Reflections of the social environment in chimpanzee memory: applying rational analysis beyond humans.

ABSTRACT: In cognitive science, the rational analysis framework allows modelling of how physical and social environments impose information-processing demands onto cognitive systems. In humans, for example, past social contact among individuals predicts their future contact with linear and power functions. These features of the human environment constrain the optimal way to remember information and probably shape how memory records are retained and retrieved. We offer a primer on how biologists can apply rational analysis to study animal behaviour. Using chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) as a case study, we modelled 19 years of observational data on their social contact patterns. Much like humans, the frequency of past encounters in chimpanzees linearly predicted future encounters, and the recenc

SUBMITTER: Stevens JR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5108956 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature