SOCIAL LEARNING AND CULTURE IN CHIMPANZEES

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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.