Gillian Vale
Testing differential use of payoff-biased social learning strategies in children and chimpanzees
Vale, Gillian; Flynn, Emma G.; Kendal Jeremy, R.; Rawlings, Bruce; Hopper Lydia, M.; Schapiro Steven, J.; Lambeth Susan, P.; Kendal Rachel, L.
Authors
Emma G. Flynn
R. Kendal Jeremy
Bruce Rawlings
M. Hopper Lydia
J. Schapiro Steven
P. Lambeth Susan
L. Kendal Rachel
Contributors
Dr Bruce Rawlings bruce.rawlings@durham.ac.uk
Other
Dr Jeremy Kendal jeremy.kendal@durham.ac.uk
Other
Professor Rachel Kendal rachel.kendal@durham.ac.uk
Other
Dr Bruce Rawlings bruce.rawlings@durham.ac.uk
Other
Abstract
Various non-human animal species have been shown to exhibit behavioural traditions. Importantly, this research has been guided by what we know of human culture, and the question of whether animal cultures may be homologous or analogous to our own culture. In this paper, we assess whether models of human cultural transmission are relevant to understanding biological fundamentals by investigating whether accounts of human payoff-biased social learning are relevant to chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). We submitted 4- and 5-year-old children (N = 90) and captive chimpanzees (N = 69) to a token–reward exchange task. The results revealed different forms of payoff-biased learning across species and contexts. Specifically, following personal and social exposure to different tokens, children's exchange behaviour was consistent with proportional imitation, where choice is affected by both prior personally acquired and socially demonstrated token–reward information. However, when the socially derived information regarding token value was novel, children's behaviour was consistent with proportional observation; paying attention to socially derived information and ignoring their prior personal experience. By contrast, chimpanzees' token choice was governed by their own prior experience only, with no effect of social demonstration on token choice, conforming to proportional reservation. We also find evidence for individual- and group-level differences in behaviour in both species. Despite the difference in payoff strategies used, both chimpanzees and children adopted beneficial traits when available. However, the strategies of the children are expected to be the most beneficial in promoting flexible behaviour by enabling existing behaviours to be updated or replaced with new and often superior ones.
Citation
Vale, G., Flynn, E. G., Kendal Jeremy, R., Rawlings, B., Hopper Lydia, M., Schapiro Steven, J., …Kendal Rachel, L. (2017). Testing differential use of payoff-biased social learning strategies in children and chimpanzees. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 284(1868), Article 20171751. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2017.1751
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Acceptance Date | Oct 20, 2017 |
Online Publication Date | Nov 29, 2017 |
Publication Date | Dec 6, 2017 |
Deposit Date | Oct 25, 2017 |
Publicly Available Date | Oct 31, 2017 |
Journal | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |
Print ISSN | 0962-8452 |
Electronic ISSN | 1471-2954 |
Publisher | The Royal Society |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 284 |
Issue | 1868 |
Article Number | 20171751 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2017.1751 |
Files
Accepted Journal Article
(1.1 Mb)
PDF
Copyright Statement
© 2017 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
Accepted Journal Article (Supplementary materials)
(197 Kb)
PDF
Copyright Statement
Supplementary materials
Published Journal Article
(4.7 Mb)
PDF
Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
You might also like
Beyond collective intelligence: Collective adaptation
(2023)
Journal Article
Downloadable Citations
About Durham Research Online (DRO)
Administrator e-mail: dro.admin@durham.ac.uk
This application uses the following open-source libraries:
SheetJS Community Edition
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
PDF.js
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
Font Awesome
SIL OFL 1.1 (http://scripts.sil.org/OFL)
MIT License (http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.html)
CC BY 3.0 ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
Powered by Worktribe © 2024
Advanced Search