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The pervasive role of social learning in primate lifetime development

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Whiten_2018_BES_Pervasiverole_CC.pdf (1.552Mb)
Date
05/2018
Author
Whiten, Andrew
van de Waal, Erica
Funder
John Templeton Foundation
Grant ID
40128
Keywords
Social learning
Traditions
Culture
Ontogeny
Development
Juvenile primates
BF Psychology
QL Zoology
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Abstract
In recent decades, an accelerating research effort has exploited a substantial diversity of methodologies to garner mounting evidence for social learning and culture in many species of primate. As in humans, the evidence suggests that the juvenile phases of non-human primates’ lives represent a period of particular intensity in adaptive learning from others, yet the relevant research remains scattered in the literature. Accordingly, we here offer what we believe to be the first substantial collation and review of this body of work and its implications for the lifetime behavioral ecology of primates. We divide our analysis into three main phases: a first phase of learning focused on primary attachment figures, typically the mother; a second phase of selective learning from a widening array of group members, including some with expertise that the primary figures may lack; and a third phase following later dispersal, when a migrant individual encounters new ecological and social circumstances about which the existing residents possess expertise that can be learned from. Collating a diversity of discoveries about this lifetime process leads us to conclude that social learning pervades primate ontogenetic development, importantly shaping locally adaptive knowledge and skills that span multiple aspects of the behavioral repertoire.
Citation
Whiten , A & van de Waal , E 2018 , ' The pervasive role of social learning in primate lifetime development ' , Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology , vol. 72 , 80 . https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-018-2489-3
Publication
Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology
Status
Peer reviewed
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-018-2489-3
ISSN
0340-5443
Type
Journal item
Rights
© The Author(s) 2018. Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
Description
Funding: John Templeton Foundation.
Collections
  • University of St Andrews Research
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/13301

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