21 research outputs found
Chimpanzees in context: a comparative perspective on chimpanzee behavior, cognition, conservation, and welfare/ edited by Lydia M. Hopper and Stephen R. Ross ; with a foreword by Jane Goodall.
No full textPapers from a conference of the same name organized and hosted by the Lester E. Fischer Center for the Study and Conservation of Apes, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago in 2016.Includes bibliographical references and index."The study of the chimpanzee, the human's closest relative, has led scientists to exciting discoveries about evolution, behavior, and cognition over the past half century. In this book, both young and veteran scholars take a fascinating comparative approach to the culture, behavior, and cognition of both wild and captive chimpanzees. By seeking new perspectives in how the chimpanzee compares to other species, the scientists featured in this book offer a richer understanding of the ways in which chimpanzees' unique experiences shape their behavior. They also demonstrate how different methodologies provide different insights, how various cultural experiences influence our perspectives of chimpanzees, and how different ecologies in which chimpanzees live affect how they express themselves. After a foreword by Jane Goodall the book follows sections that examine chimp life histories and developmental milestones, behavior, methods of study, animal communication, cooperation and communication, tool use, chimpanzee care, and chimpanzee conservation. Collectively, these chapters remind us of the importance of considering the social, ecological, and cognitive context of chimpanzee behavior, and how these contexts shape our interpretation of our understanding of chimpanzees. Only by leveraging these powerful perspectives do we stand a chance at improving how we understand, care for, and protect this species"--Preface: Part 1: Part 2: Part 4: Part 5: Part 6: Part 7: Part 8: J. Goodall -- L.M. Hopper and S.R. Ross -- C.D. Knott and F.S. Harwell -- V. Behringer, J.M.G. Stevens, T. Deschner, and G. Hohmann -- J. Mann, M.A. Stanton, and C.M. Murray -- J.P. Taglialatela, S.A. Skiba, R.E. Evans, S. Bogart, and N.G. Schwob -- R.M. Wittig, A. Mielke, J. Lester, and C. Crockford -- S. Rosenbaum, R. Santymire and T.S. Stoinski -- L.M. Hopper and A.J. Carter -- C.F. Martin and I. Adachi -- S. Hirata, N. Morimura, K. Watanuki, and S.R. Ross -- C. Hobaiter -- S.W. Townsend, S.K. Watson, and K.E. Slocombe -- Z. Clay -- S. Duguid, M Allritz, A. de las Heras, S. Nolte, and J. Call -- S. Yamamoto -- G.L. Vale and S.F. Brosnan -- J.J.M. Massen, W.A.A. Schaake, and T. Bugnyar -- J.D. Pruetz, S.L. Bogart, and S. Lindshield -- L.V. Luncz and E. van de Waal -- C. Tennie, L.M. Hopper, and C.P. van Schaik -- M.J. Beran, B.M. Perdue, and A.E. Parrish -- M.A. Bloomsmith, A.W. Clay, S.R. Ross, S.P Lambeth, C.K. Lutz, S.D. Breaux, R. Pietsch, A. Fultz, M.L. Lammey, S.L. Jacobson, and J.E. Perlman -- K.A. Cronin and S.R. Ross -- E.S. Herrelko, S.J. Vick, and H.M. Buchanan-Smith -- S.R. Ross -- C.A. Chap;man, K. Valenta, S. Bortolamiol, S.K. Mugume, and M. Yao -- J.A. Hartel, E. Otali, Z. Machanda, R.W. Wrangham, and E. Ross -- D.B. Morgan, W. Winston, C.E. Ayina, W. Mayoukou, E.V. Lonsdorf, and C.M. Sanz. Foreword / Understanding chimpanzees in context / Life histories and developmental milestones. Ecological risk and the evolution of great ape life histories / Growing up : comparing ontogeny of bonobos and chimpanzees / Dolphins and chimpanzees : a case for convergence? / A social species. Social behavior and social tolerance in chimpanzees and bonobos / Endurance and flexibility of close social relationships : comparing chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) and sooty mangabeys (Cercocebus atys atys) / Urinary androgens, dominance hierarchies, and social group structure among wild male mountain gorillas / Part 3: Studying chimpanzees. Methods to study chimpanzee social learning from a comparative perspective / Automated methods and the technological context of chimpanzee research / The establishment of sanctuaries for former laboratory chimpanzees : challenges, successes, and cross-cultural context / Communication. Gestural communication in the great apes : tracing the origins of language / Flexibility in great ape vocal production / Vocal communication in chimpanzees and bonobos : a window into the social world / Cooperation. Cooperation and communication in great apes / The evolution of cooperation in dyads and in groups : comparing chimpanzees and bonobos in the wild and in the laboratory / Putting chimpanzee cooperation in context / A comparison of cooperative cognition in corvids, chimpanzees, and other animals / Tool use, cognition, and culture. Extractive foraging in an extreme environment : tool and proto-tool use by chimpanzees at Fongoli, Senegal / Cultural transmission in dispersing primates / On the origin of cumulative culture : consideration of the role of copying in culture-dependent traits and a reappraisal of the zone of latent solutions hypothesis / Cognitive control and metacognition in chimpanzees / Caring for chimpanzees. Chimpanzees in US zoos, sanctuaries, and research facilities : a survey-based comparison of atypical behaviors / When is "natural" better? The welfare implications of limiting reproduction in captive chimpanzees / How chimpanzee personality and video studies can inform management and care of the species : a case study / Chimpanzee welfare in the context of science, policy, and practice / Conserving chimpanzees. Chimpanzee conservation : what we know, what we do not know, and ways forward / Holistic approach for conservation of chimpanzees in Kibale National Park, Uganda / Forest certification and the high conservation value concept : protecting great apes in the Sangha Trinational Landscape in an era of industrial logging /1 online resource (xvi, 688 pages)
Celebrating the continued importance of "Machiavellian Intelligence" 30 years on
Get PDFThe question of what has shaped primates’ (and other species’) cognitive capacities, whether technical or social demands, remains a hot topic of inquiry. Indeed, a key area of study within the field of comparative psychology in the last few decades has been the focus on social life as a driving force behind the evolution of cognition, studied from behavioral and neurological perspectives and from theoretical and empirical perspectives. Reflecting on contemporary studies of primate social cognition specifically, one cannot ignore the book, Machiavellian Intelligence, coedited by Richard Byrne and Andrew Whiten (Byrne & Whiten, 1988a). It is a keystone for the field: The volume as a whole has been cited over 3,000 times, without even including citations to individual chapters. This year, 2018, is the 30th anniversary of the first publication of Machiavellian Intelligence, and with this special issue of the Journal of Comparative Psychology, we mark that milestone. The key concept put forth in Machiavellian Intelligence was that primates’ sociocognitive abilities were shaped by the complex social worlds that they inhabited, rather than the technical or foraging challenges that they faced, as had previously been posited. In this issue, we consider the strength of the Machiavellian intelligence hypothesis 30 years on to explain primate social cognition, and we consider its applicability to nonprimate species and to other cognitive domains
Social networks in primates : smart and tolerant species have more efficient networks
Get PDFE.W., A.W. and the vervet monkeys data were funded Sinergia grant (CRSI33_133040) from the Swiss National Science Foundation to R. Bshary, C. P. van Schaik, and A.W. L.H. and S.F.B. were supported by NSF CAREER Award 0847351 to S.F.B. Date of Acceptance: 03/12/2014Network optimality has been described in genes, proteins and human communicative networks. In the latter, optimality leads to the efficient transmission of information with a minimum number of connections. Whilst studies show that differences in centrality exist in animal networks with central individuals having higher fitness, network efficiency has never been studied in animal groups. Here we studied 78 groups of primates (24 species). We found that group size and neocortex ratio were correlated with network efficiency. Centralisation (whether several individuals are central in the group) and modularity (how a group is clustered) had opposing effects on network efficiency, showing that tolerant species have more efficient networks. Such network properties affecting individual fitness could be shaped by natural selection. Our results are in accordance with the social brain and cultural intelligence hypotheses, which suggest that the importance of network efficiency and information flow through social learning relates to cognitive abilities.Peer reviewe
Chimpanzees copy dominant and knowledgeable individuals : implications for cultural diversity
