 The cognitive abilities of human and non-human animals have evolved to solve daily problems encountered in the social and non-social environment. Our aim is to understand the ecological and social factors shaping cognitive abilities in great apes. Our main interests are the evolution of culture and cognition, including the ecological context of these traits and the ability to understand other individuals as intentional agents with their own knowledge, desires and beliefs.
Cultural behaviors are interesting because they are transmitted between individuals through mechanisms of social learning, and they are acquired and maintained independently of ecological factors, like food availability or behaviour of prey species. Chimpanzees are an ideal model system to address the question of non-human cultures because different populations exhibit remarkable differences in their behavioral repertoires. We investigate differences in the behavior and tool use (e.g. nut-cracking, termite fishing, ant-dipping) between different populations by conducting research at three sites in West and Central Africa covering the two respective subspecies (Pan troglodytes verus and P.t. troglodytes). We also take part in a collaborative project with researchers from twelve sites across the whole range of chimpanzees, including East African chimpanzees (P.t. schweinfurthii).
Current topics of research on culture and cognition include:
- field experiments to investigate different aspects of physical and social cognition
- social influences on the acquisition of foraging behavior in wild chimpanzees
- inter- and intra-specific differences between chimpanzees and bonobos (Pan paniscus) in the foraging context, including tool use
- spatial orientation in wild chimpanzees
- referential signaling in wild and captive bonobos
Culture Conference: http://www.eva.mpg.de/primat/Culture2005/index.html
|
