SOCIAL LEARNING AND CULTURE IN CHIMPANZEES

这个子项目是许多研究子项目中的一个 由NIH/NCRR资助的中心赠款提供的资源。子项目及 研究者（PI）可能从另一个NIH来源获得了主要资金， 因此可以在其他CRISP条目中表示。所列机构为 研究中心，而研究中心不一定是研究者所在的机构。 在与苏格兰圣安德鲁斯大学的安德鲁·惠顿博士（该领域的世界知名专家）和两位博士后同事的密切合作下，我们研究了户外圈养黑猩猩群体的社会学习过程。在发表在著名期刊上的一系列测试表明黑猩猩具有非凡的模仿能力之后，我们现在已经进入了更详细的测试。我们使用Whitten博士的拼图盒和翻新的测试设备，设置实验，其中我们改变了任务的复杂性和模型的性质（即同种或人类实验者）。 与之前的所有研究相比，这些研究的独特之处在于，黑猩猩可以学习的一些模型是同种的。第一个迹象是，黑猩猩从其他黑猩猩那里学习要比从人类那里学习好得多。

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. In close 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. After a series of tests, published in prominent journals, that demonstrate remarkable imitative capacities in chimpanzees, we have now moved to more detailed tests. We use Dr. Whitten's puzzle boxes and a renovated testing facility, setting up experiments in which we vary the complexity of the task and the nature of the model (i.e. a conspecific or a human experimenter). 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.