Get PDFRLK was funded by a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship; LMH by a BBSRC studentship (BBS/S/K/2004/11255 supervised by AW) and, at the time of writing, is funded by the Guthman Fund; WH by a BBSRC grant (BB/I007997/1); SFB by a NSF CAREER award (SES 0847351) and (SES 0729244). The chimpanzee colony is supported by NIH U42 (RR-15090).Evolutionary theory predicts that natural selection will fashion cognitive biases to guide when, and from whom, individuals acquire social information, but the precise nature of these biases, especially in ecologically valid group contexts, remains unknown. We exposed four captive groups of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) to a novel extractive foraging device and, by fitting statistical models, isolated four simultaneously operating transmission biases. These include biases to copy (i) higher-ranking and (ii) expert individuals, and to copy others when (iii) uncertain or (iv) of low rank. High-ranking individuals were relatively un-strategic in their use of acquired knowledge, which, combined with the bias for others to observe them, may explain reports that high innovation rates (in juveniles and subordinates) do not generate a correspondingly high frequency of traditions in chimpanzees. Given the typically low rank of immigrants in chimpanzees, a 'copying dominants' bias may contribute to the observed maintenance of distinct cultural repertoires in neighboring communities despite sharing similar ecology and knowledgeable migrants. Thus, a copying dominants strategy may, as often proposed for conformist transmission, and perhaps in concert with it, restrict the accumulation of traditions within chimpanzee communities whilst maintaining cultural diversity.Peer reviewe
The importance of witnessed agency in chimpanzee social learning of tool use
No full textSocial learning refers to individuals learning from others, including information gained through indirect social influences, such as the results of others' actions and changes in the physical environment. One method to determine the relative influence of these varieties of information is the 'ghost display', in which no model is involved, but subjects can watch the results that a model would produce. Previous research has shown mixed success by chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) learning from ghost displays, with some studies suggesting learning only in relatively simple tasks. To explore whether the failure of chimpanzees to learn from a ghost display may be due to neophobia when tested singly or a requirement for more detailed information for complex tasks, we presented ghost displays of a tool-use task to chimpanzees in their home social groups. Previous tests have revealed that chimpanzees are unable to easily solve this tool-use task asocially, or learn from ghost displays when tested singly, but can learn after observing conspecifics in a group setting. In the present study, despite being tested in a group situation, chimpanzees still showed no success in solving the task via trial-and-error learning, in a baseline condition, nor in learning the task from the ghost display. Simply being in the presence of their group mates and being shown the affordances of the task was not sufficient to encourage learning. Following this, in an escalating series of tests, we examined the chimpanzees' ability to learn from a demonstration by models with agency: (1) a human; (2) video footage of a chimpanzee; (3) a live chimpanzee model. In the first two of these 'social' conditions, subjects showed limited success. By the end of the final open diffusion phase, which was run to determine whether this new behavior would be transmitted among the group after seeing a successful chimpanzee use the task, 83% of chimpanzees were now successful. This confirmed a marked overall effect of observing animate conspecific modeling, in contrast to the ghost condition.This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: insert SI title
Political life writing in the Pacific
Get PDFThis book aims to reflect on the experiential side of writing political lives in the Pacific region. The collection touches on aspects of the life writing art that are particularly pertinent to political figures: public perception and ideology; identifying important political successes and policy initiatives; grappling with issues like corruption and age-old political science questions about leadership and ‘dirty hands’. These are general themes but they take on a particular significance in the Pacific context and so the contributions explore these themes in relation to patterns of colonisation and the memory of independence; issues elliptically captured by terms like ‘culture’ and ‘tradition’; the nature of ‘self’ presented in Pacific life writing; and the tendency for many of these texts to be written by ‘outsiders’, or at least the increasingly contested nature of what that term means
Influence of personality, age, sex, and estrous state on chimpanzee problem-solving success
