| Records |
Author  |
Seyfarth, R.M.; Cheney, D.L. |
| Title |
Social cognition |
Type |
Journal Article |
| Year |
2015 |
Publication |
Animal Behaviour |
Abbreviated Journal |
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| Volume |
103 |
Issue |
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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. |
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0003-3472 |
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no |
| Call Number |
Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
Serial |
6025 |
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| Author |
Seyfarth, R.M.; Cheney, D.L. |
| Title |
Meaning and emotion in animal vocalizations |
Type |
Journal Article |
| Year |
2003 |
Publication |
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences |
Abbreviated Journal |
Ann N Y Acad Sci |
| Volume |
1000 |
Issue |
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Pages |
32-55 |
| Keywords |
Acoustics; *Affect; Animals; Behavior, Animal; *Intention; Posture; Sound Spectrography; *Vocalization, Animal |
| Abstract |
Historically, a dichotomy has been drawn between the semantic communication of human language and the apparently emotional calls of animals. Current research paints a more complicated picture. Just as scientists have identified elements of human speech that reflect a speaker's emotions, field experiments have shown that the calls of many animals provide listeners with information about objects and events in the environment. Like human speech, therefore, animal vocalizations simultaneously provide others with information that is both semantic and emotional. In support of this conclusion, we review the results of field experiments on the natural vocalizations of African vervet monkeys, diana monkeys, baboons, and suricates (a South African mongoose). Vervet and diana monkeys give acoustically distinct alarm calls in response to the presence of leopards, eagles, and snakes. Each alarm call type elicits a different, adaptive response from others nearby. Field experiments demonstrate that listeners compare these vocalizations not just according to their acoustic properties but also according to the information they convey. Like monkeys, suricates give acoustically distinct alarm calls in response to different predators. Within each predator class, the calls also differ acoustically according to the signaler's perception of urgency. Like speech, therefore, suricate alarm calls convey both semantic and emotional information. The vocalizations of baboons, like those of many birds and mammals, are individually distinctive. As a result, when one baboon hears a sequence of calls exchanged between two or more individuals, the listener acquires information about social events in its group. Baboons, moreover, are skilled “eavesdroppers:” their response to different call sequences provides evidence of the sophisticated information they acquire from other individuals' vocalizations. Baboon males give loud “wahoo” calls during competitive displays. Like other vocalizations, these highly emotional calls provide listeners with information about the caller's dominance rank, age, and competitive ability. Although animal vocalizations, like human speech, simultaneously encode both semantic and emotional information, they differ from language in at least one fundamental respect. Although listeners acquire rich information from a caller's vocalization, callers do not, in the human sense, intend to provide it. Listeners acquire information as an inadvertent consequence of signaler behavior. |
| Address |
Departments of Psychology and Biology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA. seyfarth@psych.upenn.edu |
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English |
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0077-8923 |
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| Notes |
PMID:14766619 |
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no |
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refbase @ user @ |
Serial |
688 |
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| Author |
Seyfarth, R.M.; Cheney, D.L. |
| Title |
Signalers and receivers in animal communication |
Type |
Journal Article |
| Year |
2003 |
Publication |
Annual review of psychology |
Abbreviated Journal |
Annu Rev Psychol |
| Volume |
54 |
Issue |
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Pages |
145-173 |
| Keywords |
Affect; *Animal Communication; Animals; Arousal; Auditory Perception; Motivation; *Social Behavior; Social Environment; Species Specificity; *Vocalization, Animal |
| Abstract |
In animal communication natural selection favors callers who vocalize to affect the behavior of listeners and listeners who acquire information from vocalizations, using this information to represent their environment. The acquisition of information in the wild is similar to the learning that occurs in laboratory conditioning experiments. It also has some parallels with language. The dichotomous view that animal signals must be either referential or emotional is false, because they can easily be both: The mechanisms that cause a signaler to vocalize do not limit a listener's ability to extract information from the call. The inability of most animals to recognize the mental states of others distinguishes animal communication most clearly from human language. Whereas signalers may vocalize to change a listener's behavior, they do not call to inform others. Listeners acquire information from signalers who do not, in the human sense, intend to provide it. |
| Address |
Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA. seyfarth@psych.upenn.edu |
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English |
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Edition |
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| ISSN |
0066-4308 |
