Robust Retention and Transfer of Tool Construction Techniques in Chimpanzees (Pan Troglodytes)

Overview

Journal J Comp Psychol

Publisher American Psychological Association

Date 2016 Feb 17

PMID 26881941

Citations 6

Authors

Gill L Vale

Emma G Flynn

Lydia Pender

Elizabeth Price

Andrew Whiten

Susan P Lambeth

Steven J Schapiro

Rachel L Kendal

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Long-term memory can be critical to a species' survival in environments with seasonal and even longer-term cycles of resource availability. The present, longitudinal study investigated whether complex tool behaviors used to gain an out-of-reach reward, following a hiatus of about 3 years and 7 months since initial experiences with a tool use task, were retained and subsequently executed more quickly by experienced than by naïve chimpanzees. Ten of the 11 retested chimpanzees displayed impressive long-term procedural memory, creating elongated tools using the same methods employed years previously, either combining 2 tools or extending a single tool. The complex tool behaviors were also transferred to a different task context, showing behavioral flexibility. This represents some of the first evidence for appreciable long-term procedural memory, and improvements in the utility of complex tool manufacture in chimpanzees. Such long-term procedural memory and behavioral flexibility have important implications for the longevity and transmission of behavioral traditions.

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