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Author Whiten, A.; Horner, V.; de Waal, F.B.M. doi  openurl
  Title Conformity to cultural norms of tool use in chimpanzees Type Journal Article
  Year 2005 Publication Nature Abbreviated Journal Nature  
  Volume 437 Issue 7059 Pages 737-740  
  Keywords Aging/physiology; Animals; Culture; Feeding Behavior/physiology; Female; Pan troglodytes/*physiology/*psychology; *Social Conformity; Technology; Time Factors  
  Abstract Rich circumstantial evidence suggests that the extensive behavioural diversity recorded in wild great apes reflects a complexity of cultural variation unmatched by species other than our own. However, the capacity for cultural transmission assumed by this interpretation has remained difficult to test rigorously in the field, where the scope for controlled experimentation is limited. Here we show that experimentally introduced technologies will spread within different ape communities. Unobserved by group mates, we first trained a high-ranking female from each of two groups of captive chimpanzees to adopt one of two different tool-use techniques for obtaining food from the same 'Pan-pipe' apparatus, then re-introduced each female to her respective group. All but two of 32 chimpanzees mastered the new technique under the influence of their local expert, whereas none did so in a third population lacking an expert. Most chimpanzees adopted the method seeded in their group, and these traditions continued to diverge over time. A subset of chimpanzees that discovered the alternative method nevertheless went on to match the predominant approach of their companions, showing a conformity bias that is regarded as a hallmark of human culture.  
  Address Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, School of Psychology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9JP, UK. a.whiten@st-and.ac.uk  
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  ISSN (down) 1476-4687 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes PMID:16113685 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 163  
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Author Brosnan, S.F.; De Waal, F.B.M. doi  openurl
  Title Monkeys reject unequal pay Type Journal Article
  Year 2003 Publication Nature Abbreviated Journal Nature  
  Volume 425 Issue 6955 Pages 297-299  
  Keywords Aging; Animals; Cebus/*psychology; Choice Behavior; *Cooperative Behavior; Female; Male; *Reward; Social Justice  
  Abstract During the evolution of cooperation it may have become critical for individuals to compare their own efforts and pay-offs with those of others. Negative reactions may occur when expectations are violated. One theory proposes that aversion to inequity can explain human cooperation within the bounds of the rational choice model, and may in fact be more inclusive than previous explanations. Although there exists substantial cultural variation in its particulars, this 'sense of fairness' is probably a human universal that has been shown to prevail in a wide variety of circumstances. However, we are not the only cooperative animals, hence inequity aversion may not be uniquely human. Many highly cooperative nonhuman species seem guided by a set of expectations about the outcome of cooperation and the division of resources. Here we demonstrate that a nonhuman primate, the brown capuchin monkey (Cebus apella), responds negatively to unequal reward distribution in exchanges with a human experimenter. Monkeys refused to participate if they witnessed a conspecific obtain a more attractive reward for equal effort, an effect amplified if the partner received such a reward without any effort at all. These reactions support an early evolutionary origin of inequity aversion.  
  Address Living Links, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30329, USA. sbrosna@emory.edu  
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  Notes PMID:13679918 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 179  
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Author Flack, J.C.; Girvan, M.; de Waal, F.B.M.; Krakauer, D.C. doi  openurl
  Title Policing stabilizes construction of social niches in primates Type Journal Article
  Year 2006 Publication Nature Abbreviated Journal Nature  
  Volume 439 Issue 7075 Pages 426-429  
  Keywords Animals; Conflict (Psychology); Female; Macaca nemestrina/*physiology/*psychology; Male; Models, Biological; *Social Behavior  
  Abstract All organisms interact with their environment, and in doing so shape it, modifying resource availability. Termed niche construction, this process has been studied primarily at the ecological level with an emphasis on the consequences of construction across generations. We focus on the behavioural process of construction within a single generation, identifying the role a robustness mechanism--conflict management--has in promoting interactions that build social resource networks or social niches. Using 'knockout' experiments on a large, captive group of pigtailed macaques (Macaca nemestrina), we show that a policing function, performed infrequently by a small subset of individuals, significantly contributes to maintaining stable resource networks in the face of chronic perturbations that arise through conflict. When policing is absent, social niches destabilize, with group members building smaller, less diverse, and less integrated grooming, play, proximity and contact-sitting networks. Instability is quantified in terms of reduced mean degree, increased clustering, reduced reach, and increased assortativity. Policing not only controls conflict, we find it significantly influences the structure of networks that constitute essential social resources in gregarious primate societies. The structure of such networks plays a critical role in infant survivorship, emergence and spread of cooperative behaviour, social learning and cultural traditions.  
