In-Group Conformity Sustains Different Foraging Traditions in Capuchin Monkeys (Cebus apella)

Abstract

BackgroundDecades of research have revealed rich cultural repertoires encompassing multiple traditions in wild great apes, a picture crucially complemented by experimental simulations with captive apes. Studies with wild capuchin monkeys, the most encephalized simian species, have indicated a New World convergence on these cultural phenomena, involving multiple traditions and tool use. However, experimental studies to date are in conflict with such findings in concluding that capuchins, like other monkeys, show minimal capacities for social learning.Methodology/Principal FindingsHere we report a new experimental approach in which the alpha male of each of two groups of capuchins was trained to open an artificial foraging device in a quite different way, using either a slide or lift action, then reunited with his group. In each group a majority of monkeys, 8 of 11 and 13 of 14, subsequently mastered the task. Seventeen of the successful 21 monkeys discovered the alternative action to that seeded in the group, performing it a median of 4 times. Nevertheless, all 21 primarily adopted the technique seeded by their group's alpha male. Median proportions of slide versus lift were 0.96 for the group seeded with slide versus 0. 01 for the group seeded with lift.Conclusions/SignificanceThese results suggest a striking effect of social conformity in learned behavioral techniques, consistent with field reports of capuchin traditions and convergent on the only other species in which such cultural phenomena have been reported, chimpanzees and humans.

Observational learning in orangutan cultural transmission chains

“…The same foraging box used by Dindo et al [11,15] was used in the present study. In this box, an opaque door could either be slid or lifted (figure 2).…”

Conformity without majority? The case for demarcating social from majority influences

“…In recent years, majority influence has become a favourable research topic for behavioural biologists. One line of research has focused on our closest living relatives, the nonhuman primates (chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes: Bonnie, Horner, Whiten, & de Waal, 2007;Haun, Rekers, & Tomasello, 2012;Hopper, Schapiro, Lambeth, & Brosnan, 2011;Whiten, Horner, & de Waal, 2005; capuchin monkeys, Cebus apella: Dindo, Thierry, & Whiten, 2008;Dindo, Whiten, & de Waal, 2009;Perry, 2009), which could enable intriguing analysis of the evolutionary roots of this human phenomenon (MacLean et al, 2012). Another line of research has aimed to investigate the possibility of convergent evolution of conformity by focusing on phylogenetically more distant species, such as fish (Day, MacDonald, Brown, Laland, & Reader, 2001;Kendal, Coolen, & Laland, 2004;Pike & Laland, 2010), rats (Galef & Whiskin, 2008;Jolles, de Visser, & van den Bos, 2011;Konopasky & Telegdy, 1977) and fruit flies (Battesti, Moreno, Joly, & Mery, 2012).…”

Social traditions and social learning in capuchin monkeys (Cebus)

“…Later studies employed a two-action method in which an artificial fruit could be opened in one of two ways, and two groups of experimental subjects were exposed to a demonstrator who opened it in only one way. Custance et al's [14] study of human-reared capuchins and human demonstrators produced mixed results, whereas a more recent set of two-action studies, using a transmission chain design in which capuchins observed other capuchins, found much firmer evidence for faithful transmission [15,16]. These researchers drew on the idea that the quality of social relationship between the demonstrator and the observer will affect the fidelity of transmission, such that dyads with close affiliative relationships will have an inherent desire to behave similarly (i.e.…”