Evidence for Social Referencing in Young Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)

Abstract

A captive chimpanzee group was observed in order to determine the extent to which the social interactions of the infants and juveniles (18–50 months) were affected by their mothers’ relationships with other adult group members. It was found that the young chimpanzees initiated more interactions with adults who interacted more with their mothers. A vast majority of those interactions occurred at significant distances from the mother. It is argued that these data imply a social-cognitive ability in young chimpanzees closely related to the human infant’s ability to use its mother in ‘social referencing’.

Peer Interaction in Infant Chimpanzees

“…A previous study determined that the fa vorite adult interactants of these 6 infants were their mother's preferred social partners [7], In the current context another question concerning the favorite peer interactants of Overall preference rank of peer interactants as related to the preference rank of the offspring of the preferred adults (Spearman rank correlation coeffi cient r = 0.90; p < 0.05). BR = Brian; KP = Kipper; AN -Anja; GA ■ > Geor gia; RU = Rufus; ST -Storer.…”

“…these infants could be asked: Are their favo rite peer interactants the offspring of their preferred adults and their mother's preferred social partners? Following the procedure of Evans and Tomasello [7], for each mother a preferred social partner ranking of the other 5 mothers was constructed from the scan samples. Infant preferences for adults were based on the relative frequency with which each infant initiated interactions with each of the 5 mothers other than its own.…”

“…Rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatto) mothers allow their pre ferred social partners greater access to their infants than other group members [5], as do chimpanzee mothers [1,2]. When rhesus monkey infants begin to interact with group mates independently, they interact primarily with adults with which their mothers inter act [6], Young captive chimpanzees also in teract more often with their mother's pre ferred social partners; moreover, this rela tive frequency is based mainly on the active choice of the infant [7], There is some evi dence that the peer interactions of young rhesus monkeys are influenced by their mothers' relationships with the mothers of their peers [6]; however, there is little evi dence for chimpanzees, perhaps due in part to the fact that adult female chimpanzees in the wild spend much of their time only with their dependent offspring and relatively little time in temporary parties associating with other community members [e.g. 4,8,9].…”

An Exploratory Study of Social Referencing in Chimpanzees

“…For nonhuman primates there is only one report providing evidence for social ref erencing in chimpanzees [18]. The authors observed a captive chimpanzee group in order to investigate the effect of the mother's relationship with other female adults on the interaction of her offspring with those adults.…”

“…The authors observed a captive chimpanzee group in order to investigate the effect of the mother's relationship with other female adults on the interaction of her offspring with those adults. According to Evans' and Tomasello's observations [18], infant chimpanzees' social interactions were affected by their moth ers' relationship with other adult group members. They concluded that infant and juve nile chimpanzees possess a social-cognitive ability to discern their mothers' relation ships with various individuals and to adjust their behavior accordingly.…”