Get PDFDespite the importance of individual problem solvers for group- and individual-level fitness, the correlates of individual problem-solving success are still an open topic of investigation. In addition to demographic factors, such as age or sex, certain personality dimensions have also been revealed as reliable correlates of problem-solving by animals. Such correlates, however, have been little-studied in chimpanzees. To empirically test the influence of age, sex, estrous state, and different personality factors on chimpanzee problem-solving, we individually tested 36 captive chimpanzees with two novel foraging puzzles. We included both female (N=24) and male (N=12) adult chimpanzees (aged 14-47 years) in our sample. We also controlled for the females' estrous state-a potential influence on cognitive reasoning-by testing cycling females both when their sexual swelling was maximally tumescent (associated with the luteinizing hormone surge of a female's estrous cycle) and again when it was detumescent. Although we found no correlation between the chimpanzees' success with either puzzle and their age or sex, the chimpanzees' personality ratings did correlate with responses to the novel foraging puzzles. Specifically, male chimpanzees that were rated highly on the factors Methodical, Openness (to experience), and Dominance spent longer interacting with the puzzles. There was also a positive relationship between the latency of females to begin interacting with the two tasks and their rating on the factor Reactivity/Undependability. No other significant correlations were found, but we report tentative evidence for increased problem-solving success by the females when they had detumescent estrous swellings.</p
Chimpanzees demonstrate individual differences in social information use
Get PDFThe National Center for Chimpanzee Care is supported by NIH Cooperative Agreement U42 OD-011197. SKW, GLV, SJD and AW are grateful for the support of the John Templeton Foundation, grant ID40128: ‘Exploring the evolutionary foundations of cultural complexity, creativity and trust’, awarded to AW and Kevin Laland, which partly funded this project. At the time of writing, LH was supported by the Leo S. Guthman Fund. Details of funding for each of the studies which contributed towards the dataset used in the current study can be found in their original publication.Studies of transmission biases in social learning have greatly informed our understanding of how behaviour patterns may diffuse through animal populations, yet within-species inter-individual variation in social information use has received little attention and remains poorly understood. We have addressed this question by examining individual performances across multiple experiments with the same population of primates. We compiled a data set spanning 16 social learning studies (26 experimental conditions) carried out at the same study site over a 12-year period, incorporating a total of 167 chimpanzees. We applied a binary scoring system to code each participant’s performance in each study according to whether they demonstrated evidence of using social information from conspecifics to solve the experimental task or not (Social Information Score – ‘SIS’). Bayesian binomial mixed effects models were then used to estimate the extent to which individual differences influenced SIS, together with any effects of sex, rearing history, age, prior involvement in research and task type on SIS. An estimate of repeatability found that approximately half of the variance in SIS was accounted for by individual identity, indicating that individual differences play a critical role in the social learning behaviour of chimpanzees. According to the model that best fit the data, females were, depending on their rearing history, 15-24% more likely to use social information to solve experimental tasks than males. However, there was no strong evidence of an effect of age or research experience, and pedigree records indicated that SIS was not a strongly heritable trait. Our study offers a novel, transferable method for the study of individual differences in social learning.Peer reviewe
God and Mrs Thatcher : religion and politics in 1980s Britain
Get PDFThe core theme of this thesis explores the evolving position of religion in the British public
realm in the 1980s. Recent scholarship on modern religious history has sought to relocate
Britain's "secularization moment" from the industrialization of the nineteenth century to the
social and cultural upheavals of the 1960s. My thesis seeks to add to this debate by examining
the way in which the established Church and Christian doctrine continued to play a central
role in the politics of the 1980s. More specifically it analyses the conflict between the
Conservative party and the once labelled "Tory party at Prayer", the Church of England.
Both Church and state during this period were at loggerheads, projecting contrasting
visions of the Christian underpinnings of the nation's political values.
The first part of this thesis addresses the established Church. It begins with an
examination of how the Church defined its role as the "conscience of the nation" in a period
of national fragmentation and political polarization. It then goes onto explore how the
Anglican leadership, Church activists and associated pressure groups together subjected
Thatcherite neo-liberal economics to moral scrutiny and upheld social democratic values as the
essence of Christian doctrine. The next chapter analyses how the Church conceptualized
Christian citizenship and the problems it encountered when it disseminated this message to its
parishioners.
The second half of this study focuses on the contribution of Christian thought to the
New Right. Firstly, it explores the parallels between political and religious conservatism in this
period and the widespread disaffection with liberal Anglicanism, revealing how Parliament
became one of the central platforms for the traditionalist Anglican cause. Secondly, it
demonstrates how those on the right argued for the Christian basis of economic liberalism and
of the moral superiority of capitalism over socialism. The next chapter focuses on the public
doctrine of Margaret Thatcher, detailing how she drew upon Christian doctrine, language and
imagery to help shape and legitimise her political vision and reinforce her authority as
leader. Finally, the epilogue traces the why this Christian-centric dialogue between the
Church and Conservative government eventually dissipated and was superseded by a much
more fundamental issue in the 1990s as both the ruling elite and the Church were forced to
recognise the religious diversity within British society
Tumour purity assessment with deep learning in colorectal cancer and impact on molecular analysis
Get PDFTumour content plays a pivotal role in directing the bioinformatic analysis of molecular profiles such as copy number variation (CNV). In clinical application, tumour purity estimation (TPE) is achieved either through visual pathological review [conventional pathology (CP)] or the deconvolution of molecular data. While CP provides a direct measurement, it demonstrates modest reproducibility and lacks standardisation. Conversely, deconvolution methods offer an indirect assessment with uncertain accuracy, underscoring the necessity for innovative approaches. SoftCTM is an open-source, multiorgan deep-learning (DL) model for the detection of tumour and non-tumour cells in H&E-stained slides, developed within the Overlapped Cell on Tissue Dataset for Histopathology (OCELOT) Challenge 2023. Here, using three large multicentre colorectal cancer (CRC) cohorts (N = 1,097 patients) with digital pathology and multi-omic data, we compare the utility and accuracy of TPE with SoftCTM versus CP and bioinformatic deconvolution methods (RNA expression, DNA methylation) for downstream molecular analysis, including CNV profiling. SoftCTM showed technical repeatability when applied twice on the same slide (r = 1.0) and excellent correlations in paired H&E slides (r > 0.9). TPEs profiled by SoftCTM correlated highly with RNA expression (r = 0.59) and DNA methylation (r = 0.40), while TPEs by CP showed a lower correlation with RNA expression (r = 0.41) and DNA methylation (r = 0.29). We show that CP and deconvolution methods respectively underestimate and overestimate tumour content compared to SoftCTM, resulting in 6–13% differing CNV calls. In summary, TPE with SoftCTM enables reproducibility, automation, and standardisation at single-cell resolution. SoftCTM estimates (M = 58.9%, SD ±16.3%) reconcile the overestimation by molecular data extrapolation (RNA expression: M = 79.2%, SD ±10.5, DNA methylation: M = 62.7%, SD ±11.8%) and underestimation by CP (M = 35.9%, SD ±13.1%), providing a more reliable middle ground. A fully integrated computational pathology solution could therefore be used to improve downstream molecular analyses for research and clinics. © 2024 The Author(s). The Journal of Pathology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of The Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland
