Abstract
When begging for food, all great ape species are sensitive to a human’s attention. However, studies investigating which cues are relevant for chimpanzees to assess the attentional state of others have produced highly inconsistent results. Some have suggested chimpanzees differentiate attention based on the status of the face or even the eyes, while others have indicated that body posture alone is the relevant cue. Kaminski et al. (Anim Cogn 7:216–223, 2004) compared the behaviour of chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans while begging for food from a human experimenter who systematically varied his face and body orientation. Their results indicated that both factors, face and body orientation, affect apes’ begging behaviour. The authors claimed that while body orientation provides information about the experimenter’s general disposition to offer food, the visibility of the face provides information about the human’s attentional state. In the current study, we tested this hypothesis with all four great apes species. However, unlike Kaminski et al. (Anim Cogn 7:216–223, 2004), the experimenter was able to hand over food regardless of body orientation. The results show that as soon as the offering of the food was no longer restricted, the orientation of the face became the key factor. Therefore, we present the first evidence that all great ape species are able to assess the attentional state of a recipient based on the orientation of the face.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.
References
Boesch C, Hohmann G, Marchant LF (2002) Behavioral diversity in chimpanzees and bonobos. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Call J, Tomasello M (1994) Production and comprehension of referential pointing by orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus). J Comp Psychol 108:307–317
Furuichi T (1997) Agonistic interactions and matrifocal dominance rank of wild bonobos (Pan paniscus) at Wamba. Int J Primatol 18(6):855–875
Genty E, Breuer T, Hobaiter C, Byrne RW (2009) Gestural communication of the gorilla (Gorilla gorilla): repertoire, intentionality and possible origins. Anim Cogn 12(3):527–546
Gomez JC (1996) Non-human primate theories of (non-human primate) minds: some issues concerning the origins of mind-reading. In: Carruthers P, Smith PK (eds) Theories of theories of mind. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 330–343
Gomez JC (2005) Requesting gestures in captive monkeys and apes: conditioned responses or referential behaviors? Gesture 5:91–105
Hare B, Call J, Agnetta B, Tomasello M (2000) Chimpanzees know what conspecifics do and do not see. Anim Behav 59:771–785
Hare B, Call J, Tomasello M (2001) Do chimpanzees know what conspecifics know? Anim Behav 61:139–151
Hare B, Melis A, Woods V, Hastings S, Wrangham R (2007) Tolerance allows bonobos to outperform chimpanzees on a cooperative task. Curr Biol 17(7):619–623
Hattori Y, Kuroshima H, Fujita K (2009) Tufted capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) show understanding of human attentional states when requesting food held by a human. Anim Cogn. doi:10.1007/s10071-009-0248-6
Hostetter AB, Cantero M, Hopkins WD (2001) Differential use of vocal and gestural communication by chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) in response to the attentional state of a human (Homo sapiens). J Comp Psychol 115:337–343
Hostetter AB, Russell J, Freeman H, Hopkins WD (2007) Now you see me, now you don’t: evidence that chimpanzees understand the role of the eyes in attention. Anim Cogn 10(1):55–62
Kaminski J, Call J, Tomasello M (2004) Body orientation and face orientation: two factors controlling apes’ requesting behavior from humans. Anim Cogn 7:216–223
Kano T (1992) The last ape: pygmy chimpanzee behavior and ecology. Stanford University Press, Stanford
Leavens DA, Hostetter AB, Wesley MJ, Hopkins WD (2004) Tactical use of unimodal and bimodal communication by chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Anim Behav 67:467–476
Leavens DA, Russell JL, Hopkins WD (2009) Multimodal communication by captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Anim Cogn. doi:10.1007/s10071-009-0242-z
Liebal K, Call J, Tomasello M (2004a) Use of gesture sequences in chimpanzees. Am J Primatol 64(4):377–396
Liebal K, Pika S, Call J, Tomasello M (2004b) To move or not to move: how apes alter the attentional states of humans when requesting for food. Interact Stud 5:199–219
Liebal K, Pika S, Tomasello M (2006) Gestural communication of orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus). Gesture 6:1–38
Okamoto-Barth J, Call J, Tomasello M (2007) Great apes understanding of others’ line of sight. Psychol Sci 18:462–468
Pika S, Liebal K, Tomasello M (2003) Gestural communication in young gorillas (Gorilla gorilla): gestural repertoire, learning, and use. Am J Primatol 60(3):95–111
Pika S, Liebal K, Tomasello M (2005) Gestural communication in subadult bonobos (Pan paniscus): repertoire and use. Am J Primatol 65(1):39–61
Povinelli DJ, Eddy TJ (1996) What young chimpanzees know about seeing. Monogr Soc Res Child Dev 61:1–152
Povinelli DJ, Theall LA, Reaux JE, Dunphy-Lelii S (2003) Chimpanzees spontaneously alter the location of their gestures to match the attentional orientation of others. Anim Behav 66:71–79
Tempelmann S, Liebal K (2009) The use of gesture sequences in orang-utans. Folia Primatol 80:144–145
Tomasello M, Call J, Nagell K, Olguin R, Carpenter M (1994) The learning and the use of gestural signals by young chimpanzees: a transgenerational study. Primates 35:137–154
Tomasello M, Call J, Warren J, Frost T, Carpenter M, Nagell K (1997) The ontogeny of chimpanzee gestural signals: a comparison across groups and generations. Evol Commun 1:223–253
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank Martina Neumann and Laura Damerius for their help with coding the data and Nathan Pyne–Carter for the perusal of a former version of the manuscript and helpful comments. Many thanks to the keepers and administrative staff at the Wolfgang Koehler Primate Research Centre and to the Department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology at Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig. Sebastian Tempelmann and Katja Liebal are incorporated in the Project “Towards a grammar of gesture” founded by the Volkswagen––Stiftung, Germany. The reported experiments comply with all laws of the country in which they were performed.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Tempelmann, S., Kaminski, J. & Liebal, K. Focus on the essential: all great apes know when others are being attentive. Anim Cogn 14, 433–439 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-011-0378-5
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-011-0378-5
Keywords
- Communication
- Attentional state
- Referential communication
- Great apes
- Requesting behaviour
- Triadic communication