Schweinfurth Manon K, DeTroy Sarah E, van Leeuwen Edwin J C, Call Josep, Haun Daniel B M
School of Psychology and Neuroscience, Department of Origins of Mind, University of St Andrew.
Faculty of Education, Department of Early Child Development and Culture and Leipzig Research Center for Early Child Development, University of Leipzig.
J Comp Psychol. 2018 Nov;132(4):455-463. doi: 10.1037/com0000127.
Although there is good evidence that social animals show elaborate cognitive skills to deal with others, there are few reports of animals physically using social agents and their respective responses as means to an end-social tool use. In this case study, we investigated spontaneous and repeated social tool use behavior in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). We presented a group of chimpanzees with an apparatus, in which pushing two buttons would release juice from a distantly located fountain. Consequently, any one individual could only either push the buttons or drink from the fountain but never push and drink simultaneously. In this scenario, an adult male attempted to retrieve three other individuals and push them toward the buttons that, if pressed, released juice from the fountain. With this strategy, the social tool user increased his juice intake 10-fold. Interestingly, the strategy was stable over time, which was possibly enabled by playing with the social tools. With over 100 instances, we provide the biggest data set on social tool use recorded among nonhuman animals so far. The repeated use of other individuals as social tools may represent a complex social skill linked to Machiavellian intelligence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).
尽管有充分证据表明群居动物展现出复杂的认知技能来与其他个体打交道，但关于动物将社会主体及其相应反应实际用作达成目的的手段——即社会工具使用——的报道却很少。在本案例研究中，我们调查了黑猩猩（Pan troglodytes）自发且重复的社会工具使用行为。我们给一群黑猩猩展示了一个装置，按下两个按钮会使远处的喷泉流出果汁。因此，任何一个个体只能要么按按钮，要么从喷泉处喝果汁，而不能同时既按按钮又喝果汁。在这种情况下，一只成年雄性黑猩猩试图找来另外三只个体，把它们推向按钮，按下按钮就能使喷泉流出果汁。通过这种策略，使用社会工具的这只黑猩猩的果汁摄入量增加了10倍。有趣的是，随着时间推移，这种策略保持稳定，这可能是通过与社会工具互动实现的。我们记录了100多个实例，提供了迄今为止在非人类动物中记录到的关于社会工具使用的最大数据集。将其他个体反复用作社会工具可能代表了一种与权谋智慧相关的复杂社会技能。（《心理学文摘数据库记录》（c）2018美国心理学会，保留所有权利）
