Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T06:51:07.690Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Refining our understanding of the “elephant in the room”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 August 2020

Andrew Whiten Open the ORCID record for Andrew Whiten [Opens in a new window]
Andrew Whiten*
Affiliation:
Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St AndrewsKY16 9JP, UK. [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The authors do the field of cultural evolution a service by exploring the role of non-social cognition in human cumulative technological culture, truly neglected in comparison with socio-cognitive abilities frequently assumed to be the primary drivers. Some specifics of their delineation of the critical factors are problematic, however. I highlight recent chimpanzee–human comparative findings that should help refine such analyses.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 43 , 2020 , e182
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Davis, S. J., Schapiro, S. J., Lambeth, S. P., Wood, L. A. & Whiten, A. (2018) Behavioral conservatism is linked to complexity of behavior in chimpanzees: Implications for cognition and cumulative culture. Journal of Comparative Psychology 133:20–35. doi: 10.1037/com0000123.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Davis, S. J., Vale, G. L., Schapiro, S. J., Lambeth, S. P. & Whiten, A. (2016) Foundations of cumulative culture in apes: Improved foraging efficiency through social learning and the inhibition and combination of behaviours in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Scientific Reports 6:35953.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Horner, V. & Whiten, A. (2005) Causal knowledge and imitation/emulation switching in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and children (Homo sapiens). Animal Cognition 8(3):164–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuczaj, S. A. (2017) Animal creativity and innovation. In: APA handbooks in psychology®. APA handbook of comparative psychology: Perception, learning, and cognition. ed. Call, J., Burghardt, G. M., Pepperberg, I. M., Snowdon, C. T. & Zentall, T., pp. 627–41. American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000012-028.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marshall-Pescini, S. & Whiten, A. (2008) Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and the question of cumulative culture: An experimental approach. Animal Cognition 11:449–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mithen, S. (1996a) The prehistory of the mind. Thames and Hudson.Google Scholar
Seed, A. & Mayer, C. (2017) Problem-solving. In: APA handbook of comparative psychology vol. 2: Perception, learning and cognition. ed. Call, J., pp. 601–25. American Psychological Association.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stout, D., Rogers, M. J., Jaeggi, A. V. & Semaw, S. (2019) Archaeology and the origins of human cumulative culture. A case study from the earliest Oldowan at Gona, Ethiopia. Current Anthropology 60:309–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tennie, C., Call, J. & Tomasello, M. (2010) Evidence for emulation in chimpanzees in social settings using the floating peanut task. PLoS One 5:e10544.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vale, G. L., Davis, S. J., Lambeth, S. P., Schapiro, S. J. & Whiten, A. (2017) Acquisition of a socially learned tool use sequence in chimpanzees: Implications for cumulative culture. Evolution and Human Behavior 38:635–644.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Visalberghi, E., Sabbatini, G., Taylor, A. H. & Hunt, G. R. (2017) Cognitive insights from tool use in nonhuman animals. In: APA handbook of comparative psychology vol. 2: Perception, learning and cognition, ed. Call, J., pp. 673–701. American Psychological Association.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Völter, C. J. & Call, J. (2017) Causal and inferential reasoning in animals. In: APA handbook of comparative psychology vol. 2: Perception, learning and cognition, ed. Call, J., pp. 643–71. American Psychological Association.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whiten, A., Horner, V. & Marshall-Pescini, S. R. J. (2003) Cultural panthropology. Evolutionary Anthropolology 12:92–105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whiten, A., McGuigan, H., Marshall-Pescini, S. & Hopper, L. M. (2009) Imitation, over-imitation, emulation and the scope of culture for child and chimpanzee. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 364:2417–28.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed