Public Information Use in Chimpanzees (Pan Troglodytes) and Children (Homo Sapiens)

Overview

Journal J Comp Psychol

Publisher American Psychological Association

Date 2013 Sep 25

PMID 24060244

Citations 9

Authors

Gill L Vale

Emma G Flynn

Susan P Lambeth

Steven J Schapiro

Rachel L Kendal

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The discernment of resource quality is pertinent to many daily decisions faced by animals. Public information is a critical information source that promotes quality assessments, attained by monitoring others' performance. Here we provide the first evidence, to our knowledge, that chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) use public information to guide resource selection. Thirty-two chimpanzees were presented with two simultaneous video demonstrations depicting a conspecific acquiring resources at a fast (resource-rich) or slow (resource-poor) rate. Subsequently, subjects selected the resource-rich site above chance expectation. As a comparison, we report evidence of public information use in young children. Investigation of public information use in primates is pertinent, as it can enhance foraging success and potentially facilitate payoff-biased social learning.

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