Biological origins of cultural behavior: comparative cognition of social learning and social cognition in primates

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25730092
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Cognitive science
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: KODA Hiroki 京都大学, 霊長類研究所, 助教 (70418763)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 比較認知 / 霊長類 / 社会認知 / 認知進化

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this project, I aimed to reveal the primate cognitive foundations underlying the social learning and behavioral contagions from the perspectives of comparative cognitive science. For this purpose, I did variable kinds of experiments and observations for both each individual and whole subject group of nonhuman primates to measure their cognitive traits. Here I mainly found the importance of their ecological strategies on promoting the social learning in primate societies. Particularly, two strategies, anti-predator strategy and parenting strategy, would be a primary factor to rapidly promote the monkeys to learn the knowledge from the other group members. Under those "prepared" cognitive features which might be evolved as their ecological adaptation, their social leaning would progress depending on the social network in a group with the dynamic ways.

Free Research Field

比較認知科学