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dc.contributor.advisorWhiten, Andrew
dc.contributor.authorHarrison, Rachel Anne
dc.coverage.spatialxii, 249 p.en_US
dc.date.accessioned2019-01-29T15:49:28Z
dc.date.available2019-01-29T15:49:28Z
dc.date.issued2019-06-28
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/16954
dc.description.abstractIn this thesis, I explore two subjects of importance to the study of cultural evolution and cumulative culture; behavioural flexibility in chimpanzees, and social transmission in human children. In Chapter 1, I give an overview of current literature on the cognitive requirements of cumulative culture, with a focus on behavioural flexibility as a capacity which facilitates cumulative culture. I also explore a current discussion in the field of cultural evolution; namely the debate between “standard” and cultural attraction-based approaches to the study of cultural evolution. Chapter 2 is an experimental investigation of the capacity of chimpanzees to respond flexibly to a changing foraging task. This study found that chimpanzees did alter their behaviour, but to a limited degree. In Chapter 3 I provide the same artificial foraging task to two further groups of chimpanzees, at a sanctuary in Zambia. This study again found that chimpanzees altered their behaviour in response to task constraints, but also found a significant difference in performance between the two groups tested. Chapter 4 explores one potential factor which may contribute to these group differences; social tolerance. Data on social tolerance from all three groups of chimpanzees is presented. In Chapter 5, I turn to another key factor in the study of culture and also address the cultural attraction approach, by conducting a transmission chain study of four- to eight-year-old human children, comparing the transmission of a symbolic and non-symbolic image. I found that neither image was reliably transmitted along transmission chains. Finally, in Chapter 6, I discuss the findings of the thesis, and suggest that future work considers multiple demographic groups, whether this means the inclusion of multiple groups of apes in studies of non-human primate cognition, or the consideration of how cultural behaviours might be transformed when transmitted by human children rather than adults.en_US
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherUniversity of St Andrews
dc.subject.lccBF311.H288en
dc.subject.lcshCognition and cultureen
dc.subject.lcshChimpanzees--Behavioren
dc.subject.lcshChild psychologyen
dc.subject.lcshSocial evolution in animalsen
dc.subject.lcshSocial learningen
dc.titleExperimental studies of behavioural flexibility and cultural transmission in chimpanzees and childrenen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US
dc.contributor.sponsorTempleton Foundationen_US
dc.type.qualificationlevelDoctoralen_US
dc.type.qualificationnamePhD Doctor of Philosophyen_US
dc.publisher.institutionThe University of St Andrewsen_US
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.17630/10023-16954


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