2010 Vol 101.pdf (1.63mb) - Primate Society of Great Britain

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Social monitoring by reputation: How to compare human and animals in an evolutionary framework? Y.I. Russell Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford Reputation is usually defined as an entirely human construct. This is because the majority of studies in human disciplines (economics, commerce, psychology, etc.) define reputation as a sort of one-dimensional yardstick whereupon the same information is accessible to everyone. This definition is of limited usefulness to animal studies because it requires language ability and ubiquitous sources of public information. The exact psychological processes that underlay social reputation monitoring are poorly understood even in humans. In order to begin a comparative study of human and animal reputation monitoring, “reputation” should be redefined in a way that accommodates all animals. Here, I present a framework for investigating the evolution of social monitoring abilities across all animal taxa. I define reputation as “knowledge about an individual’s typical behaviour, based on a knowledge of that individual’s past behaviour” (Russell, 2007). The psychological process of reputation monitoring should be dissected into its constituent parts in order to compare the abilities between animals in a componential way (this approach is similar to Hockett’s design features approach to language). Most organisms are capable of some form of social eavesdropping and intention reading, but the smallest brained animals are unlikely to cogitate much on the personalities of their conspecifics. At the human end of the continuum, social reputation monitoring probably involves a type of social expertise. It is important to be aware, however, that human social expertise will necessarily involve a series of memory distortions, affected by highly emotional events, schema effects, primacy, and recency. Emotional laterality - the influence of emotion upon visual field preferences A. Milligan Department of Psychology, University of Stirling Emotional lateralisation may influence motor lateralisation, and may therefore have played a significant role in the evolution of social signals in both humans and non-human animals. The ‘affective state’ of animals has been shown to exert influence upon functional lateralisation in species from five classes of vertebrates with studies observing strong lateral biases during particular social interactions. However, the association between specific emotions and social interactions may be more complex than previously thought. Almost all of these studies focused upon scenarios of negative emotion such as fear or aggression, and in each case visual field preferences were identified as suitable indicators of lateral preference whereby subjects 22
consistently observed conspecifics with the same eye. There exist two competing theories that posit the lateralisation of emotion within the brain: one suggests right-hemisphere dominance in the interpretation and expression of all affective states (Campbell, 1982), whilst the other contends that the right hemisphere is responsible for negative emotion alone whereas positive emotion is regulated by the left hemisphere (the Valence Hypothesis; Davidson, 1992) but the almost exclusive investigation of aggressive/fearful scenarios prevents objective evaluation of these competing theories. This study addresses the problem by considering interactions across the full spectrum of emotion, testing both theories whilst also considering whether the strength of emotional intensity can be correlated to lateral bias, and whether age-sex effects exist. Composition of vigilance periods in gorilla (Gorilla gorilla) social play J.A. Mayhew and J.C. Gómez School of Psychology, University of St Andrews Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla) play bouts are complex and dynamic social interactions that incorporate locomotory movements and behaviours from outside social contexts such as aggression or predation. Such diverse bouts are typically punctuated with intermittent periods where the close physical activity between the interacting individuals seems to momentarily conclude. During these cessations, or “vigilance periods”, the play partners may break contact and give pause to their physical interaction, may readjust their body positioning, move in or out of proximity from their partner, or they may transition from one type of generalized play pattern to another. This study presents a preliminary examination of the structure and composition of vigilance periods taking into account several variables including eye gaze, head orientation, body orientation and posturing of the interacting individuals. Specific organization of these subtle social cues may be essential for initiating, maintaining, and terminating play and may also shed light on the advantages and preferences of using certain social cues over others. During vigilance periods, young gorillas might learn about the social cues that signal attention and intention in others as well as in themselves and an investigation of these periods can be useful in further exploring what social cognitive functions social play may have for young gorillas. Can hand and footpad morphology distinguish slow loris taxa? C. J. Wheeler, R.A. Munds and K.A I. Nekaris Nocturnal Primate Research Group, School of Social Sciences and Law, Oxford Brookes University Once considered a widespread homogeneous taxon, a minimum of five species of slow loris (Nycticebus) are now recognised based on genetic, 23
Page 1 and 2: Primate Society of Great Britain No
Page 3 and 4: EDITORIAL This time last year, I co
Page 5 and 6: REPORT: PSGB Spring Meeting 2010 So
Page 7 and 8: REPORT: Pre-PSGB Spring Meeting Wor
Page 9 and 10: PSGB Spring Meeting 2010 Social Cog
Page 11 and 12: The case for a common gestural repe
Page 13 and 14: produced by similar genetic changes
Page 15 and 16: Application of the comparative meth
Page 17 and 18: that might illustrate cognitive dif
Page 19 and 20: Exploring social arenas for forest
Page 21 and 22: humans and such brain asymmetries m
Page 23: integration as a promoter of social
Page 27 and 28: enclosures (81% of studies) and lon
Page 29 and 30: greater bamboo lemur (Prolemur simu
Page 31 and 32: Future Meetings PSGB Winter Meeting
Page 33 and 34: Announcement: International Symposi
Page 35 and 36: CONSERVATION GRANT REPORTS Ecology
Page 37 and 38: Conducting hunter interviews (Fabe
Page 39 and 40: The low encounter rate of tarsiers
Page 41 and 42: Students with the principal investi
Page 43 and 44: ushmeat market. A weekly average of
Page 45 and 46: -5.545, p = 0.000) and that the slo
Page 47 and 48: of different ages and sexes, highli
Page 49 and 50: on callitrichid males’ responses
Page 51 and 52: empowering local communities living
Page 53 and 54: Part III discusses ecological diver
Page 55 and 56: governments, researchers and the pu
Page 57 and 58: THE PRIMATE SOCIETY OF GREAT BRITAI
Page 59 and 60: THE PRIMATE SOCIETY OF GREAT BRITAI

2010 Vol 101.pdf (1.63mb) - Primate Society of Great Britain

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