  Address Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501, USA. jflack@santafe.edu  
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  Notes PMID:16437106 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 298  
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Author Paz-y-Miño C. G.; Bond, A.B.; Kamil, A.C.; Balda, R.P. doi  openurl
  Title Pinyon jays use transitive inference to predict social dominance Type Journal Article
  Year 2004 Publication Nature Abbreviated Journal Nature  
  Volume 430 Issue 7001 Pages 778-781  
  Keywords Animals; Cognition/*physiology; Group Structure; Male; *Social Dominance; Songbirds/*physiology  
  Abstract Living in large, stable social groups is often considered to favour the evolution of enhanced cognitive abilities, such as recognizing group members, tracking their social status and inferring relationships among them. An individual's place in the social order can be learned through direct interactions with others, but conflicts can be time-consuming and even injurious. Because the number of possible pairwise interactions increases rapidly with group size, members of large social groups will benefit if they can make judgments about relationships on the basis of indirect evidence. Transitive reasoning should therefore be particularly important for social individuals, allowing assessment of relationships from observations of interactions among others. Although a variety of studies have suggested that transitive inference may be used in social settings, the phenomenon has not been demonstrated under controlled conditions in animals. Here we show that highly social pinyon jays (Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus) draw sophisticated inferences about their own dominance status relative to that of strangers that they have observed interacting with known individuals. These results directly demonstrate that animals use transitive inference in social settings and imply that such cognitive capabilities are widespread among social species.  
  Address Center for Avian Cognition, School of Biological Sciences, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska 68588, USA  
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  Notes PMID:15306809 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @; Equine Behaviour @ team @ room B 3.029 Serial 352  
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Author Gentner, T.Q.; Fenn, K.M.; Margoliash, D.; Nusbaum, H.C. doi  openurl
  Title Recursive syntactic pattern learning by songbirds Type Journal Article
  Year 2006 Publication Nature Abbreviated Journal Nature  
  Volume 440 Issue 7088 Pages 1204-1207  
  Keywords Acoustic Stimulation; *Animal Communication; Animals; Auditory Perception/*physiology; Humans; *Language; Learning/*physiology; Linguistics; Models, Neurological; Semantics; Starlings/*physiology; Stochastic Processes  
  Abstract Humans regularly produce new utterances that are understood by other members of the same language community. Linguistic theories account for this ability through the use of syntactic rules (or generative grammars) that describe the acceptable structure of utterances. The recursive, hierarchical embedding of language units (for example, words or phrases within shorter sentences) that is part of the ability to construct new utterances minimally requires a 'context-free' grammar that is more complex than the 'finite-state' grammars thought sufficient to specify the structure of all non-human communication signals. Recent hypotheses make the central claim that the capacity for syntactic recursion forms the computational core of a uniquely human language faculty. Here we show that European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) accurately recognize acoustic patterns defined by a recursive, self-embedding, context-free grammar. They are also able to classify new patterns defined by the grammar and reliably exclude agrammatical patterns. Thus, the capacity to classify sequences from recursive, centre-embedded grammars is not uniquely human. This finding opens a new range of complex syntactic processing mechanisms to physiological investigation.  
