Theoretical Biology, Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Studies, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
PLoS Comput Biol. 2009 Dec;5(12):e1000630. doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000630. Epub 2009 Dec 24.
Many patterns of affiliative behaviour have been described for primates, for instance: reciprocation and exchange of grooming, grooming others of similar rank, reconciliation of fights, and preferential reconciliation with more valuable partners. For these patterns several functions and underlying cognitive processes have been suggested. It is, however, difficult to imagine how animals may combine these diverse considerations in their mind. Although the co-variation hypothesis, by limiting the social possibilities an individual has, constrains the number of cognitive considerations an individual has to take, it does not present an integrated theory of affiliative patterns either. In the present paper, after surveying patterns of affiliation in egalitarian and despotic macaques, we use an individual-based model with a high potential for self-organisation as a starting point for such an integrative approach. In our model, called GrooFiWorld, individuals group and, upon meeting each other, may perform a dominance interaction of which the outcomes of winning and losing are self-reinforcing. Besides, if individuals think they will be defeated, they consider grooming others. Here, the greater their anxiety is, the greater their "motivation" to groom others. Our model generates patterns similar to many affiliative patterns of empirical data. By merely increasing the intensity of aggression, affiliative patterns in the model change from those resembling egalitarian macaques to those resembling despotic ones. Our model produces such patterns without assuming in the mind of the individual the specific cognitive processes that are usually thought to underlie these patterns (such as recordkeeping of the acts given and received, a tendency to exchange, memory of the former fight, selective attraction to the former opponent, and estimation of the value of a relationship). Our model can be used as a null model to increase our understanding of affiliative behaviour among primates, in particular macaques.
许多灵长类动物的亲和行为模式已经被描述，例如：互惠和交换梳理、为同等级的其他个体梳理、打架后的和解、以及与更有价值的伙伴进行优先和解。对于这些模式，已经提出了几种功能和潜在的认知过程。然而，很难想象动物如何在它们的脑海中组合这些不同的考虑因素。尽管共变假说通过限制个体的社交可能性，限制了个体需要考虑的认知因素的数量，但它也没有提出一种关于亲和模式的综合理论。在本文中，在调查了平等主义和专制猕猴的亲和模式之后，我们使用了一个具有高度自我组织潜力的基于个体的模型作为这种综合方法的起点。在我们的模型中，称为 GrooFiWorld，个体进行分组，并且在相遇时，可能会进行支配性的互动，其中获胜和失败的结果是自我强化的。此外，如果个体认为自己将被击败，他们会考虑给其他人梳理。在这里，他们的焦虑越大，他们“动机”给其他人梳理的程度就越大。我们的模型生成的模式类似于许多经验数据中的亲和模式。通过仅仅增加攻击的强度，模型中的亲和模式就会从类似于平等主义猕猴的模式转变为类似于专制猕猴的模式。我们的模型在不假设个体心理中通常认为是这些模式的潜在认知过程（例如记录给予和接受的行为、交换的倾向、对以前战斗的记忆、对以前对手的选择性吸引力以及对关系价值的估计）的情况下产生这些模式。我们的模型可以用作空模型，以增加我们对灵长类动物（特别是猕猴）之间亲和行为的理解。
