haun et al

• Children conform to the behavior of peers; other great apes stick with what they know.
• All primates learn things from conspecifics socially, but it is not clear whether they conform to the behavior of these conspecifics—if conformity is defined as overriding individually acquired behavioral tendencies in order to copy peers' behavior.
• The aim of the current study was to investigate whether all primates learn by copying other's behavior.
• In the current study, chimpanzees, orangutans, and 2-year-old human children individually acquired a problem-solving strategy.
• The experiment consisted of a box with three sections, each a different colour.
• The sections were arranged horizontally; the two outer sections were the same height; the middle section was shorter.
• In the top of each section was a hole.
• The box was attached to a steel mesh observation room in the case of the chimpanzees and orangutans, and it was placed on the ground for human children.
• When a ball was dropped in one of the holes, a reward was dispensed from the bottom of that box.
• The rewards were controlled.
• Rewards were highly desirable to participants, with peanuts for chimpanzees and orangutans, and chocolate drops for human children.
• There were two phases of the experiment: the initial phase and the testing phase.
• In the initial phase, participants learned that balls could be put in all boxes, but only one would give rewards.
• Participants dropped balls in the sections until they used the assigned coloured section (rewarding box) in 8 out of 10 consecutive trials.
• The three demonstrators used the same section, different from the participant’s preference, and received one reward in return for every ball.
• After the six demonstrations, the testing period began.
• The choices were coded twice by two coders, as either switch, switching to match the majority response, or stay, staying with the participant’s own preference.
• Both, animals and children may have been distressed when they didn’t receive the reward.
• The study used quantitative data analysis and lacked qualitative material, which could have led to a deeper analysis of observations and behaviors of human and non-human species.
• All three choices were rewarded.
• During the testing phase, participants were given three balls, one at a time, and could put each ball into whichever section they chose.
• The study used chimpanzees, which is a discussion of animal ethics.
• In the initial phase of the study, all participants could observe the actions of the demonstrator and the dispensing of rewards.
• The choices were coded twice by two coders, indicating high inter-rater reliability.
• The study used standardized procedures for all participants.
• In the study, children switched to the new, socially demonstrated strategy in roughly half of all instances, whereas the other two great-ape species almost never adjusted their behavior to the majority's.
• The study used a very small sample, which may have been unrepresentative due to the lack of availability and ethics.
• In a follow-up study, children switched much more when the peer demonstrators were still present than when they were absent, which suggests that their conformity arose at least in part from social motivations.
• Participants were then taken approximately 2 meters from the box, and watched while three familiar nonspecific peers (demonstrators) interacted with the box one after the other.
• Children conform to the behavior of peers; other great apes stick with what they know.
• All primates learn things from conspecifics socially, but it is not clear whether they conform to the behavior of these conspecifics—if conformity is defined as overriding individually acquired behavioral tendencies in order to copy peers' behavior.
• The aim of the current study was to investigate whether all primates learn by copying other's behavior.
• In the current study, chimpanzees, orangutans, and 2-year-old human children individually acquired a problem-solving strategy.
• The experiment consisted of a box with three sections, each a different color.
• The sections were arranged horizontally; the two outer sections were the same height; the middle section was shorter.
• In the top of each section was a hole.
• The box was attached to a steel mesh observation room in the case of the chimpanzees and orangutans, and it was placed on the ground for human children.
• When a ball was dropped in one of the holes, a reward was dispensed from the bottom of that box.
• The rewards were controlled.
• Rewards were highly desirable to participants, with peanuts for chimpanzees and orangutans, and chocolate drops for human children.