Social Behavior Assignment Quiz

Empirical Study Report

• This assignment introduces reading and critically evaluating empirical research papers in behavioral sciences.
• Research articles selected are relevant to course topics.
• Choose one paper of interest.

Report Requirements

• Theoretical framework for the research goal.
• Hypotheses tested and reasoning behind them.
• Predictions from the hypotheses.
• Methodology: experimental design, data collection, sampling, subjects, study sites, and statistical methods.
• Interpretations and conclusions of the data presented by the authors, and their relevance to the research's initial hypotheses and framework.
• Any subsequent studies that update or relate to the findings.
• Document name: Last name, first initial (e.g., SmithJ.docx).
• Due date: March 7th.
• Maximum length: 4 pages (double-spaced).

Citing References

• Use the author-date citation style from the Chicago Manual of Style.
• Example: Grazer, Brian, and Charles Fishman. 2015. A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life. New York: Simon & Schuster.
• In-text citations (General): (Grazer and Fishman 2015)
• In-text citations (Direct quote): (Smith 2016, pg 16)

Primate Social Knowledge Pt 1: Abstract Social Concepts in the Group Context

• Primates' social knowledge encompasses group (ethological/behavioral ecology) and individual (psychological) contexts.
• Group context includes group membership, dominance, affiliation, kinship, coalitions, and alliances.
• Individual context includes knowledge about others' psychological states (mental state attribution), their knowledge of group context, and their place within it.

Social Knowledge in Primates

• Group context (ethological/behavioral ecology): group membership, dominance, affiliation, kinship, coalitions, alliances.
• Individual context (psychological): knowledge about others' psychological states, 'group context' knowledge, and individual place within it.

Social Intelligence Hypothesis

• Models of social intelligence in primates assume understanding of social position and relationships.
• Non-human primates are expected to perceive place in social networks, understand themselves as individuals with unique relationships.
• They should recognize their distinct individual roles in their social groups and the interactions within them.
• The question of whether primates have a "sense of social self" is raised.

"Off-line Cognition"

• A sense of social self necessitates offline cognition.
• Offline cognition involves declarative knowledge (knowing that...), procedural knowledge (knowing how...).
• Example of Offline cognition: planning ahead, mind reading, episodic memory, social concepts.

Reciprocal Altruism (RA) and the Standard Model for the SIH

• The standard model emphasizes reciprocal altruism (RA) in stable cooperation.
• Stable cooperation emerges in repeated interactions where the opening move is cooperative, and subsequent moves copy the partner's moves.
• A specific version of reciprocity is Tit-for-Tat (TFT).
• RA is rare in non-human animals (e.g., sporadic in vampire bats, grooming in primates), assumed costly as an ESS.

Game Theory

• Game theory is related to reciprocal altruism.

Cheat Detection vs. Partner Choice

• For low-cost altruism (e.g., grooming), partner choice ("groom individuals that groom you most") may be more important than cheat detection.
• Selection favors maximizing received return benefits, rather than minimizing costs.
• Long-term benefits often outweigh short-term costs.

Emotional Mediation ("Friendships")

• Emotional processes likely underlie the reciprocal behaviors of animals.
• Partner choice mechanisms (e.g., developing emotional bonds) are more important than identifying past instances of reciprocity.
• Mechanisms to build social bonds developed in the context of mother-infant attachment.

Coalitions

• Coalitions, although central to the Standard Model, are found to be rare in primate societies across species.
• In Old World Monkeys (OWMs), coalitions are mostly female-female versus males.
• Two New World Monkey genera are exceptions and show different patterns.

Time

• Animals may perceive themselves in relation to perceived time.
• Animals with the ability to recall past behavior might understand relations with others.
• Recalling past interactions with others may allow an understanding of whether expected reciprocation was or was not overdue in specific contexts.
• Imagining future scenarios allow consideration of various consequences.
• Episodic memory plays a role.

Memory and Mental Time Travel

• Episodic and semantic memory (declarative/explicit memory)-knowing facts, events.
• procedural/implicit memory- knowing skills, procedures.
• Mental time travel involves past and future event reconstruction.

Temporal Discounting

• Temporal discounting is the devaluing of future rewards, resulting in a preference for smaller immediate rewards.
• Example: monkeys faced with unripe fruit (low immediate reward) versus ripe fruit (high delayed reward).
• Uncertainty concerning the future strongly influences temporal discounting.
• Human studies (like the famous marshmallow test) exhibit similar preferences.

Inter-temporal Choices

• Inter-temporal choices differ from other choices, mainly due to delayed consequences.
• Consequences must be anticipated and re-weighted to account for delays.

Time and Animals

• Animals can defer immediate actions to gain later advantages.
• The value of a reward may decrease with the delay for its gain.
• Species vary in their degree of discounting; for example, humans, rats, pigeons, and monkeys show differences in discounting rates

Time vs Distance

• Delaying gratification of rewards can depend not only on time to reward, but also distance from the reward.
• Delaying gratification can differ between species (e.g. monkeys).

Discounting and Context

• Discounting is not static but context-dependent.
• Example: blue jays' preference for immediate rewards in experiments but exhibit caching in the wild.
• Ability to discount depends on ecological context.

Reciprocal Altruism and Discounting

• Animal evidence largely suggests a strong discounting of future rewards.
• This conflicts with the traditional view of reciprocal altruism (tit-for-tat).

Abstract Social Concepts

• Abstract social concepts concern the relationships among group members (e.g., third-party relationships).
• Examples include: relationships between individuals (Bob and Jim), who is relatively dominant, kin vs. non-kin.
• Abstract social concepts are important for strategic planning in the future regarding actions intended for cooperation and/or deception.

Dominance Hierarchies

• Linear dominance hierarchies are characterized by predictable competitive interactions between individuals.
• Factors that determine dominance are individual traits including body size, fighting ability, personality, social attributes.
• Hierarchies may be emergent properties of interactions and not simply due to animal awareness of others' rank.

Observational Evidence and Dominance

• Grooming competition: primates competing for grooming access can exhibit re-directed aggression towards relatives of the aggressor.
• Kin-biased aggression: animals attacked may preferentially direct aggression towards relatives of the aggressor (family revenge), rather than towards non-relatives.

Abstract Reasoning in Dominance Hierarchies

• Abstract reasoning is required for understanding dominance hierarchies and individuals' relative standing in hierarchies—and social interactions amongst third parties.
• Animals must consider their position within the hierarchy in relation to the relationships between other individuals.

Recognizing Reversals in Social Status

• Monkeys can recognize reversals in social status (e.g., via vocalizations).
• This demonstrates understanding of social hierarchies.

Bergman et al. (2003)

• Anomalies introduced to mimic reversals in primate social rankings (e.g., low-ranking individual's vocalization stereotyped to a higher-ranking individual's) elicited differential reactions.
• Results suggest that primates have an understanding of social hierarchies.

Observational Evidence of Re-directed Aggression

• Animals exhibit kin biases (i.e., family revenge) against lower-ranking relatives of a superior attacker after intra kin conflict, rather than simply towards the aggressor itself.
• This suggests understanding of relationships between social ranks.

Abstract Reasoning and Social Structure

• Is there evidence that non-human animals can abstractly reason about their social position in a manner similar to humans?
• Do animals understand relational/hierarchical elements of social structure and act accordingly?

Dasser (1988)

• Experimental study on macaques demonstrating the capacity to make abstract judgements concerning mother/offspring relationships.
• Monkeys demonstrated ability to discern mother/offspring pairs by learning to select pairs appropriately to earn rewards.

Perceptual Matching

• The possibility of perceptual matching (choosing similar items, e.g., based on facial appearance) complicates conclusions about higher-order reasoning, as similarity can be affected by external factors.

Analogical Reasoning in Primates

• Demonstrating analogical reasoning in primates implies understanding relationships beyond one individual level (e.g., considering the relations between related animals in a hierarchy).

Social Self in Primates

• The concept of 'social self' in monkeys may differ significantly from human self-awareness.
• The specific knowledge that allows primates to situate within social networks requires investigation.
• Questioning whether primates can reflect on knowledge and whether they can be the subject of their own attention.

Attention and Perceptual Strategies

• For primate cooperation, ability to monitor others' behavior sustainably and to have a less egocentric view of social dynamics is important.
• Complex perceptual environments require effective processing mechanisms to filter out distractions and maintain attention on relevant social cues

Processing Precedence

• Animals can process stimuli globally or locally.
• Global processing attends to overall structures, while local processing considers features.
• Global precedence is more effective for generalizing or forming broader categories.

Social Structure

• Primate social dynamics vary, with some groups exhibiting high cohesion (e.g., continuous visual monitoring amongst individuals), others showing less cohesion.
• Less cohesive groups might rely more on conceptual monitoring of other's behaviors and relationships.

Physical Space, Social Space, and Time

• The question is raised whether primate abilities to perceive physical space, social situations, and time all utilize the same cognitive processing mechanisms.