Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-02T20:47:50.752Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Imitation, emulation, and the transmission of culture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2008

Andrew Whiten
Affiliation:
Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, and Scottish Primate Research Group, School of Psychology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews KY16 9JP, United Kingdom. [email protected]://psy.st-andrews.ac.uk/people/lect/aw2

Abstract

Three related issues are addressed. First, Hurley treats emulation and imitation as a straightforward dichotomy with emulation emerging first. Recent conceptual analyses and “ghost” chimpanzee experiments challenge this. Second, other recent chimpanzee experiments reveal high-fidelity social transmission, questioning whether copying fidelity is the brake on cumulative culture. Finally, other cognitive processes such as pretence need to be integrated.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bonnie, K. E., Horner, V., Whiten, A. & de Waal, F. B. M. (2007) Spread of arbitrary customs among chimpanzees: A controlled experiment. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B 274:367–72.Google ScholarPubMed
Dindo, M., Thierry, B. & Whiten, A. (2007) Social diffusion of novel foraging methods in brown capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella). Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B. DOI:10.1098/rspb.2007.1318. [Online publication.]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hopper, L. M., Lambeth, S. P., Schapiro, S. J. & Whiten, A. (in press) Observational learning in chimpanzees and children studied through “ghost” conditions. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, B: Biological Sciences.Google Scholar
Hopper, L. M., Spiteri, A., Lambeth, S. P., Schapiro, S. J., Horner, V. & Whiten, A. (2007) Experimental studies of traditions and underlying transmission processes in chimpanzees. Animal Behaviour 73:1021–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Horner, V., Whiten, A., Flynn, E. & de Waal, F. B. M. (2006) Faithful replication of foraging techniques along cultural transmission chains by chimpanzees and children. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 103:13878–83.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leslie, A. M. (1987) Pretense and representation in infancy: The origins of “theory of mind.” Psychological Review 94:412–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mithen, S. (1999) Imitation and cultural change: A view from the Stone Age, with specific reference to the manufacture of handaxes. In: Mammalian social learning: Comparative and ecological perspectives, ed. Box, H. O. & Gibson, K. R., pp. 389400. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Perner, J. (1991) Understanding the representational mind. Bradford Books/MIT Press.Google Scholar
Suddendorf, T. & Whiten, A. (2001) Mental evolution and development: Evidence for secondary representation in children, great apes and other animals. Psychological Bulletin 127:629–50.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Whiten, A. (2006) The dissection of imitation and its “cognitive kin” in comparative and developmental psychology. In: Imitation and the development of the social mind: Lessons from typical development and autism, ed. Rogers, S. & Williams, J. H. G., pp. 227–50. Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Whiten, A., Horner, V. & de Waal, F. B. M. (2005a) Conformity to cultural norms of tool use in chimpanzees. Nature 437:737–40.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Whiten, A., Spiteri, A., Horner, V., Bonnie, K. E., Lambeth, S. P., Schapiro, S. J. & de Waal, F. B. M. (2007) Transmission of multiple traditions within and between chimpanzee groups. Current Biology 17:1038–43.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed