5 research outputs found
Dissection of observational learning among chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and children (Homo sapiens)
No full textIn the wild, a variety of inter-group behavioural differences have been reported for chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and it has been suggested that these may have resulted from social learning. To determine whether chimpanzees show the necessary propensity for social learning, groups of captive chimpanzees were tested in a series of experiments involving the use of two-action and bidirectional apparatuses. For comparison, and to shed light on any contrasts between our own and chimpanzee learning strategies, similar tests were also conducted with children (Homo sapiens) to ascertain the nature of their observational learning when watching conspecifics. Through the use of open diffusion and diffusion chain techniques, it was shown that both species learnt how to operate different foraging devices from observing an expert conspecific and this learning was strong enough for the generation of behavioural traditions which passed along multiple test ‘generations’. Additionally, ghost conditions were used to distinguish imitative and emulative learning by both species. With one of the two test devices used (the Slide-box) the first evidence for emulation learning by chimpanzees, through the use of a ghost condition, was shown. Children in this condition also showed apparent emulation; a contrast to previous research which has concluded that children tend to rely on imitation. Additionally, to test its potential for use in future social learning experiments, the ability of chimpanzees to learn from video-footage of an unknown conspecific was tested. It was found that the chimpanzees not only learnt how to operate two devices from observing this footage but also used the same alternative method used by the model chimpanzee
Experimental studies of traditions and underlying transmission processes in chimpanzees
No full textMultiple regional differences in tool use have been identified among wild chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes, but the hypothesis that these represent traditions, transmitted through social learning, is difficult to substantiate without experimentation. To test chimpanzees' capacity to sustain traditions, we seeded alternative tool use techniques in single individuals in different captive groups. One technique, 'Lift', spread in the group into which it was introduced and not in chimpanzees who saw no model or whose group was seeded with the alternative technique, 'Poke'. Poke was also not discovered by control animals tested individually. However, Poke emerged spontaneously in the Lift group and became dominant in both groups, regardless of the founder's Lift or Poke technique. Accordingly, this study demonstrated a statistically significant, differential spread of alternative techniques through social learning, yet no clear separation of traditions, unlike an earlier study with a different population of chimpanzees. This difference may be attributable to prior experience with relevant tools. In further experiments we investigated the basis of the social learning evident in acquisition of the Lift technique, using 'ghost' conditions in which the task was operated automatically rather than by a chimpanzee. Differential movement of the feeding device either by itself or with the tool coupled to it was not sufficient for learning to occur. It appears necessary for a chimpanzee to observe another chimpanzee performing the Lift technique for transmission to ensue. (C) 2007 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.</p
Observational learning in chimpanzees and children studied through ‘ghost’ conditions
No full textEmulation has been distinguished from imitation as a form of observational learning because it focuses not on the model's actions but on the action's environmental results. Whether a species emulates, imitates or displays only simpler observational learning is expected to have profound implications for its capacity for cultural transmission. Chimpanzees' observational learning has been suggested to be primarily emulative, but this is an inference largely based upon low fidelity copying in experiments when comparing chimpanzees with humans rather than direct testing. Here we test directly for emulation learning by chimpanzees and children using a 'ghost' condition in which a sliding door obscuring a reward was moved to left or right with no agent visible, a context associated with the only published evidence for emulation learning in a non-human species ( pigeons). Both children and chimpanzees matched the observed direction of ghost door movement on their first test trial. This is the first evidence for emulation in a non-human primate in the restricted context of a ghost condition. However, only the children continued to match in later trials. Individuals of both species continued to match with 99% or better fidelity when viewing a conspecific model operates the door. We conclude that chimpanzees can and will display emulation learning when the task is as simple as the present one, which contrasts with a failure to do so in a more complex manipulative task tested earlier. However, even with a simple task, emulation alone creates only fleeting fidelity compared with the opportunity to copy a conspecific, when considerable conformity is displayed.</p
