Social Knowledge and Signals in Primates

Abstract

Primates are notable for having a rich and detailed understanding of their social environment and there has been great interest in the evolution and function of social knowledge in primates. Indeed, primates have been shown to have impressive understandings of not only other group members but also the complex relationships among them. To be useful, however, social knowledge requires memories from previous encounters and observations about individual traits that are stable. Here, we argue that social systems or traits that make social knowledge more costly or less accurate will favor signals that either supplement or replace social knowledge. Thus, the relationship between signals and social knowledge can be complementary or antagonistic depending on the type of signal. Our goal in this review is to elucidate the relationships between signals and social knowledge in primates. We categorize signals into three types, each with different relationships to social knowledge. (1) Identity signals directly facilitate social knowledge, (2) current-state signals supplement information gained through social knowledge, and (3) badges of status replace social knowledge. Primates rely extensively on identity information, but it remains to be determined to what extent this is based on receiver perception of individual variation or senders using identity signals. Primates frequently utilize current-state signals including signals of intent to augment their interactions with familiar individuals. Badges of status are rare in primates, and the cases where they are used point to a functional and evolutionary trade-off between badges of status and social knowledge. However, the nature of this relationship needs further exploration.

Assessing the potential information content of multicomponent visual signals: a machine learning approach

“…Individual identification would allow age and sex information, as well as information on quality or status, to be learnt in other ways and associated with the corresponding face pattern identity template. Signals of age, sex or quality are more likely to be needed when communicating with unfamiliar individuals because prior experience, learning and memory are not required for them to function effectively; rather, a signal can be compared with a template that may be either learned or innate [63].…”

Color in competition contexts in non-human animals

“…Primate social systems range from solitary, nocturnal mouse lemurs to the highly socially complex multi-male, multi-female societies of chimpanzees, with mating systems that encompass monogamy, polygyny, polyandry and polygynandry (Mitani et al, 2013). This range of social and mating systems makes for interesting cross-species comparisons of the relationship between colour and competition, as well as providing the potential to study the interactions between signals and social knowledge (Bergman & Sheehan, 2012). However, until recently, there have been few studies of primate coloration, in contrast with other colourful taxa, such as birds and fish, (Andersson, 1994;Hill & McGraw, 2006).…”

“…Their blue colour is conspicuous against the background colours of their environment (Renoult et al, 2011;Sumner & Mollon, 2003). These conditions may have favoured the evolution of exaggerated coloration as a badge of status where rivals are either unfamiliar with one another (Preuschoft & van Schaik, 2000), or as a current state signal, where individuals lack up-to-date social knowledge of rivals (Bergman & Sheehan, 2012).…”

The High Price of Success: Costs of Mating Effort in Male Primates

“…ungulates). However, signals that reflect the current state of individuals, augmenting past knowledge, are expected to be important (Bergman & Sheehan 2013). Loud wahoo-calling 'contests' among chacma baboons are a welldocumented example: they are hypothesized to indicate fighting ability ('stamina') as their intensity decreases with age and fatigue (Fischer et al 2004) and males use them to assess potential rivals (Kitchen et al 2013).…”