Spontaneous emergence, imitation and spread of alternative foraging techniques among groups of vervet monkeys.

Animal social learning has become a subject of broad interest, but demonstrations of bodily imitation in animals remain rare. Based on Voelkl and Huber's study of imitation by marmosets, we tested four groups of semi-captive vervet monkeys presented with food in modified film canisters ("a...

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Autores principales:	Erica van de Waal, Andrew Whiten
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2012
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/79eaddc20ce445868a4e84d896aea8fe
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:79eaddc20ce445868a4e84d896aea8fe2021-11-18T08:12:31ZSpontaneous emergence, imitation and spread of alternative foraging techniques among groups of vervet monkeys.1932-620310.1371/journal.pone.0047008https://doaj.org/article/79eaddc20ce445868a4e84d896aea8fe2012-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/23071698/?tool=EBIhttps://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203Animal social learning has become a subject of broad interest, but demonstrations of bodily imitation in animals remain rare. Based on Voelkl and Huber's study of imitation by marmosets, we tested four groups of semi-captive vervet monkeys presented with food in modified film canisters ("aethipops'). One individual was trained to take the tops off canisters in each group and demonstrated five openings to them. In three groups these models used their mouth to remove the lid, but in one of the groups the model also spontaneously pulled ropes on a canister to open it. In the last group the model preferred to remove the lid with her hands. Following these spontaneous differentiations of foraging techniques in the models, we observed the techniques used by the other group members to open the canisters. We found that mouth opening was the most common technique overall, but the rope and hands methods were used significantly more in groups they were demonstrated in than in groups where they were not. Our results show bodily matching that is conventionally described as imitation. We discuss the relevance of these findings to discoveries about mirror neurons, and implications of the identity of the model for social transmission.Erica van de WaalAndrew WhitenPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleMedicineRScienceQENPLoS ONE, Vol 7, Iss 10, p e47008 (2012)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Erica van de Waal Andrew Whiten Spontaneous emergence, imitation and spread of alternative foraging techniques among groups of vervet monkeys.
description	Animal social learning has become a subject of broad interest, but demonstrations of bodily imitation in animals remain rare. Based on Voelkl and Huber's study of imitation by marmosets, we tested four groups of semi-captive vervet monkeys presented with food in modified film canisters ("aethipops'). One individual was trained to take the tops off canisters in each group and demonstrated five openings to them. In three groups these models used their mouth to remove the lid, but in one of the groups the model also spontaneously pulled ropes on a canister to open it. In the last group the model preferred to remove the lid with her hands. Following these spontaneous differentiations of foraging techniques in the models, we observed the techniques used by the other group members to open the canisters. We found that mouth opening was the most common technique overall, but the rope and hands methods were used significantly more in groups they were demonstrated in than in groups where they were not. Our results show bodily matching that is conventionally described as imitation. We discuss the relevance of these findings to discoveries about mirror neurons, and implications of the identity of the model for social transmission.
format	article
author	Erica van de Waal Andrew Whiten
author_facet	Erica van de Waal Andrew Whiten
author_sort	Erica van de Waal
title	Spontaneous emergence, imitation and spread of alternative foraging techniques among groups of vervet monkeys.
title_short	Spontaneous emergence, imitation and spread of alternative foraging techniques among groups of vervet monkeys.
title_full	Spontaneous emergence, imitation and spread of alternative foraging techniques among groups of vervet monkeys.
title_fullStr	Spontaneous emergence, imitation and spread of alternative foraging techniques among groups of vervet monkeys.
title_full_unstemmed	Spontaneous emergence, imitation and spread of alternative foraging techniques among groups of vervet monkeys.
title_sort	spontaneous emergence, imitation and spread of alternative foraging techniques among groups of vervet monkeys.
publisher	Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate	2012
url	https://doaj.org/article/79eaddc20ce445868a4e84d896aea8fe
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Spontaneous emergence, imitation and spread of alternative foraging techniques among groups of vervet monkeys.

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