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Social learning of arbitrary food preferences in bonobos

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Shorland_2019_BP_Arbitraryfoodpreferences_AAM.pdf (1.460Mb)
Date
10/2019
Author
Shorland, Gladez
Genty, Emilie
Guéry, Jean-Pascal
Zuberbuhler, Klaus
Keywords
Cognition
Foraging
Nonhuman primate
Novel food
Pan paniscus
Social learning
BF Psychology
NDAS
Metadata
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Abstract
A fruitful approach to investigate social learning in animals is based on paradigms involving the manipulation of artefacts. However, tool use and elaborate object manipulations are rare in natural conditions, suggesting that social learning evolved in other contexts where fitness consequences are higher, such as discriminating palatable from noxious foods, recognising predators or understanding social hierarchies. We focussed on one such context by investigating whether bonobos socially learned others’ arbitrary food preferences through mere observation. To this end, we trained two demonstrators to prefer or avoid distinctly coloured food items, treated with either a sweet or bitter agent. Demonstrators then displayed their newly acquired preferences in front of naïve subjects. In subsequent choice tests, subjects generally matched their choices to the demonstrators’ preferred food colours, despite having already tasted the equally palatable colour alternative. Both age and exposure to demonstrator preference had a significant positive effect on the proportion of matched choices. Moreover, in a context where errors can be costly, social learning was instant insofar as six of seven subjects used socially learned information to influence their very first food choice. We discuss these findings in light of the current debate on the evolution of social learning in animals.
Citation
Shorland , G , Genty , E , Guéry , J-P & Zuberbuhler , K 2019 , ' Social learning of arbitrary food preferences in bonobos ' , Behavioural Processes , vol. 167 , 103912 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2019.103912
Publication
Behavioural Processes
Status
Peer reviewed
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2019.103912
ISSN
0376-6357
Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © 2019 Published by Elsevier B.V. This work is made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the author created, accepted version manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2019.103912
Description
The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) / ERC grant agreement n°283871 and the Swiss National Science Foundation (Social learning in primate communication: 31003A_166458 / Coordinating joint action in apes: Testing the boundaries of the human interaction engine: CR31I3_159655).
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  • University of St Andrews Research
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/20302

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