of competitive

interactions they had not observed. Similarly, Peake et al. (2001) presented

male great tits Parus major with the opportunity to monitor an apparent competitive

interaction between two strangers by simulating a singing contest using two

loudspeakers. The relative timing of the singing bouts (as measured by the degree

of overlap between the two songs) provided information about each “contestants”

relative status. Following the singing interaction, one of the “contestants” was

introduced into the male`s territory. Males responded significantly less strongly

to singers that had apparently just “lost” the interaction (see also McGregor &

Dabelsteen, 1996; Naguib et al., 1999; Ch. 2).

What information does an individual acquire when it eavesdrops on others?

In theory, an eavesdropper could acquire information of many different sorts:

about A, about B, about the relationship between A and B, or about the place of

Animal Communication Networks, ed. Peter K. McGregor. Published by Cambridge University Press.

c.

Cambridge University Press 2005.

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584 D. L. Cheney & R. M. Seyfarth

A`s and B`s relationship in a larger social framework. The exact information acquired

will probably reflect the particular species social structure. For example,

songbirds like great tits live in communities in which six or seven neighbours

surround each territory-holding male. Males appear to benefit from the knowledge

that certain individuals occupy specific areas (e.g. Brooks & Falls, 1975), that

competitive interactions between two different neighbours have particular outcomes,

and that these outcomes are stable over time. We would, therefore, expect

an eavesdropping great tit not only to learn that neighbour A was dominant to

neighbour B, for example, but also to form the expectation that A was likely to

defeat B in all future encounters. More speculatively, because the outcome of territorial

interactions are often site specific (reviewed by Bradbury & Vehrencamp,

1998), we would expect eavesdropping tits to learn further that A dominates B

in some areas but B dominates A in others. In contrast, the information gained

from monitoring neighbours interactions would unlikely be sufficient to allow

the eavesdropper to rank all of its neighbours in a linear dominance hierarchy,

because not all neighbouring males would come into contact with one another.

Such information would be difficult if not impossible to acquire; it might also be

of little functional value.

In contrast, species that live in large, permanent social groups have a much

greater opportunity to monitor the social interactions of many different individuals

simultaneously. Monkey species such as baboons Papio cynocephalus, for

example, typically live in groups of 80 or more individuals, which include several

matrilineal families arranged in a stable, linear dominance rank order (Silk et al.,

1999). Offspring assume ranks similar to those of their mothers, and females maintain

close bonds with their matrilineal kin throughout their lives. Cutting across

these stable long-term relationships based on rank and kinship are more transient

bonds: for example, the temporary associations formed between unrelated

females whose infants are of similar ages, and the “friendships” formed between

adult males and lactating females as an apparent adaptation against infanticide

(Palombit et al., 1997, 2001). In order to compete successfully within such groups, it

would seem advantageous for individuals to recognize who outranks whom, who

is closely bonded to whom, and who is likely to be allied to whom (Harcourt, 1988,

1992; Cheney & Seyfarth, 1990; see below). The ability to adopt a third party`s perspective

and discriminate among the social relationships that exist among others

would seem to be of great selective benefit.

In this chapter, we review evidence for eavesdropping in selected primate

species and we consider what sort of information is acquired when one individual

observes or listens in on the interactions of others. We then compare eavesdropping

