SOCIAL LEARNING AND CULTURE IN CHIMPANZEES

Emory University, Atlanta GA

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Linked publications & trials

Abstract

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. Primary support for the subproject and the subproject's principal investigator may have been provided by other sources, including other NIH sources. The Total Cost listed for the subproject likely represents the estimated amount of Center infrastructure utilized by the subproject, not direct funding provided by the NCRR grant to the subproject or subproject staff. In collaboration with Dr. Andrew Whiten of St. Andrews University in Scotland (a world renowned specialist in this field), and two postdoctoral associates, we study the process of social learning in outdoor housed groups of chimpanzees. The most recent progress came from a study on the "prestige effect," which asked if chimpanzees, like humans, tend to follow high status models more than low status ones. Comparing two groups in a counterbalanced design, the study found indeed that high status models attract more followers (Horner et al. 2010). The unique feature of these studies, compared to all studies done before, is that some of the models from which the chimpanzees can learn are conspecifics. The first signs are that chimpanzees are much better at learning from other chimpanzees than from humans, which of course puts question marks behind all previously obtained results in the literature.