Journal
JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY
Volume 128, Issue 2, Pages 215-223Publisher
AMER PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOC
DOI: 10.1037/a0034420
Keywords
public information; social information; social learning; social cognition
Funding
- Durham University health and social science interdisciplinary studentship
- Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship
- Durham University Seedcorn Fund
- United States Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health Grant [NIH RR-15090]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The discernment of resource quality is pertinent to many daily decisions faced by animals. Public information is a critical information source that promotes quality assessments, attained by monitoring others' performance. Here we provide the first evidence, to our knowledge, that chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) use public information to guide resource selection. Thirty-two chimpanzees were presented with two simultaneous video demonstrations depicting a conspecific acquiring resources at a fast (resource-rich) or slow (resource-poor) rate. Subsequently, subjects selected the resource-rich site above chance expectation. As a comparison, we report evidence of public information use in young children. Investigation of public information use in primates is pertinent, as it can enhance foraging success and potentially facilitate payoff-biased social learning.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available