The effects of tradition on problem solving by two wild populations of bearded capuchin monkeys in a probing task.

ABSTRACT: The effects of culture on individual cognition have become a core issue among cultural primatologists. Field studies with wild populations provide evidence on the role of social cues in the ontogeny of tool use in non-human primates, and on the transmission of such behaviours over generations through socially biased learning. Recent experimental studies have shown that cultural knowledge may influence problem solving in wild populations of chimpanzees. Here, we present the results from a field experiment comparing the performance of bearded capuchin monkeys (Sapajus libidinosus) from two wild savannah populations with distinct toolkits in a probing task. Only the population that already exhibited the customary use of probing tools succeeded in solving the new problem, suggesting that their

SUBMITTER: Cardoso RM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5134038 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature