An Exploratory Study of Social Referencing in Chimpanzees

Itakura, Shoji

doi:10.1159/000156831

Cited by 12 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…The observed behavior could instead be explained as a direct result of individual relationships between the young chimpanzees and the adult females. More recently, Itakura (1995) investigated the responses of captive mother–infant pairs of chimpanzees to novel objects in a preliminary study of social referencing and found that infants engaged in contact-seeking behavior more often in the presence of the novel objects than in their absence. Although each of these studies contributes to our understanding of social cognition or social processes in primates, the lack of measurement of eye gaze and the absence of the presentation of differential emotional messages preclude any conclusion about the occurrence of social referencing.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Social referencing by young chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).

Russell

Bard²,

Adamson³

1997

Journal of Comparative Psychology

112

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Social referencing is the seeking of information from another individual and the use of that information to evaluate a situation. It is a well-documented ability in human infants but has not been studied experimentally in nonhuman primates. Seventeen young nursery-reared chimpanzees (14 to 41 months old) were observed in a standard social referencing paradigm in which they received happy and fear messages concerning novel objects from a familiar human caregiver. Each chimpanzee looked referentially at their caregiver, and the emotional messages that they received differentially influenced their gaze behavior and avoidance of the novel objects. It is concluded that chimpanzees can acquire information about their complex social and physical environments through social referencing and can use emotional information to alter their own behavior.

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

Social referencing by young chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).

Russell

Bard²,

Adamson³

1997

Journal of Comparative Psychology

112

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show abstract

“…Social referencing does not seem to be an ability that is specific to human infants. Itakura (1995) observed motherinfant pairs of chimpanzees and found that infants were more likely to seek contact with their mother when novel objects were present, suggesting that they could be engaging in social referencing. In a more controlled experiment, similar to those used with infants, Russell et al (1997) demonstrated that young chimpanzees made referential looks to a familiar human caregiver and modified their behavior toward novel toys based on the caregiver's reactions of happiness or fear.…”

Section: Social Referencing In Nonhumansmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Referencing during Infancy and Early Childhood across Cultures

Fawcett

Liszkowski

2015

International Encyclopedia of the Social &Amp; Behavioral Sciences

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The article reviews the state of knowledge on infants' social referencing. The developmental course of social referencing throughout infancy is described, as well as current debates on the motivation behind social referencing. Variation in social referencing depending on the type or information, information source, and characteristics of the infant are described. Finally, cultural variation and the presence of social referencing in nonhumans are discussed.

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“…This developmental difference suggests that learning is involved in the emergence of gaze-following. Other data indicate that young primates often engage in "social referencing"-that is, checking the faces of older animals, especially their mothers, when faced with novel or frightening stimuli, presumably to determine and mimic their reactions (Mineka et al, 1984;Itakura, 1995;Russell et al, 1997; see also Gomez, 1996). Given that some of the most effective tests of gaze-following depend upon the experimenter first securing the subject's full attention to his face (see especially Itakura, 1996;Povinelli & Eddy, 1996a), it may be worth investigating whether looking to the face of others for cues as to how to respond also plays a role in primates' learning to follow attentional cues.…”

Section: Co-orientation Tests Of Gaze-followingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Attention in Nonhuman Primates: A Behavioral Review

Johnson

Karin-D’Arcy²

2006

aquatic mammals

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Social attention involves attention directed toward other individuals, as well as the coordination of attention among individuals. This topic has been the focus of much recent research with nonhuman primates. In this review, we focus on the behavior of the participants in this research-both the animals and the humans-rather than on its cognitive implications. After briefly reviewing theoretical issues and the sensorimotor constraints on primate attention, we describe the ethological and experimental work that has been done. The former, involving observational studies in field and captive settings, focuses on the functions of social attention and on differences in traditional and contemporary micro-ethological techniques. The experimental work is organized in terms of the types of social relationships-solicitous, competitive, collaborative-that the various paradigms establish between subjects or between subject and experimenter. These include co-orientation (gazefollowing) tasks, food-sharing tasks (such as conditional begging, donor choice, and object choice tasks), conspecific competition (such as occluder and informed leader tasks), and collaborative cue production (where subjects must cue an ignorant experimenter). In all of these tasks, we report the relative effectiveness of various attentional cues, including use of the hands (e.g., touching, pointing) and orientation of the body, head, and eyes. In our final discussion, we consider differences in focus in the observational vs experimental approaches (on negotiating social relationships vs access to food, respectively) and suggest ways in which the methods in these two arenas might be successfully integrated. We also discuss the advantages of considering the "ecology" of the laboratory setting and how recognizing the social and perceptual configurations established by different protocols can aid in their interpretation and design. Finally, we discuss the prevalence of individual differences in this research and how this underscores the importance of rearing history and other contextual factors in primate social attention.

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An Exploratory Study of Social Referencing in Chimpanzees

Cited by 12 publications

References 6 publications

Social referencing by young chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).

Social referencing by young chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).

Social Referencing during Infancy and Early Childhood across Cultures

Social Attention in Nonhuman Primates: A Behavioral Review

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