Social learning and teaching in chimpanzees

Authors: Richard Moore

Publish Date: 2013/07/03

Volume: 28, Issue: 6, Pages: 879-901

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Abstract

There is increasing evidence that some behavioural differences between groups of chimpanzees can be attributed neither to genetic nor to ecological variation Such differences are likely to be maintained by social learning While humans teach their offspring and acquire cultural traits through imitative learning there is little evidence of such behaviours in chimpanzees However by appealing only to incremental changes in motivation attention and attentionsoliciting behaviour and without expensive changes in cognition we can hypothesise the possible emergence of imitation and pedagogy in evolutionary historyThanks to Matthias Allritz Cathy Crockford Gergely Csibra Edwin van Leeuwen Lydia Luncz Claudio Tennie Roman Wittig and two anonymous reviewers for comments on and discussions relating to drafts of this material and to Edwin van Leeuwen Mark Bodamer and the Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage Trust for photographs of the grooming handclasp in Fig 1

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