Abstract: This pilot study shows that wild bonobos display the fundamental temporal rules of vocal 21 turn-taking 22 Occurrences of calling patterns are in line with the unique observation collected from a 23 captive group 24 Calling patterns do not differ significantly with age and sex
“…For several decades, great apes have been investigated regarding their gestural, vocal, and bimodal communication (e.g., Call and Tomasello, 2007;Genty et al, 2009;Slocombe et al, 2011). Consequently, this attention has also resulted in several studies addressing turn-taking skills in great apes, with a considerable research bias on chimpanzees and bonobos (e.g., Rossano, 2013;Fröhlich et al, 2016c;Genty, 2019) as well as adult individuals (e.g., Luef and Pika, 2017;Levréro et al, 2019;Pougnault et al, 2021b;Cornec et al, 2022). While studying turn-taking in our closest living relatives is crucial and may aid in developing, in comparison with data from modern humans, more accurate estimates of our extinct ancestors (e.g., Wrangham, 1987;Gruber and Clay, 2016;Muller, 2018), these studies offer only limited insight into abilities derived by convergent evolution (e.g., Emery and Clayton, 2004).…”
Section: Species and Methodological Biasmentioning
How human language evolved remains one of the most intriguing questions in science, and different approaches have been used to tackle this question. A recent hypothesis, the Interaction Engine Hypothesis, postulates that language was made possible through the special capacity for social interaction involving different social cognitive skills (e.g., joint attention, common ground) and specific characteristics such as face-to-face interaction, mutual gaze and turn-taking, the exchange of rapid communicative turns. Recently, it has been argued that this turn-taking infrastructure may be a foundational and ancient mechanism of the layered system of language because communicative turn-taking has been found in human infants and across several non-human primate species. Moreover, there is some evidence for turn-taking in different mammalian taxa, especially those capable of vocal learning. Surprisingly, however, the existing studies have mainly focused on turn-taking production of adult individuals, while little is known about its emergence and development in young individuals. Hence, the aim of the current paper was 2-fold: First, we carried out a systematic review of turn-taking development and acquisition in mammals to evaluate possible research bias and existing gaps. Second, we highlight research avenues to spur more research into this domain and investigate if distinct turn-taking elements can be found in other non-human animal species. Since mammals exhibit an extended development period, including learning and strong parental care, they represent an excellent model group in which to investigate the acquisition and development of turn-taking abilities. We performed a systematic review including a wide range of terms and found 21 studies presenting findings on turn-taking abilities in infants and juveniles. Most of these studies were from the last decade, showing an increased interest in this field over the years. Overall, we found a considerable variation in the terminologies and methodological approaches used. In addition, studies investigating turn-taking abilities across different development periods and in relation to different social partners were very rare, thereby hampering direct, systematic comparisons within and across species. Nonetheless, the results of some studies suggested that specific turn-taking elements are innate, while others are acquired during development (e.g., flexibility). Finally, we pinpoint fruitful research avenues and hypotheses to move the field of turn-taking development forward and improve our understanding of the impact of turn-taking on language evolution.
“…For several decades, great apes have been investigated regarding their gestural, vocal, and bimodal communication (e.g., Call and Tomasello, 2007;Genty et al, 2009;Slocombe et al, 2011). Consequently, this attention has also resulted in several studies addressing turn-taking skills in great apes, with a considerable research bias on chimpanzees and bonobos (e.g., Rossano, 2013;Fröhlich et al, 2016c;Genty, 2019) as well as adult individuals (e.g., Luef and Pika, 2017;Levréro et al, 2019;Pougnault et al, 2021b;Cornec et al, 2022). While studying turn-taking in our closest living relatives is crucial and may aid in developing, in comparison with data from modern humans, more accurate estimates of our extinct ancestors (e.g., Wrangham, 1987;Gruber and Clay, 2016;Muller, 2018), these studies offer only limited insight into abilities derived by convergent evolution (e.g., Emery and Clayton, 2004).…”
Section: Species and Methodological Biasmentioning
How human language evolved remains one of the most intriguing questions in science, and different approaches have been used to tackle this question. A recent hypothesis, the Interaction Engine Hypothesis, postulates that language was made possible through the special capacity for social interaction involving different social cognitive skills (e.g., joint attention, common ground) and specific characteristics such as face-to-face interaction, mutual gaze and turn-taking, the exchange of rapid communicative turns. Recently, it has been argued that this turn-taking infrastructure may be a foundational and ancient mechanism of the layered system of language because communicative turn-taking has been found in human infants and across several non-human primate species. Moreover, there is some evidence for turn-taking in different mammalian taxa, especially those capable of vocal learning. Surprisingly, however, the existing studies have mainly focused on turn-taking production of adult individuals, while little is known about its emergence and development in young individuals. Hence, the aim of the current paper was 2-fold: First, we carried out a systematic review of turn-taking development and acquisition in mammals to evaluate possible research bias and existing gaps. Second, we highlight research avenues to spur more research into this domain and investigate if distinct turn-taking elements can be found in other non-human animal species. Since mammals exhibit an extended development period, including learning and strong parental care, they represent an excellent model group in which to investigate the acquisition and development of turn-taking abilities. We performed a systematic review including a wide range of terms and found 21 studies presenting findings on turn-taking abilities in infants and juveniles. Most of these studies were from the last decade, showing an increased interest in this field over the years. Overall, we found a considerable variation in the terminologies and methodological approaches used. In addition, studies investigating turn-taking abilities across different development periods and in relation to different social partners were very rare, thereby hampering direct, systematic comparisons within and across species. Nonetheless, the results of some studies suggested that specific turn-taking elements are innate, while others are acquired during development (e.g., flexibility). Finally, we pinpoint fruitful research avenues and hypotheses to move the field of turn-taking development forward and improve our understanding of the impact of turn-taking on language evolution.
“…B 377: 20210092 of three layers with phylogenetically shared, convergently derived, and uniquely derived features. There appears to be a shared core, including features like multimodal face-to-face signalling [76], turn-taking [21,22,77,78], sequence organization [21,23,24,79], self-initiated repair [25,26,80,81] and some behavioural correlates linked to joint commitment [23,[27][28][29].…”
Section: Do Nonhuman Species Exhibit Components Of the Interaction En...mentioning
confidence: 99%
“…In this synthesis, articles within and beyond the theme issue acknowledge that the human interaction engine is composed of a set of three layers with phylogenetically shared, convergently derived, and uniquely derived features. There appears to be a shared core, including features like multimodal face-to-face signalling [ 76 ], turn-taking [ 21 , 22 , 77 , 78 ], sequence organization [ 21 , 23 , 24 , 79 ], self-initiated repair [ 25 , 26 , 80 , 81 ] and some behavioural correlates linked to joint commitment [ 23 , 27 – 29 ]. Figure 1 Overview of the contributions of this theme issue, indicating for each the covered interaction engine layer(s) and their discussed origins, study species and article type.…”
Section: Do Nonhuman Species Exhibit Components Of the Interaction En...mentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Turn-taking is thus an uncertain case, as it is has been discovered in the form of different communicative modalities and in primates that are not necessarily closely related, such as humans, different species of great apes, and callitrichid monkeys. For this reason, we acknowledge that specific human turn-taking capacities could be in part shared with the great apes [ 21 , 22 , 77 , 78 ] and in part convergently derived [ 11 , 82 ].…”
Section: Do Nonhuman Species Exhibit Components Of the Interaction En...mentioning
The evolution of language was likely facilitated by a special predisposition for social interaction, involving a set of communicative and cognitive skills summarized as the ‘interaction engine'. This assemblage seems to emerge early in development, to be found universally across cultures, and to enable participation in sophisticated joint action through the addition of spoken language. Yet, new evidence on social action coordination and communication in nonhuman primates warrants an update of the interaction engine hypothesis, particularly with respect to the evolutionary origins of its specific ingredients. However, one enduring problem for comparative research results from a conceptual gulf between disciplines, rendering it difficult to test concepts derived from human interaction research in nonhuman animals. The goal of this theme issue is to make such concepts accessible for comparative research, to promote a fruitful interdisciplinary debate on social action coordination as a new arena of research, and to enable mutual fertilization between human and nonhuman interaction research. In consequence, we here consider relevant theoretical and empirical research within and beyond this theme issue to revisit the interaction engine's shared, convergently derived and uniquely derived ingredients preceding (or perhaps in the last case, succeeding) human language.
This article is part of the theme issue ‘Revisiting the human ‘interaction engine’: comparative approaches to social action coordination’.
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