by primates with eavesdropping in other animal species, focusing on both

potential differences and directions for further research
 
  Address  
  Corporate Author Thesis  
  Publisher Cambridge University Press Place of Publication Cambridge, Massachusetts Editor McGregor, P.K.  
  Language Summary Language Original Title  
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  ISSN ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 495  
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Author Seyfarth, R.M.; Cheney, D.L. url  openurl
  Title Social Awareness in Monkeys Type Journal Article
  Year 2000 Publication Amer. Zool. Abbreviated Journal  
  Volume 40 Issue 6 Pages 902-909  
  Keywords  
  Abstract Tests of self-awareness in nonhuman primates have to date been concerned almost entirely with the recognition of an animal's reflection in a mirror. By contrast, we know much less about non-human primates' perception of their place within a social network, or of their understanding of themselves as individuals with unique sets of social relationships. Here we review evidence that monkeys who fail the mirror test may nonetheless behave as if they recognize themselves as distinct individuals, each of whom occupies a unique place in society and has a specific set of relations with others. A free-ranging vervet monkey, baboon, or macaque recognizes other members of his group as individuals. He also recognizes matrilineal kin groups, linear dominance rank orders, and behaves as if he recognizes his own unique place within them. This sense of “social self” in monkeys, however, is markedly different from self-awareness in humans. Although monkeys may behave in ways that accurately place themselves within a social network, they are unaware of the knowledge that allows them to do so: they do not know what they know, cannot reflect on what they know, and cannot become the object of their own attention.  
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  Notes 10.1093/icb/40.6.902 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4934  
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Author Silk, J.; Cheney, D.; Seyfarth, R. url  doi
openurl 
  Title A practical guide to the study of social relationships Type Journal Article
  Year 2013 Publication Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews Abbreviated Journal Evol. Anthropol.  
  Volume 22 Issue 5 Pages 213-225  
  Keywords observational methods; behavioral analysis; methods; dyadic relationships; social bonds  
  Abstract Behavioral ecologists have devoted considerable effort to identifying the sources of variation in individual reproductive success. Much of this work has focused on the characteristics of individuals, such as their sex and rank. However, many animals live in stable social groups and the fitness of individuals depends at least in part on the outcome of their interactions with other group members. For example, in many primate species, high dominance rank enhances access to resources and reproductive success. The ability to acquire and maintain high rank often depends on the availability and effectiveness of coalitionary support. Allies may be cultivated and coalitions may be reinforced by affiliative interactions such as grooming, food sharing, and tolerance. These findings suggest that if we want to understand the selective pressures that shape the social behavior of primates, it will be profitable to broaden our focus from the characteristics of individuals to the properties of the relationships that they form with others. The goal of this paper is to discuss a set of methods that can be used to quantify the properties of social relationships.  
  Address  
  Corporate Author Thesis  
  Publisher Place of Publication Editor  
  Language Summary Language Original Title  
  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 1520-6505 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5748  
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Author Cheney, D.; Seyfarth, R.; Smuts, B. doi  openurl
  Title Social relationships and social cognition in nonhuman primates Type Journal Article
  Year 1986 Publication Science (New York, N.Y.) Abbreviated Journal Science  
  Volume 234 Issue 4782 Pages 1361-1366  
  Keywords Animals; *Cognition; Female; Male; Pair Bond; Primates/*physiology; *Social Behavior; Social Dominance; Social Perception  
  Abstract Complex social relationships among nonhuman primates appear to contribute to individual reproductive success. Experiments with and behavioral observations of natural populations suggest that sophisticated cognitive mechanisms may underlie primate social relationships. Similar capacities are usually less apparent in the nonsocial realm, supporting the view that at least some aspects of primate intelligence evolved to solve the challenges of interacting with conspecifics.  
  Address  
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  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:3538419 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 349  
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Author Seyfarth, R.M.; Cheney, D.L. doi  openurl
  Title Grooming, alliances and reciprocal altruism in vervet monkeys Type Journal Article
  Year 1984 Publication Nature Abbreviated Journal Nature  
  Volume 308 Issue 5959 Pages 541-543  
  Keywords *Altruism; Animals; Cercopithecus/*physiology; Cercopithecus aethiops/*physiology; *Grooming; *Social Behavior; Vocalization, Animal  
  Abstract Reciprocal altruism refers to the exchange of beneficial acts between individuals, in which the benefits to the recipient exceed the cost to the altruist. Theory predicts that cooperation among unrelated animals can occur whenever individuals encounter each other regularly and are capable of adjusting their cooperative behaviour according to experience. Although the potential for reciprocal altruism exists in many animal societies, most interactions occur between closely related individuals, and examples of reciprocity among non-kin are rare. The field experiments on vervet monkeys which we present here demonstrate that grooming between unrelated individuals increases the probability that they will subsequently attend to each others' solicitations for aid. Vervets appear to be more willing to aid unrelated individuals if those individuals have behaved affinitively toward them in the recent past. In contrast, recent grooming between close genetic relatives appears to have no effect on their willingness to respond to each other's solicitations for aid.  
  Address  
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  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0028-0836 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:6709060 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 704  
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Author Seyfarth, R.M.; Cheney, D.L.; Bergman, T.J. doi  openurl
  Title Primate social cognition and the origins of language Type Journal Article
  Year 2005 Publication Trends in Cognitive Sciences Abbreviated Journal Trends. Cognit. Sci.  
  Volume 9 Issue 6 Pages 264-266  
  Keywords Animals; *Cognition; Humans; *Language; Papio; Psychological Theory; Social Behavior; *Social Perception  
  Abstract Are the cognitive mechanisms underlying language unique, or can similar mechanisms be found in other domains? Recent field experiments demonstrate that baboons' knowledge of their companions' social relationships is based on discrete-valued traits (identity, rank, kinship) that are combined to create a representation of social relations that is hierarchically structured, open-ended, rule-governed, and independent of sensory modality. The mechanisms underlying language might have evolved from the social knowledge of our pre-linguistic primate ancestors.  
  Address Departments of Biology and Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. seyfarth@psych.upenn.edu  
  Corporate Author Thesis  
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  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 1364-6613 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:15925802 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 343  
Permanent link to this record
 

 
Author Crockford, C.; Wittig, R.M.; Seyfarth, R.M.; Cheney, D.L. doi  openurl
  Title Baboons eavesdrop to deduce mating opportunities Type Journal Article
  Year 2007 Publication Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.  
  Volume 73 Issue 5 Pages 885-890  
  Keywords baboon; cognition; eavesdropping; extrapair copulation; mate guarding; Papio hamadryas ursinus; primate; social intelligence; third-party relationships; transient relationships  
  Abstract Many animals appear to monitor changes in other individuals' dominance ranks and social relationships and to track changes in them. However, it is not known whether they also track changes in very transient relationships. Rapid recognition of a temporary separation between a dominant male and a sexually receptive female, for example, should be adaptive in species where subordinate males use opportunistic strategies to achieve mating success. Dominant male baboons (Papio hamadryas ursinus) form sexual consortships with oestrous females that are characterized by mate guarding and close proximity. To assess whether subordinate males track temporary changes in the status of other males' consortships, we conducted playback experiments using a two-speaker paradigm. In the test condition, subjects heard the consort male's grunts played from one speaker and his consort female's copulation call played from a speaker approximately 40 m away. This sequence suggested that the male and female had temporarily separated and that the female was mating with another male. In a control trial, subjects heard another dominant male's grunts played from one speaker and the female's copulation call played from the other. In a second control trial, conducted within 24 h after the consortship had ended, subjects again heard the consort male's grunt and the female's copulation call played from separate speakers. As predicted, subjects responded strongly only in the test condition. Eavesdropping upon the temporal and spatial juxtaposition of other individuals' vocalizations may be one strategy by which male baboons achieve sneaky matings.  
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  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 816  
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Author Kitchen, D.; Bergman, T.; Cheney, D.; Nicholson, J.; Seyfarth, R. doi  openurl
  Title Comparing responses of four ungulate species to playbacks of baboon alarm calls Type Journal Article
  Year 2010 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.  
  Volume 13 Issue 6 Pages 861-870  
  Keywords Biomedical and Life Sciences  
  Abstract A growing body of evidence suggests that a wide range of animals can recognize and respond appropriately to calls produced by other species. Social learning has been implicated as a possible mechanism by which heterospecific call recognition might develop. To examine whether familiarity and/or shared vulnerability with the calling species might influence the ability of sympatric species to distinguish heterospecific alarm calls, we tested whether four ungulate species (impala: Aepyceros melampus; tsessebe: Damaliscus lunatus; zebra: Equus burchelli; wildebeest: Connochaetes taurinus) could distinguish baboon (Papio hamadryas ursinus) alarm calls from other loud baboon calls produced during intra-specific aggressive interactions (‘contest’ calls). Overall, subjects’ responses were stronger following playback of alarm calls than contest calls. Of the species tested, impala showed the strongest responses and the greatest difference in composite response scores, suggesting they were best able to differentiate call types. Compared with the other ungulate species, impala are the most frequent associates of baboons. Moreover, like baboons, they are susceptible to both lion and leopard attacks, whereas leopards rarely take the larger ungulates. Although it seems possible that high rates of association and/or shared vulnerability may influence impala’s greater ability to distinguish among baboon call types, our results point to a stronger influence of familiarity. Ours is the first study to compare such abilities among several community members with variable natural histories, and we discuss future experiments that would more systematically examine development of these skills in young ungulates.  
  Address  
  Corporate Author Thesis  
  Publisher Springer Berlin / Heidelberg Place of Publication Editor  
  Language 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 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5275  
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Author Cheney, D.L.; Seyfarth, R.M. doi  openurl
  Title Recognition of other individuals' social relationships by female baboons Type Journal Article
  Year 1999 Publication Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.  
  Volume 58 Issue 1 Pages 67-75  
  Keywords  
  Abstract We describe a series of playback experiments designed to test whether free-ranging baboons, Papio cynocephalus ursinus, recognize the calls of other group members and also associate signallers with their close genetic relatives. Pairs of unrelated females were played sequences of calls that mimicked a fight between their relatives. As controls, the same females heard sequences that involved either (1) only the more dominant female's relative or (2) neither of the females' relatives. When call sequences involved their relatives, subjects looked towards the speaker for a longer duration than when the sequences involved nonkin. When the sequences involved the other female's relative, they also looked towards that female. Subjects did not look towards one another when call sequences involved nonkin. Dominant subjects were more likely to supplant their subordinate partners following playbacks of sequences that mimicked a dispute between their relatives than following the two control trials. In contrast, both subjects were more likely to approach one another and to interact in a friendly manner following the two control trials than following the test trial. Results indicate that female baboons recognize the screams and threat grunts not only of their own close relatives but also of unrelated individuals. They also replicate previous studies in suggesting that female monkeys recognize the close associates of other individuals and adjust their interactions with others according to recent events involving individuals other than themselves. Copyright 1999 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.  
  Address Departments of Biology and Psychology, University of Pennsylvania  
  Corporate Author Thesis  
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  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0003-3472 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:10413542 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 346  
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