A Longitudinal Study of Great Ape Cognition: Stability, Reliability and the Influence of Individual Characteristics

Bohn, Manuel; Eckert, Johanna; Hanuš, Daniel; Haun, Daniel B. M.

doi:10.31234/osf.io/pdt5w

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Individuals contribute to group defence when they expect (members of) out-groups to initiate group conflict (∂ p i /∂ β > 0) [ 23 , 97 , 108 , 109 ]. Indeed, humans strike pre-emptively to neutralize the threat from out-groups [ 110 , 111 ], primates such as verreaux's sifakas ( Propithecus verreauxi ) are more likely to join intergroup conflict the more actively participating individuals are in the out-group [ 112 ], and meerkats perform energetically costly ‘on-guard’ behaviours to warn their group mates against predators and enemy conspecifics [ 113 ].…”

Section: Initiating and Escalating Intergroup Conflictmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intergroup conflict: origins, dynamics and consequences across taxa

Dreu

Triki

2022

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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Although uniquely destructive and wasteful, intergroup conflict and warfare are not confined to humans. They are seen across a range of group-living species, from social insects, fishes and birds to mammals, including nonhuman primates. With its unique collection of theory, research and review contributions from biology, anthropology and economics, this theme issue provides novel insights into intergroup conflict across taxa. Here, we introduce and organize this theme issue on the origins and consequences of intergroup conflict. We provide a coherent framework by modelling intergroup conflicts as multi-level games of strategy in which individuals within groups cooperate to compete with (individuals in) other groups for scarce resources, such as territory, food, mating opportunities, power and influence. Within this framework, we identify cross-species mechanisms and consequences of (participating in) intergroup conflict. We conclude by highlighting crosscutting innovations in the study of intergroup conflict set forth by individual contributions. These include, among others, insights on how within-group heterogeneities and leadership relate to group conflict, how intergroup conflict shapes social organization and how climate change and environmental degradation transition intergroup relations from peaceful coexistence to violent conflict. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Intergroup conflict across taxa’.

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Section: Initiating and Escalating Intergroup Conflictmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intergroup conflict: origins, dynamics and consequences across taxa

Dreu

Triki

2022

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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“…This assumption can be argued to hold for humans: one good estimate of overall cognitive performance, IQ, shows only a very modest effect of the sex difference in body size [Irwing, and Lynn, 2005]. In addition, cognitive test batteries applied to various species find no effects of body size, including sex differences among dimorphic species [reviewed in van Schaik et al, 2021; see also Bohn et al, 2021]. The markedly higher value of the intraspecific slope in ectotherms than endotherms, therefore, raises the question of whether adult ectotherms of different sizes also show cognitive equivalence or whether larger and hence older individuals outperform smaller ones.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relative brain size and cognitive equivalence in fishes

Triki

Aellen

Schaik

et al. 2021

Preprint

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There are two well-established facts about vertebrate brains: brains are physiologically costly organs, and both absolute and relative brain size varies greatly between and within the major vertebrate clades. While the costs are relatively clear, scientists struggle to establish how larger brains translate into higher cognitive performance. Part of the challenge is that intuitively larger brains are needed to control larger bodies without any changes in cognitive performance. Therefore, body size needs to be controlled for in order to establish the slope of cognitive equivalence between animals of different sizes. Potentially, intraspecific slopes provide the best available estimate of how an increase in body size translates into an increase in brain size without changes in cognitive performance. Here, we provide slope estimates for brain-body sizes and for cognition-body in wild-caught cleaner fish Labroides dimidiatus. The cleaners' cognitive performance was estimated from four different cognitive tasks that tested for learning, numerical, and inhibitory control abilities. The cognitive performance was found to be rather independent of body size, while brain-body slopes from two datasets gave the values of 0.58 (MRI scans data) and 0.47 (dissection data). These values can hence represent estimates of intraspecific cognitive equivalence for this species. Furthermore, another dataset of brain-body slopes estimated from 14 different fish species, gave a mean slope of 0.5, and hence rather similar to that of cleaners. This slope is very similar to the encephalisation quotients for ectotherm higher taxa, i.e. teleost fishes, amphibians and reptiles (0.5). The slope is much higher than what has been found in endotherm vertebrate species (0.3). Together, it suggests that endo- and ectotherm brain organisations and resulting cognitive performances are fundamentally different.

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“…However, we do not favour this interpretation. The apes from this population are used to participate in choice scenarios where food rewards might be completely or partially covered by an opaque object (see [ 45 ] for a recent longitudinal task conducted on the same apes employing opaque cups in some of their tasks).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative curiosity: How do great apes and children deal with uncertainty?

Sánchez-Amaro

Rossano

2023

PLoS ONE

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Humans are perhaps the most curious animals on earth, but to what extent our innate motivations for discovering new information are shared with our closest relatives remain poorly understood. To shed light on this question, we presented great apes with two experimental paradigms in which they had to initially choose between an empty opaque cup and a baited opaque cup with rewards invisible to the ape in study 1, or to choose between a transparent cup with rewards or a baited opaque cup with rewards invisible to the ape in studies 2 and 3. We also presented young children with scenarios comparable to the second paradigm (studies 4 and 5). Notably, after the initial choice phase, we presented participants with potential alternatives providing better rewards than the previously secured options. Importantly, those alternatives shared some features with the uncertain options, giving subjects the possibility to relate both options through analogical reasoning. We found that most great apes were not curious about the uncertain options. They only explored those options after they were presented with the alternatives. Children, instead, explored the uncertain options before the alternatives were presented, showing a higher degree of curiosity than the great apes. We argue that differences between children and apes mostly lay in motivational dispositions to explore the unknown.

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A Longitudinal Study of Great Ape Cognition: Stability, Reliability and the Influence of Individual Characteristics

Cited by 5 publications

References 18 publications

Intergroup conflict: origins, dynamics and consequences across taxa

Intergroup conflict: origins, dynamics and consequences across taxa

Relative brain size and cognitive equivalence in fishes

Comparative curiosity: How do great apes and children deal with uncertainty?

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