Social information transfer in monkeys, apes, and hominids

Abstract

Information is a key resource for all animals because it permits choices to be made through learning. For the scientist, identifying social learning in noncaptive populations can be difficult. A focus on social information transfer, the criteria for which are more reliably measured in the field, may be preferable. A comparison of social information transfer in nonhuman primates and hominids reveals similarities and differences in two major realms: use of symbolic communication and the relative roles of immatures and adults in information transfer. Both nonhuman primates and hominids are capable of symbolic communication, although it is used in broader contexts, including material culture, in hominids. In monkeys and apes, immatures are themselves responsible to a great extent for obtaining information about critical survival skills. Adults, even parents, rarely intervene to aid or teach them. Humans actively “donate” information to immatures to a much greater degree than do nonhuman primates. Such active information transfer developed gradually during human evolution and occurred via outright teaching, sometimes via material culture such as tools and art; during leisure-time social interaction; and using many types of vocal production, not only full-blown speech. Differences in information-related abilities between nonhuman primates and hominids are quantitative rather than qualitative, but a significant product of human evolution is the ability and tendency to engage in active information transfer of all kinds.

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