Hostname: page-component-6b989bf9dc-pmhlf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-14T11:21:50.580Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Look, no hands!

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 June 2012

Eric M. Patterson  and
Janet Mann
Eric M. Patterson
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20057-1229. emp46@georgetown.edumannj2@georgetown.eduwww.monkeymiadolphins.org
Janet Mann
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20057-1229. emp46@georgetown.edumannj2@georgetown.eduwww.monkeymiadolphins.org
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Contrary to Vaesen's argument that humans are unique with respect to nine cognitive capacities essential for tool use, we suggest that although such cognitive processes contribute to variation in tool use, it does not follow that these capacities are necessary for tool use, nor that tool use shaped cognition per se, given the available data in cognitive neuroscience and behavioral biology.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 35 , Issue 4 , August 2012 , pp. 235 - 236
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bentley-Condit, V. K. & Smith, E. O. (2009) Animal tool use: Current definitions and an updated comprehensive catalog. Behaviour 147(2):185–221.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Biro, D. & Matsuzawa, T. (1999) Numerical ordering in a chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes): Planning, executing, and monitoring. Journal of Comparative Psychology 113(2):178–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blaisdell, A. P., Sawa, K., Leising, K. J. & Waldmann, M. R. (2006) Causal reasoning in rats. Science 311(5763):1020–22.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Boesch, C. (1994) Cooperative hunting in wild chimpanzees. Animal Behaviour 48:653–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boesch, C. & Boesch, H. (1989) Hunting behavior of wild chimpanzees in the Taï National Park. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 78:547–73.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brockmann, H. J. (1985) Tool use in digger wasps (Hymenoptera: Sphecinae). Psyche 92(2–3):309–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Byrne, R. W. & Whiten, A. (1988) Machiavellian intelligence: Social expertise and the evolution of intellect in monkeys, apes, and humans. Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Call, J. (2010) Trapping the minds of apes: Causal knowledge and inferential reasoning about object-object interactions. In: The mind of the chimpanzee: Ecological and experimental perspectives, ed. Lonsdorf, E. V., Ross, S. R., Matsuzawa, T. & Goodall, J., pp. 75–86. University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Carvalho, S., Biro, D., McGrew, W. & Matsuzawa, T. (2009) Tool-composite reuse in wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes): Archaeologically invisible steps in the technological evolution of early hominins? Animal Cognition 12:S103–14.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cheney, D. & Seyfarth, R. (1995) The responses of female baboons (Papio cynocephalus ursinus) to anomalous social interactions: Evidence for causal reasoning? Journal of Comparative Psychology 109(2):134–41.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Connor, R. C. (2007) Dolphin social intelligence: Complex alliance relationships in bottlenose dolphins and a consideration of selective environments for extreme brain size evolution in mammals. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 362(1480):587–602.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cummins-Sebree, S. E. & Fragaszy, D. M. (2005) Choosing and using tools: Capuchins (Cebus apella) use a different metric than tamarins (Saguinus oedipus). Journal of Comparative Psychology 119(2):210–19.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dally, J. M., Emery, N. J. & Clayton, N. S. (2010) Avian theory of mind and counter espionage by food-caching western scrub-jays (Aphelocoma californica). European Journal of Developmental Psychology 7(1):17–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Waal, F. B. M. & Ferrari, P. F. (2010) Towards a bottom-up perspective on animal and human cognition. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 14(5):201–207.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Douglas-Hamilton, I., Bhalla, S., Wittemyer, G. & Vollrath, F. (2006) Behavioural reactions of elephants towards a dying and deceased matriarch. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 100(1–2):87–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dufour, V. & Sterck, E. H. M. (2008) Chimpanzees fail to plan in an exchange task but succeed in a tool-using procedure. Behavioural Processes 79(1):19–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunbar, R. I. M. (1998) The social brain hypothesis. Evolutionary Anthropology 6(5): 178–90.3.0.CO;2-8>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fay, J. M. & Carroll, R. W. (1994) Chimpanzee tool use for honey and termite extraction in Central Africa. American Journal of Primatology 34(4):309–17.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ford, J. K. B. & Ellis, G. M. (2006) Selective foraging by fish-eating killer whales Orcinus orca in British Columbia. Marine Ecology Progress Series 316:185–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gould, S. J. & Lewontin, R. C. (1979) The spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian paradigm: A critique of the adaptationist programme. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 205(1161):581–698.Google Scholar
Hanus, D., Mendes, N., Tennie, C. & Call, J. (2011) Comparing the performances of apes (Gorilla gorilla, Pan troglodytes, Pongo pygmaeus) and human children (Homo sapiens) in the floating peanut task. PLoS ONE 6(6):e19555.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hauser, M., Pearson, H. & Seelig, D. (2002) Ontogeny of tool use in cottontop tamarins, Saguinus oedipus: Innate recognition of functionally relevant features. Animal Behaviour 64(2):299–311.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hauser, M. D. (1997) Artifactual kinds and functional design features: What a primate understands without language. Cognition 64(3):285–308.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Herman, L. M. (2002) Vocal, social, and self-imitation by bottlenosed dolphins. In: Imitation in animals and artifacts, ed. Dautenhahn, K. & Nehaniv, C., pp. 63–108. MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kenward, B., Rutz, C., Weir, A. A. S. & Kacelnik, A. (2006) Development of tool use in New Caledonian crows: Inherited action patterns and social influences. Animal Behaviour 72(6):1329–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kim, T. W. (2010) Food storage and carrion feeding in the fiddler crab Uca lactea . Aquatic Biology 10(1):33–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCowan, B., Marino, L., Vance, E., Walke, L. & Reiss, D. (2000) Bubble ring play of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus): Implications for cognition. Journal of Comparative Psychology 114(1):98–105.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McGrew, W. (1974) Tool use by wild chimpanzees in feeding upon driver ants. Journal of Human Evolution 3(6):501–508.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Noser, R. & Byrne, R. W. (2010) How do wild baboons (Papio ursinus) plan their routes? Travel among multiple high-quality food sources with inter-group competition. Animal Cognition 13(1):145–55.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Osvath, M. (2008) Spontaneous planning for future stone throwing by a male chimpanzee. Current Biology 19(5):190–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Osvath, M. & Osvath, H. (2008) Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) and orangutan (Pongo abelii) forethought: Self-control and pre-experience in the face of future tool use. Animal Cognition 11(4):661–74.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Patterson, E. M. & Mann, J. (2011) The ecological conditions that favor tool use and innovation in wild bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops sp.). PLoS ONE 6(7):e22243.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Plotnik, J. M., de Waal, F. B. M., Moore, D. & Reiss, D. (2010) Self-recognition in the Asian elephant and future directions for cognitive research with elephants in zoological settings. Zoo Biology 29(2):179–91.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Plotnik, J. M., Lair, R., Suphachoksahakun, W. & de Waal, F. B. M. (2011) Elephants know when they need a helping trunk in a cooperative task. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 108(12):5116–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pruetz, J. D. & Bertolani, P. (2007) Savanna chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes verus, hunt with tools. Current Biology 17(5):412–17.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reader, S. M. & Laland, K. N. (2002) Social intelligence, innovation and enhanced brain size in primates. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 99:4436–41.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Santos, L. R., Miller, C. T. & Hauser, M. D. (2003) Representing tools: How two non-human primate species distinguish between the functionally relevant and irrelevant features of a tool. Animal Cognition 6(4):269–81.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Taylor, A., Elliffe, D., Hunt, G. & Gray, R. (2010) Complex cognition and behavioural innovation in New Caledonian crows. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 277(1694):2637–43.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Taylor, A. H., Hunt, G. R., Medina, F. S., Gray, R. D. (2009a) Do New Caledonian crows solve physical problems through causal reasoning? Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 276:247–54.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tebbich, S., Taborsky, M., Fessl, B. & Blomqvist, D. (2001) Do woodpecker finches acquire tool-use by social learning? Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 268(1482):2189–96.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Thornton, A. & McAuliffe, K. (2006) Teaching in wild meerkats. Science 313(5784):227–29.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vander Wall, S. B., Enders, M. S. & Waitman, B. A. (2009) Asymmetrical cache pilfering between yellow pine chipmunks and golden-mantled ground squirrels. Animal Behaviour 78(2):555–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whiten, A., Horner, V. & de Waal, F. (2005) Conformity to cultural norms of tool use in chimpanzees. Nature 437:738–40.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Xitco, M. J., Gory, J. D. & Kuczaj, S. A. (2004) Dolphin pointing is linked to the attentional behavior of a receiver. Animal Cognition 7(4):231–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar