Copying without rewards: socially influenced foraging decisions among brown capuchin monkeys |
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Authors: | Kristin E Bonnie Frans B M de Waal |
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Institution: | (1) Living Links, Yerkes National Primate Research Center and Department of Psychology, Emory University, 954 N. Gatewood Rd, Atlanta, GA 30329, USA |
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Abstract: | An individual’s foraging activity can be influenced by the choices made by nearby conspecifics. The interest shown in the
location and characteristics of a feeding patch may depend on the feeding success of a conspecific there, a process that needs
to be distinguished from choices guided by rewards to the observer itself. We investigated how rewards for both self and others
influence the foraging choices of captive capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella). Thirteen adult capuchins observed familiar female conspecific models explore one of three opaque boxes under three conditions.
In the first, there were no rewards available to either monkey; in the second, rewards were available to the model only; and
in the third, both monkeys could retrieve a reward. Under all conditions, subjects more often explored the same box as the
model than was expected by chance. Thus, without ever receiving a reward themselves or without seeing another receive rewards,
subjects’ searches were directed at the box explored by another monkey. The tendency to match the model’s choice increased
if the subject was rewarded. We compared these results to control conditions in which the model was either absent, or present
but not allowed to demonstrate. Subjects’ located the reward less often in control conditions, than in the experimental conditions.
We conclude that extrinsic rewards, while helpful, are not required for partners to influence the foraging choices of capuchins,
and that the unrewarded copying of foraging choices demonstrated here may provide the basis for additional social influences
on learning.
This contribution is part of the Special Issue “A Socioecological Perspective on Primate Cognition” (Cunningham and Janson
2007) |
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Keywords: | Socially biased learning Social learning Stimulus enhancement Reinforcement |
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