Observational Learning in Monkeys and Apes

Abstract

In natural groups of mammals, there is a variety of social influences which seem to inhibit or facilitate the expression of instinctive behaviour-patterns, and indeed which contribute importantly to the fr,rm the repertoire of behaviour characteristic of the species takes. Such influences include what goes under the terms 'social facilitation' and 'imitation', as well as other terms such as 'identification' which imply a special affectional relationship.From an analysis of the evidence about these influences on monkeys and apes, it is clear that negative experimental findings have often been due to the limitations of the experimental procedures, and that some of the positive findings are difficult to interpret or aasess for validity because of deficient method. By and large, there is convincing observiitional evidence, chiefly from informal developmental and from field studies, that young monkeys and apes acquire certain basic feeding and avoidance habits chiefly by applying their exploratory tendencies to places and objects indicated in the behaviour of their mothers or others of the group.Although, in terms of learning operations, it is unlikely that much more than stimulusenhancement or place discriminations is usually involved, a 'new' motor sequence almost never being in evidence, there is no doubt that the affectional situation of the participants is crucial m to whether a 'demonstrator' is attended to, closely approached, and 'imitated', or not. The nature of the affectional variables and their influence upon learning require extensive experimental study and analysis, and a comparison with related forms of early learning, such aa imprinting, can then be made. 202K. R. L. HALL heavily emphasized by Darwin (1874), Tarde (1904)) McDougall(1908), and others. But the comparative assessment of the importance of such tendencies in non-human animals has been somewhat neglected. Axiomatically, it seems likely that the origins, in individual mammalian life experience, of the conventionalizing tendency come early in ontogeny as the infant animal learns to achieve a certain independence of its mother, having of necessity conformed to the mother's control during the period of weaning, and having, inevitably in the natural group situation, observed almost exclusively the behaviour of those closest to the mother. Then, as the young animal matures, its spontaneous and characteristic playfulness leads it to learn certain social habits in the rough-and-tumble of the play subgroup, but its physical survival habits, such as those connected with feeding and drinking and avoidance of the noxious, are probably early established in the daily process of observing the mother and her immediate associates.All this sounds obvious, but so suspiciously obvious that one finds the real nature of the conforming process in the higher animals has by no means been elucidated experimentally or in the course of naturalistic studies of wild groups. Only in the most general terms have the complex processes involved been described, and, within the...

Protocultural Aspects of Chimpanzees’ Responsiveness to Novel Objects

“…It is well known that early experience with conspecifics is extremely important for many aspects of normal mammalian behavioral development [Newton and Levine, 1968], that many species are capable of observational learning, imi tation, social facilitation, etc. [Hall, 1963;Yerkes, 1943, p. 52 and 189], and that in some cases there are substantial variations among different groups of the same species in, for example, feeding habits, travel paths, home ranges, general boldness and timidity, and patterns of communication [Frisch, 1968;Miyadi, 1964], Taken together, these findings suggest that even seemingly 'simple' and 'instinctive' behaviors are influenced by culture-like processes.…”

“…We must leave it for future research to settle how a given result comes about. In the meantime, as Hall [1963] put it, one's predeliction for particular theories of how habits are diffused socially should not be permitted to obscure the phenomena of dif fusion as such.…”

Mother-infant interactions in western lowland gorillas ( Gorilla gorilla gorilla): Spatial relationships, communication and opportunities for social learning.

“…All primate infants are probably careful observers of adult behavior, and there is some evidence that they often take an active role in acquiring information from adults or in requesting adults' participation in their activities (King, 1994). For example, baboon infants often cofeed with adults and closely inspect what the adults are eating (Hall, 1963;King, 1994), chimpanzee and orangutan infants actively solicit food from their mothers with eye gaze and begging gestures (Bard, 1992;Hiraiwa-Hasegawa, 1990), and great ape infants occasionally attempt to use adults as an agent to achieve goals concerning objects or other conspecifics (Bard, 1992;Gomez, 1990;Plooij, 1979). King (1994) has hypothesized that a significant shift occurred in primate evolution in the relative role played by adults and infants in the social learning processes of infants.…”

SOCIAL LEARNING BY FOLLOWING: AN ANALYSIS1

“…Social learning-where one animal acquires a new response more readily because of an interaction with another animal-is found in many species (Davis, 1973;Hall, 1963). However, experimental analyses of animal social learning are scarce and incomplete, especially when compared with analyses of human social learning (Bandura, 1971).…”