Evidence for social learning in wild lemurs (Lemur catta)

Interest in social learning has been fueled by claims of culture in wild animals. These remain controversial because alternative explanations to social learning, such as asocial learning or ecological differences, remain difficult to refute. Compared with laboratory-based research, the study of soci...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Animal learning & behavior 2010-08, Vol.38 (3), p.220-234
Main Authors: Kendal, Rachel L., Custance, Deborah M., Kendal, Jeremy R., Vale, Gillian, Stoinski, Tara S., Rakotomalala, Nirina Lalaina, Rasamimanana, Hantanirina
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal behavior
Animal cognition
Animal communication
Animals
Animals, Wild
Behavioral Science and Psychology
Cognitive ability
Data processing
Feeding Behavior
Female
Hierarchy, Social
Imitative Behavior
Learning
Lemur - psychology
Lemur catta
Male
Motor Skills
Neurosciences
Primates
Problem Solving
Psychology
Research Design
Social discrimination learning
Social Environment
Statistical analysis
Statistical methods
Studies
Tool Use Behavior
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Summary:Interest in social learning has been fueled by claims of culture in wild animals. These remain controversial because alternative explanations to social learning, such as asocial learning or ecological differences, remain difficult to refute. Compared with laboratory-based research, the study of social learning in natural contexts is in its infancy. Here, for the first time, we apply two new statistical methods, option-bias analysis and network-based diffusion analysis, to data from the wild, complemented by standard inferential statistics. Contrary to common thought regarding the cognitive abilities of prosimian primates, our evidence is consistent with social learning within subgroups in the ring-tailed lemur ( Lemur catta ), supporting the theory of directed social learning (Coussi-Korbel & Fragaszy, 1995). We also caution that, as the toolbox for capturing social learning in natural contexts grows, care is required in ensuring that the methods employed are appropriate-in particular, regarding social dynamics among study subjects. Supplemental materials for this article may be downloaded from http://lb.psychonomic-journals.org/content/supplemental.
ISSN:0090-4996
1543-4494
1532-5830
1543-4508
DOI:10.3758/LB.38.3.220