Social monitoring in wild capuchins

人类的认知能力当然是非凡的。然而，对其他大型动物认知能力的研究表明，人类的认知能力并不例外。相反，人类只是处于认知光谱的极端末端。因此，对其他脑部较大的灵长类动物的认知进化的研究可以深入了解人类认知能力的起源。在这个项目中，研究人员将探索社会认知的广度和深度，被认为是猿类和人类之外“最聪明”的灵长类动物之一——白面卷尾猴。该项目支持一个独特的野外工作站，研究人员将一个多样化的生物野外站点与一个现场环境内分泌学实验室和学生培训设施相结合。这种现场和实验室的结合每年提供一个现场学校。因此，该项目为STEM研究领域的众多学生提供了培训机会，并促进了科研人员的国际网络和合作关系。解释高级灵长类智力的主要假设之一是“社会复杂性假说”。这种观点认为，生活在大型、复杂的社会群体中的挑战将选择大脑更大、认知能力更强的动物。然而，目前的方法使用“群体大小”作为社会复杂性的代表，这个变量并不能捕捉到大多数灵长类动物社会复杂性的变化。相比之下，社会知识——关于其他个体的身份和关系的知识——能更好地捕捉社会复杂性，因为它能追踪动物在日常生活中使用的信息。重要的是，卷尾猴大脑的起源是独立于猿类的，因此卷尾猴为研究人员提供了第二个事件，以确定导致大大脑和复杂认知的选择压力。在这个项目中，研究人员将研究卷尾猴拥有哪些社会知识，以及它们如何在日常生活中使用这些知识。具体来说，他们将使用声音序列进行回放实验，以测试白脸卷尾猴是否了解其群体中其他成员的相对优势等级和亲属关系（社会知识的“深度”），以及它们是否认识并了解邻近群体中其他成员的范围模式（社会知识的“广度”）。该项目将为灵长类动物认知的比较分析提供最重要的类群之一的数据。该项目由美国国家科学基金会生物人类学项目和行为系统集群共同支持。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Human cognitive abilities are certainly remarkable. Yet, studies on the cognition of other large-brained animals demonstrate that the cognitive abilities of humans are not exceptional. Rather, humans are just at the extreme end of the cognitive spectrum. As such, research on cognitive evolution in other large-brained primates can offer insight into the origin of human cognitive abilities. In this project, researchers will probe the breadth and depth of social cognition in arguably one of the “smartest” primates outside of apes and humans – white-faced capuchin monkeys. This project supports a unique field station where researchers have combined a diverse biological field site with an on-site environmental endocrinology laboratory and training facility for students. This combination of field site and laboratory offers a field school each year. Therefore the project supports numerous student training opportunities in STEM research and fosters an international network of scientific researchers and collaborative relationships. One of the leading hypotheses for explaining advanced primate intelligence is the "social complexity hypothesis." This is the idea that the challenges of living in large, complex social groups will select for animals with larger brains and greater cognition. However, current methods use “group size” as a proxy for social complexity, a variable that does not capture variation in social complexity for most primate species. By contrast, social knowledge – knowledge about the identity and relationships of other individuals – captures social complexity much better because it tracks the information animals use in their everyday lives. Importantly, the origin of large brains in capuchins is independent from that of apes, and thus capuchins offer a second event for researchers to identify selective pressures that led to large brains and sophisticated cognition. In this project, the researchers will examine what social knowledge capuchins have and how they use it day to day. Specifically, they will conduct playback experiments using vocal sequences to test whether white-faced capuchins understand the relative dominance ranks and kin relations of others in their group (“depth” of social knowledge) and whether they recognize and know the ranging patterns of others from neighboring groups (“breadth” of social knowledge). This program will provide data on one of the most important taxa for comparative analyses of primate cognition. The project is jointly supported by NSF's Biological Anthropology program and Behavioral Systems Cluster.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.