Robust retention and transfer of tool construction techniques in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)

TY - JOUR

T1 - Robust retention and transfer of tool construction techniques in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)

AU - Vale, Gill L.

AU - Flynn, Emma G.

AU - Pender, Lydia

AU - Price, Elizabeth

AU - Whiten, Andrew

AU - Lambeth, Susan P.

AU - Schapiro, Steve

AU - Kendal, Rachel L.

PY - 2016/2/1

Y1 - 2016/2/1

N2 - Long-term memory can be critical to a species' survival in environments with seasonal and even longer-term cycles of resource availability. The present, longitudinal study investigated whether complex tool behaviors used to gain an out-of-reach reward, following a hiatus of about 3 years and 7 months since initial experiences with a tool use task, were retained and subsequently executed more quickly by experienced than by naïve chimpanzees. Ten of the 11 retested chimpanzees displayed impressive long-term procedural memory, creating elongated tools using the same methods employed years previously, either combining 2 tools or extending a single tool. The complex tool behaviors were also transferred to a different task context, showing behavioral flexibility. This represents some of the first evidence for appreciable long-term procedural memory, and improvements in the utility of complex tool manufacture in chimpanzees. Such long-term procedural memory and behavioral flexibility have important implications for the longevity and transmission of behavioral traditions.

AB - Long-term memory can be critical to a species' survival in environments with seasonal and even longer-term cycles of resource availability. The present, longitudinal study investigated whether complex tool behaviors used to gain an out-of-reach reward, following a hiatus of about 3 years and 7 months since initial experiences with a tool use task, were retained and subsequently executed more quickly by experienced than by naïve chimpanzees. Ten of the 11 retested chimpanzees displayed impressive long-term procedural memory, creating elongated tools using the same methods employed years previously, either combining 2 tools or extending a single tool. The complex tool behaviors were also transferred to a different task context, showing behavioral flexibility. This represents some of the first evidence for appreciable long-term procedural memory, and improvements in the utility of complex tool manufacture in chimpanzees. Such long-term procedural memory and behavioral flexibility have important implications for the longevity and transmission of behavioral traditions.

KW - Chimpanzee

KW - Compound tool

KW - Memory

KW - Tool use

U2 - 10.1037/a0040000

DO - 10.1037/a0040000

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 26881941

AN - SCOPUS:84958974053

SN - 0735-7036

VL - 130

SP - 24

EP - 35

JO - Journal of comparative psychology (Washington, D.C. : 1983)

JF - Journal of comparative psychology (Washington, D.C. : 1983)

IS - 1

ER -