Anthro2050 1st Edition Lecture 20 Outline of Last Lecture I Primate Social and Reproductive Behavior Outline of Current Lecture II Primate Cognition and Culture Current Lecture Primate Cognition and Culture studying primate cognition can help shed light on the human mind however we must be careful in doing so as not to be biased towards approaching issues from purely a human mindset forgetting the uniqueness and differences within other species Why are primates so smart from an evolution view point there are two main reasons why primates would want to develop bigger brains and more complex cognition the ecological model so primates could track where and when food resources would be ready and available throughout different times of the year the social model to cope with many and complex social relations Theory of Mind ability to recognize the of mental states beliefs feelings motives and knowledge in others and recognize that they may differ from your own this allows individuals to predict how others will react in a situation and is learned in early childhood development is better developed in a 6 year old than a 6 month old it has been tested on animals to see if they develop theory of mind and the findings have varied across species One test is a mirror test to see if they recognize their reflection Some do recognize the refection as themselves some think it is another animal and display aggressive gestures and some think it is another animal and display friendly gestures it is already difficult enough to fully understand human intelligence so trying to study cognition in other animals is very tricky A lot of studies take place in labs but that gives no insight to how these animals cognition functions in the wild also it is hard to know with modern methods if other species are actually aware of why they do what they do or if they just do it because they saw others doing the same thing such as eating some foods while avoiding others rubbing medicinal leaves on their skin against parasites deception and manipulation practices etc What About Culture it can be hard to define what culture is and whether or not the behaviors of certain primate These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor s lecture GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes not as a substitute groups can be rightfully considered as culture this is a common topic with no right answer basic components of culture describe it as specific to a group and transmitted through social learning Examples of Primate Culture Olive Baboons In one group of olive baboons all of the aggressive high ranking males died Since the aggressive baboons were gone the whole group became more relaxed and peaceful This continued in the next generation and if any new baboons to the group were too aggressive the others would relax him and teach him to not be aggressive Japanese Macaques In one group of japanese macaques they were given sweet potatoes by researchers and one individual macaque realized she liked her sweet potato better if she washed it in salt water Soon others in the group saw her and before long the whole group washed their sweet potatoes in salt water and the group continues doing that even today Chimpanzees Various groups of chimpanzees have developed tool usage and have passed down tool usage traditions and specialties unique from group to group over generations through social learning For example with termite fishing the preferred length and thickness of the stick used varies from group to group as in a cultural setting rather than from individual to individual as in a non cultural setting