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Bonobos and chimpanzees remember familiar conspecifics for decades
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dc.contributor.author | Lewis, Laura S | |
dc.contributor.author | Wessling, Erin Gerrish | |
dc.contributor.author | Kano, Fumihiro | |
dc.contributor.author | Stevens, Jeroen M G | |
dc.contributor.author | Call, Josep | |
dc.contributor.author | Krupenye, Christopher Nicholas | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2024-01-15T12:30:09Z | |
dc.date.available | 2024-01-15T12:30:09Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2023-12-26 | |
dc.identifier | 294558057 | |
dc.identifier | 5fd04d35-127d-494d-ac9f-16939fddf051 | |
dc.identifier | 85180619406 | |
dc.identifier.citation | Lewis , L S , Wessling , E G , Kano , F , Stevens , J M G , Call , J & Krupenye , C N 2023 , ' Bonobos and chimpanzees remember familiar conspecifics for decades ' , Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , vol. 120 , no. 52 , e2304903120 . https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2304903120 | en |
dc.identifier.issn | 0027-8424 | |
dc.identifier.other | ORCID: /0000-0002-8597-8336/work/151190910 | |
dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/10023/29012 | |
dc.description | Funding: We are grateful to the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) for core financial support to the RZSS Edinburgh Zoo’s Budongo Research Unit where this project was carried out. | en |
dc.description.abstract | Recognition and memory of familiar conspecifics provides the foundation for complex sociality and is vital to navigating an unpredictable social world [Tibbetts and Dale, Trends Ecol. Evol. 22 , 529–537 (2007)]. Human social memory incorporates content about interactions and relationships and can last for decades [Sherry and Schacter, Psychol. Rev. 94 , 439–454 (1987)]. Long-term social memory likely played a key role throughout human evolution, as our ancestors increasingly built relationships that operated across distant space and time [Malone et al., Int. J. Primatol. 33 , 1251–1277 (2012)]. Although individual recognition is widespread among animals and sometimes lasts for years, little is known about social memory in nonhuman apes and the shared evolutionary foundations of human social memory. In a preferential-looking eye-tracking task, we presented chimpanzees and bonobos (N = 26) with side-by-side images of a previous groupmate and a conspecific stranger of the same sex. Apes’ attention was biased toward former groupmates, indicating long-term memory for past social partners. The strength of biases toward former groupmates was not impacted by the duration apart, and our results suggest that recognition may persist for at least 26 y beyond separation. We also found significant but weak evidence that, like humans, apes may remember the quality or content of these past relationships: apes’ looking biases were stronger for individuals with whom they had more positive histories of social interaction. Long-lasting social memory likely provided key foundations for the evolution of human culture and sociality as they extended across time, space, and group boundaries. | |
dc.format.extent | 10 | |
dc.format.extent | 1129334 | |
dc.language.iso | eng | |
dc.relation.ispartof | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | en |
dc.subject | Long-term social memory | en |
dc.subject | Social knowledge | en |
dc.subject | Social relationships | en |
dc.subject | Eye-tracking primitives | en |
dc.subject | Cognitive evolution | en |
dc.subject | BF Psychology | en |
dc.subject | DAS | en |
dc.subject.lcc | BF | en |
dc.title | Bonobos and chimpanzees remember familiar conspecifics for decades | en |
dc.type | Journal article | en |
dc.contributor.institution | University of St Andrews. Centre for Social Learning & Cognitive Evolution | en |
dc.contributor.institution | University of St Andrews. School of Psychology and Neuroscience | en |
dc.contributor.institution | University of St Andrews. Institute of Behavioural and Neural Sciences | en |
dc.identifier.doi | 10.1073/pnas.2304903120 | |
dc.description.status | Peer reviewed | en |
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