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Reflections of the social environment in chimpanzee memory: applying rational analysis beyond humans

In cognitive science, the rational analysis framework allows modelling of how physical and social environments impose information-processing demands onto cognitive systems. In humans, for example, past social contact among individuals predicts their future contact with linear and power functions. Th...

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Autores principales: Stevens, Jeffrey R., Marewski, Julian N., Schooler, Lael J., Gilby, Ian C.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Royal Society 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5108956/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27853606
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.160293
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author Stevens, Jeffrey R.
Marewski, Julian N.
Schooler, Lael J.
Gilby, Ian C.
author_facet Stevens, Jeffrey R.
Marewski, Julian N.
Schooler, Lael J.
Gilby, Ian C.
author_sort Stevens, Jeffrey R.
collection PubMed
description In cognitive science, the rational analysis framework allows modelling of how physical and social environments impose information-processing demands onto cognitive systems. In humans, for example, past social contact among individuals predicts their future contact with linear and power functions. These features of the human environment constrain the optimal way to remember information and probably shape how memory records are retained and retrieved. We offer a primer on how biologists can apply rational analysis to study animal behaviour. Using chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) as a case study, we modelled 19 years of observational data on their social contact patterns. Much like humans, the frequency of past encounters in chimpanzees linearly predicted future encounters, and the recency of past encounters predicted future encounters with a power function. Consistent with the rational analyses carried out for human memory, these findings suggest that chimpanzee memory performance should reflect those environmental regularities. In re-analysing existing chimpanzee memory data, we found that chimpanzee memory patterns mirrored their social contact patterns. Our findings hint that human and chimpanzee memory systems may have evolved to solve similar information-processing problems. Overall, rational analysis offers novel theoretical and methodological avenues for the comparative study of cognition.
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spelling pubmed-51089562016-11-16 Reflections of the social environment in chimpanzee memory: applying rational analysis beyond humans Stevens, Jeffrey R. Marewski, Julian N. Schooler, Lael J. Gilby, Ian C. R Soc Open Sci Biology (Whole Organism) In cognitive science, the rational analysis framework allows modelling of how physical and social environments impose information-processing demands onto cognitive systems. In humans, for example, past social contact among individuals predicts their future contact with linear and power functions. These features of the human environment constrain the optimal way to remember information and probably shape how memory records are retained and retrieved. We offer a primer on how biologists can apply rational analysis to study animal behaviour. Using chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) as a case study, we modelled 19 years of observational data on their social contact patterns. Much like humans, the frequency of past encounters in chimpanzees linearly predicted future encounters, and the recency of past encounters predicted future encounters with a power function. Consistent with the rational analyses carried out for human memory, these findings suggest that chimpanzee memory performance should reflect those environmental regularities. In re-analysing existing chimpanzee memory data, we found that chimpanzee memory patterns mirrored their social contact patterns. Our findings hint that human and chimpanzee memory systems may have evolved to solve similar information-processing problems. Overall, rational analysis offers novel theoretical and methodological avenues for the comparative study of cognition. The Royal Society 2016-08-03 /pmc/articles/PMC5108956/ /pubmed/27853606 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.160293 Text en © 2016 The Authors. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Biology (Whole Organism)
Stevens, Jeffrey R.
Marewski, Julian N.
Schooler, Lael J.
Gilby, Ian C.
Reflections of the social environment in chimpanzee memory: applying rational analysis beyond humans
title Reflections of the social environment in chimpanzee memory: applying rational analysis beyond humans
title_full Reflections of the social environment in chimpanzee memory: applying rational analysis beyond humans
title_fullStr Reflections of the social environment in chimpanzee memory: applying rational analysis beyond humans
title_full_unstemmed Reflections of the social environment in chimpanzee memory: applying rational analysis beyond humans
title_short Reflections of the social environment in chimpanzee memory: applying rational analysis beyond humans
title_sort reflections of the social environment in chimpanzee memory: applying rational analysis beyond humans
topic Biology (Whole Organism)
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5108956/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27853606
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.160293
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