  Address Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA. tgentner@ucsd.edu  
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  Notes PMID:16641998 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 353  
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Author Arnold, K.; Zuberbuhler, K. doi  openurl
  Title Language evolution: semantic combinations in primate calls Type Journal Article
  Year 2006 Publication Nature Abbreviated Journal Nature  
  Volume 441 Issue 7091 Pages 303  
  Keywords Animal Migration; Animals; Eagles/physiology; *Evolution; Female; Haplorhini/*physiology; Male; Predatory Behavior; *Semantics; *Vocalization, Animal  
  Abstract Syntax sets human language apart from other natural communication systems, although its evolutionary origins are obscure. Here we show that free-ranging putty-nosed monkeys combine two vocalizations into different call sequences that are linked to specific external events, such as the presence of a predator and the imminent movement of the group. Our findings indicate that non-human primates can combine calls into higher-order sequences that have a particular meaning.  
  Address School of Psychology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews KY16 9JP, UK  
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  Notes PMID:16710411 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 354  
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Author Shettleworth, S.J. doi  openurl
  Title Animal behaviour: planning for breakfast Type Journal Article
  Year 2007 Publication Nature Abbreviated Journal Nature  
  Volume 445 Issue 7130 Pages 825-826  
  Keywords Animals; Feeding Behavior/*physiology; *Food; Haplorhini/physiology; Memory/physiology; Songbirds/*physiology; Thinking/*physiology  
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  Notes PMID:17314961 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 356  
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Author Shettleworth, S.J. doi  openurl
  Title Cognitive science: rank inferred by reason Type Journal Article
  Year 2004 Publication Nature Abbreviated Journal Nature  
  Volume 430 Issue 7001 Pages 732-733  
  Keywords Animals; Cognition/*physiology; Group Structure; Male; *Social Dominance; Songbirds/*physiology  
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  Notes PMID:15306792 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 365  
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Author Fenton, B.; Ratcliffe, J. doi  openurl
  Title Animal behaviour: eavesdropping on bats Type Journal Article
  Year 2004 Publication Nature Abbreviated Journal Nature  
  Volume 429 Issue 6992 Pages 612-613  
  Keywords Acoustics; Animals; Chiroptera/anatomy & histology/classification/genetics/*physiology; Echolocation/*physiology; *Evolution; Phylogeny; Predatory Behavior/physiology; Species Specificity  
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  Notes PMID:15190335 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 500  
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Author Amdam, G.V.; Csondes, A.; Fondrk, M.K.; Page, R.E.J. doi  openurl
  Title Complex social behaviour derived from maternal reproductive traits Type Journal Article
  Year 2006 Publication Nature Abbreviated Journal Nature  
  Volume 439 Issue 7072 Pages 76-78  
  Keywords Aging/physiology; Animals; Bees/*physiology; *Evolution; Feeding Behavior/*physiology; Female; Infertility, Female; Maternal Behavior/*physiology; Ovary/physiology; Pollen/metabolism; Reproduction/*physiology; *Social Behavior  
  Abstract A fundamental goal of sociobiology is to explain how complex social behaviour evolves, especially in social insects, the exemplars of social living. Although still the subject of much controversy, recent theoretical explanations have focused on the evolutionary origins of worker behaviour (assistance from daughters that remain in the nest and help their mother to reproduce) through expression of maternal care behaviour towards siblings. A key prediction of this evolutionary model is that traits involved in maternal care have been co-opted through heterochronous expression of maternal genes to result in sib-care, the hallmark of highly evolved social life in insects. A coupling of maternal behaviour to reproductive status evolved in solitary insects, and was a ready substrate for the evolution of worker-containing societies. Here we show that division of foraging labour among worker honey bees (Apis mellifera) is linked to the reproductive status of facultatively sterile females. We thereby identify the evolutionary origin of a widely expressed social-insect behavioural syndrome, and provide a direct demonstration of how variation in maternal reproductive traits gives rise to complex social behaviour in non-reproductive helpers.  
  Address Arizona State University, School of Life Sciences, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA. Gro.Amdam@asu.edu  
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  Notes PMID:16397498 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 531  
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