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| Notes |
PMID:12359915 |
Approved |
no |
| Call Number |
refbase @ user @ |
Serial |
690 |
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| Author |
Seyfarth, R.M.; Cheney, D.L. |
| Title |
What are big brains for? |
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 |
4141-4142 |
| Keywords |
Animals; Brain/*anatomy & histology; *Intelligence; Learning; Primates/*anatomy & histology/*psychology; Social Behavior |
| Abstract |
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| Address |
Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. seyfarth@psych.upenn.edu |
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English |
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0027-8424 |
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PMID:11929989 |
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no |
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refbase @ user @ |
Serial |
692 |
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| Author |
Seyfarth, R.M.; Cheney, D.L. |
| Title |
Cognitive strategies and the representation of social relations by monkeys |
Type |
Journal Article |
| Year |
2001 |
Publication |
Nebraska Symposium on Motivation. Nebraska Symposium on Motivation |
Abbreviated Journal |
Nebr Symp Motiv |
| Volume |
47 |
Issue |
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Pages |
145-177 |
| Keywords |
Adaptation, Biological; Animals; *Evolution; Family; Female; Haplorhini; Male; Memory; Primates; *Selection (Genetics); *Social Behavior; Social Dominance; *Social Perception |
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University of Pennsylvania, USA |
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English |
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| ISSN |
0146-7875 |
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PMID:11759347 |
Approved |
no |
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refbase @ user @ |
Serial |
345 |
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| Author |
Seyfarth, R.M.; Cheney, D.L. |
| Title |
Social Awareness in Monkeys |
Type |
Journal Article |
| Year |
2000 |
Publication |
Amer. Zool. |
Abbreviated Journal |
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| Volume |
40 |
Issue |
6 |
Pages |
902-909 |
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| 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 |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
Serial |
4934 |
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| Author |
Seyfarth, R.M.; Cheney, D.L. |
| Title |
Meaning and mind in monkeys |
Type |
Journal Article |
| Year |
1992 |
Publication |
Scientific American |
Abbreviated Journal |
Sci Am |
| Volume |
267 |
Issue |
6 |
Pages |
122-128 |
| Keywords |
Animals; Behavior, Animal; Female; *Haplorhini; Male; Speech; *Vocalization, Animal |
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| Address |
University of Pennsylvania |
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English |
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0036-8733 |
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PMID:1439710 |
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no |
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refbase @ user @ |
Serial |
701 |
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Seyfarth, R.M.; Cheney, D.L. |
| 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. |
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0028-0836 |
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PMID:6709060 |
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no |
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refbase @ user @ |
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704 |
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Seyfarth, R.M.; Cheney, D.L. |
| Title |
The acoustic features of vervet monkey grunts |
Type |
Journal Article |
| Year |
1984 |
Publication |
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America |
Abbreviated Journal |
J Acoust Soc Am |
| Volume |
75 |
Issue |
5 |
Pages |
1623-1628 |
| Keywords |
*Acoustics; Animals; Auditory Perception; Cercopithecus/*physiology; Cercopithecus aethiops/*physiology; Cues; Dominance-Subordination; Female; Male; Social Behavior; Sound Spectrography; *Vocalization, Animal |
| Abstract |
East African vervet monkeys give short (125 ms), harsh-sounding grunts to each other in a variety of social situations: when approaching a dominant or subordinate member of their group, when moving into a new area of their range, or upon seeing another group. Although all these vocalizations sound similar to humans, field playback experiments have shown that the monkeys distinguish at least four different calls. Acoustic analysis reveals that grunts have an aperiodic F0, at roughly 240 Hz. Most grunts exhibit a spectral peak close to this irregular F0. Grunts may also contain a second, rising or falling frequency peak, between 550 and 900 Hz. The location and changes in these two frequency peaks are the cues most likely to be used by vervets when distinguishing different grunt types. |
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0001-4966 |
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| Notes |
PMID:6736426 |
Approved |
no |
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refbase @ user @ |
Serial |
703 |
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| Author |
Seyfarth, R.M.; Cheney, D.L.; Bergman, T.J. |
| 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 |
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1364-6613 |
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PMID:15925802 |
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no |
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refbase @ user @ |
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343 |
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