- Titel
- Early socio-cognitive development in non-human great apes
- Untertitel
- A comparative investigation of social influence on memory and belief processing across development
- Zitierfähige Url:
- https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bsz:15-qucosa2-1004532
- Datum der Einreichung
- 12.06.2025
- Datum der Verteidigung
- 19.09.2025
- Abstract (EN)
- Humans and non-human great apes live in complex multi-individual groups. To be able to navigate such a social environment, individuals have to develop special skills (social cognition). Right after birth, primates show specific attention biases (social attention) that allow them to attend to the most important (social) stimuli in their environment. These abilities are adaptive as they increase an individual’s fitness by detecting mating opportunities, but also by learning the most efficient survival mechanisms from others. Especially in the first years of life, human infants undergo major social cognitive developments. In great apes, this period of their development is less well understood, leaving the question unresolved: at what point do humans and great apes start to differ during development? Social attention – selective and increased attention towards social entities – describes one cognitive phenomenon that may likely represent the building block for higher-order social cognitive abilities (e.g., joint attention, intention understanding) and therefore might be a potential candidate for species differences between humans and non-human great apes. This dissertation aimed to study the influence of social attention on memory and belief processing during development in non-human great apes (orangutans, gorillas, bonobos, and chimpanzees) and to develop methods that would allow for reliable cross-species comparisons. Study 1 investigated whether social stimuli can increase object memory (Social Memory Effect, SME) in four non-human great ape species and how long-lasting this effect is. Adult great apes (>10 years) showed the strongest SME, as tested both with looking time (LT) and heart rate (HR) measures, while infant apes (0-5 years) did not show indications of SME. Juveniles’ (6-10 years) SME was in between infants and adults, indicating a later onset of SME in non-human great apes compared to humans (9 months). After two days, the SME was gone for the adult apes. Study 2 tested whether the (false) belief of a social counterpart would interfere (altercentric influence) with memory for the hiding location of a reward in great apes across development. The results showed that infant great apes were most negatively affected by the false belief, followed by juveniles and adults, who only showed a mild interference in their search behaviour for the hidden reward. The results of this dissertation point toward similarities and differences in the influence of social stimuli on memory and belief processing between human and non-human great apes.
- Forschungsdatenverweis
- Great apes show altercentric influences when confronted with conflicting beliefs
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123304
Link: https://osf.io/z78au/overview - Social attention increases object memory in adult but not younger great apes
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123081
Link: https://osf.io/d32jz/overview - Freie Schlagwörter (EN)
- Development, social cognition, altercentric interference, social memory effect, great apes
- Klassifikation (DDC)
- 570
- Den akademischen Grad verleihende / prüfende Institution
- Universität Leipzig, Leipzig
- Version / Begutachtungsstatus
- publizierte Version / Verlagsversion
- URN Qucosa
- urn:nbn:de:bsz:15-qucosa2-1004532
- Veröffentlichungsdatum Qucosa
- 20.11.2025
- Dokumenttyp
- Dissertation
- Sprache des Dokumentes
- Englisch
- Lizenz / Rechtehinweis
CC BY 4.0- Inhaltsverzeichnis
Abbreviations V Authorship Note VI Acknowledgements XVIII 1. Introduction 1 Comparative psychology 3 Social attention in humans 5 Social attention in great apes 9 How to measure social cognitive development in pre- and non-verbal individuals 12 Influence of social stimuli on memory in humans 15 Influence of social stimuli on memory in great apes 17 Influence of social attention on belief processing in humans 18 Influence of social attention on belief processing in great apes 21 Research gaps 23 The focus of this dissertation 24 4. Study 1: Social attention increases object memory in adult but not younger great apes 27 5. Study 2: Great apes show altercentric influences when confronted with conflicting beliefs 45 6. General Discussion 80 Method development for comparative developmental psychology 80 How does the social memory effect develop in great apes? 83 How does social attention influence belief processing during development in great apes? 86 How does this dissertation contribute to the study of comparative psychology? 90 What does this dissertation tell us about the evolution of human-unique cognitive skills? 91 Future directions 92 7. Conclusion 94 References 96 Curriculum Vitae 132 Scientific Publications and Conference Contributions 135 Contributions of Authors 138