Acquisition of linguistic and cognitive skills in chimpanzees and the social transfer across generations

本研究旨在澄清实验室和野外黑猩猩的语言和认知功能，重点关注技能的获取机制和个体之间特别是跨代之间的社会转移。我们研究了工具的使用，特别是在野外使用石器工具，并探索了实验室显示的以下认知技能：人类语言和手势的理解、人工语言视觉符号的获取、数字的理解和使用、包括生物运动主题在内的视觉信息处理、视觉搜索范式中的特征提取机制、自然概念的建立、符号的理解和使用、视频图像的序列识别等。实验室工作和实地工作旨在澄清在每个个体水平上获得的认知技能的社会传播。知识和技能如何从一个人转移到另一个人？在非洲的实地工作侧重于工具的使用，特别是石器工具的使用和基于纵向研究的发展过程。研究证明，儿童在3.5岁至5岁之间有一个技能习得的“关键期”。年轻的黑猩猩需要9到10年的时间才能达到成年黑猩猩的精细水平。以下几点可能为技能从模特到学徒的跨代社会传递提供重要依据；“学徒仔细而长期的观察”、“学徒强烈的模仿动机”、“模特对学徒的社会宽容”、“模特不主动教学，但表现出良好的模特行为”等。实验证明了以下几点。在面对面情境下的模仿研究表明，黑猩猩在没有物体的情况下很难模仿简单的运动模式。这与模仿涉及物体的动作相对容易的事实形成了对比。对黑猩猩模型学徒实验的研究表明，在第一次尝试之前和自己失败后，学徒黑猩猩会在以下两种情况下去观察模型黑猩猩。为了进一步研究母婴认知技能的垂直传递，我们对3只黑猩猩进行了人工授精受孕。除了上述对黑猩猩的研究外，我们还对猩猩、长臂猿和猕猴进行了比较研究。研究结果已发表在包括《自然》在内的主要期刊上。少

The present study aimed to clarify the linguistic and cognitive functions in chimpanzees both in the laboratory and in the wild, focusing on the mechanism of acquiring the skills and the social transfer among individuals especially across generations. We studied the tool use, especially stone-tool use in the wild, and also explored the following cognitive skills shown in the laboratory : Comprehension of human speech and gestural signs, acquisition of visual symbols for the artificial language, comprehension and use of number, visual information processing including the topics of biological motion, the mechanism of extracting features in visual search paradigm, establishment of natural concepts, comprehension and use of tokens, serial recognition of video images, and so forth. The laboratory works and the field works aimed to clarify the social propagation of the cognitive skills that have been acquired in each individual level. How the knowledge and skills can be transferred from one … More individual to the others? The field work in Africa focused on the tool use especially stone-tool use and the developmental process based on the longitudinal study. It proved that there was a "critical period" at the age of 3.5 to 5 years old for the acquisition of the skills. It took 9 to 10 years for the young chimpanzees to reach to the refined level of the adults. The following points may provide important basis for the social transmission of the skills from the model to the apprentice across generation ; "careful and long-term observation by the apprentice", "the strong motivation to imitate by the apprentice", "social tolerance of the model toward the apprentice", "No active teaching by the model but showing the good model behavior", etc. The laboratory works proved the following points. The study of imitation in a face to face situation revealed that the imitation of simple motor pattern without objects was difficult for the chimpanzees. This contrasted the fact that the imitation of the action involving the objects was relatively easier. The study of chimpanzee model-apprentice experiments revealed that an apprentice chimpanzee went to observe the model chimpanzee in the following two occasions, before doing the first attempt and right after his/her own failure. For the future study of the vertical transmission of the cognitive skills between the mothers and the infants, we carried out the artificial insemination to have three chimpanzees pregnant. In addition to the above described studies on chimpanzees, we did the comparative studies on orangutans, gibbons, and macaques. The results have been published in the leading journals including "Nature". Less