Whom do children copy? Model-based biases in social learning

Wood, Lara A.; Kendal, Rachel L.; Flynn, Emma

doi:10.1016/j.dr.2013.08.002

Cited by 137 publications

(141 citation statements)

References 110 publications

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“…Indeed, in our rice carrying task, all first-generation children copied the adult's use of the most inefficient tool, the small piece of cardboard, when it was demonstrated pedagogically. It was only once children were observing peers, rather than adults, performing the task that the inefficient tool choices started to drop out -in line with other studies showing that children usually copy adults more closely than peers (for a review see Wood, Kendal, & Flynn, 2013). Thus children's well-documented tendency to overimitate might compete with their tendency to innovate at this age.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 73%

Limitations to the cultural ratchet effect in young children

Tennie

Walter

Gampe

et al. 2014

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 73%

Limitations to the cultural ratchet effect in young children

Tennie

Walter

Gampe

et al. 2014

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

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“…Indeed, a previous study of the same population found a tendency for sons of mothers who more frequently associated with adult males during their immaturity to achieve higher rank as adults (37). Theory and empirical research predict that individuals will exhibit biases in which models they choose to observe to avoid unreliable information and maximize the transfer of useful information (56)(57)(58). Importantly, there is evidence that young male chimpanzees attend to same-sex models and sex-typical behavior.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early social exposure in wild chimpanzees: Mothers with sons are more gregarious than mothers with daughters

Murray

Lonsdorf

Stanton

et al. 2014

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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In many mammals, early social experience is critical to developing species-appropriate adult behaviors. Although mother-infant interactions play an undeniably significant role in social development, other individuals in the social milieu may also influence infant outcomes. Additionally, the social skills necessary for adult success may differ between the sexes. In chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), adult males are more gregarious than females and rely on a suite of competitive and cooperative relationships to obtain access to females. In fission-fusion species, including humans and chimpanzees, subgroup composition is labile and individuals can vary the number of individuals with whom they associate. Thus, mothers in these species have a variety of social options. In this study, we investigated whether wild chimpanzee maternal subgrouping patterns differed based on infant sex. Our results show that mothers of sons were more gregarious than mothers of daughters; differences were especially pronounced during the first 6 mo of life, when infant behavior is unlikely to influence maternal subgrouping. Furthermore, mothers with sons spent significantly more time in parties containing males during the first 6 mo. These early differences foreshadow the well-documented sex differences in adult social behavior, and maternal gregariousness may provide sons with important observational learning experiences and social exposure early in life. The presence of these patterns in chimpanzees raises questions concerning the evolutionary history of differential social exposure and its role in shaping sex-typical behavior in humans.infant socialization | maternal behavior | chimpanzees | fission-fusion species E arly socialization is critical to developing social competency later in life. In mammals, mothers have enormous influence on their offspring's early social experience, with implications for adult social behavior. In humans, the relative contribution of parental and others' social influence on the development of sextypical behavior receives considerable attention and is often debated (1-4). Comparative research provides insight into the origins and development of sex differences in the absence of human cultural sex socialization. Decades of research in rodent and primate models have demonstrated that social deprivation curtails the development of species-appropriate behaviors (5-8) and cognition (9, 10). Primate mothers are critical for the normal social development of their infants (11-13), with classic studies demonstrating that maternal deprivation is associated with intense anxiety (14), inappropriate aggression (15), and an inability to form social relationships (16). The mother-infant relationship is therefore critical to proper social development; however, research also demonstrates the importance of the larger social milieu (17)(18)(19)(20). For example, a recent study in mice found that early interactions with mothers and peers independently shape adult behavior (21). Likewise, some negative impacts of maternal deprivati...

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“…Another 656 explanation of this first-touch divergence is that capuchins had less understanding of the taskmaterial than the children and tried to access the reward through the transparent plastic. conservatism in the no-demonstration conditions is surprising given that previous work with 673 five-year-olds has shown that personal exploration may encourage multiple-method adoption 674 (Wood, Flynn, & Kendal, 2013). An age difference may explain these differences.…”

Section: Divergent Behavioral Patterns 598mentioning

confidence: 91%

Visible spatial contiguity of social information and reward affects social learning in brown capuchins (Sapajus apella) and children (Homo sapiens).

Wood

Whiten

2017

Journal of Comparative Psychology

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Animal social learning is typically studied experimentally by the presentation of artificial 25 foraging tasks. Although productive, results are often variable even for the same species. We 26 present and test the hypothesis that one cause of variation is that spatial distance between 27 rewards and the means of reward release causes conflicts for participants' attentional focus. 28We investigated whether spatial contiguity between a visible reward and the means of release 29 would affect behavioral responses that evidence social learning, testing 21 brown capuchins 30 (Sapajus apella), a much studied species with variant evidence for social learning, and 180 31 two-to four-year old human children (Homo sapiens), a benchmark species known for a 32 strong social learning disposition. Participants were presented with a novel transparent 33 apparatus where a reward was either proximal or distal to a demonstrated means of releasing 34 it. A distal reward location decreased attention towards the location of the demonstration and 35 impaired subsequent success in gaining rewards. Generally, the capuchins produced the 36 alternative method to that demonstrated whereas children copied the method demonstrated, 37 although a distal reward location reduced copying in younger children. We conclude that 38 some design features in common social learning tasks may significantly degrade the evidence 39 for social learning. We have demonstrated this for two different primates but suggest that it is 40 a significant factor to control for in social learning research across all taxa. 41 42

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Whom do children copy? Model-based biases in social learning

Cited by 137 publications

References 110 publications

Limitations to the cultural ratchet effect in young children

Limitations to the cultural ratchet effect in young children

Early social exposure in wild chimpanzees: Mothers with sons are more gregarious than mothers with daughters

Visible spatial contiguity of social information and reward affects social learning in brown capuchins (Sapajus apella) and children (Homo sapiens).

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