Social Facilitation of Eating Familiar Food in Tufted Capuchins (Cebus apella): Does it Involve Behavioral Coordination?
- ASU Author/Contributor (non-ASU co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Amy Galloway Ph.D., Associate Professor (Creator)
- Institution
- Appalachian State University (ASU )
- Web Site: https://library.appstate.edu/
Abstract: Social facilitation of eating familiar foods might serve to synchronize
eating activities within groups. We aimed to assess whether capuchins
(Cebus apella) are prompted to eat when observing other conspecifics eating
a familiar food. Subjects were 8 male captive-born tufted capuchins. One
pair of capuchins acted as demonstrators for the other 6 observer subjects.
In the Experimental condition, the demonstrator pair was given fresh chow
in addition to having access to the leftover food and ate continuously. In the
Control condition, the demonstrator pair had access to food leftover from
the morning feed and ate very little. The initiation of feeding by the demonstrator
pair prompted the initiation of feeding behavior in the observers, and
the latter ate significantly more of their leftovers in the Experimental than
in the Control condition. The tempo of the social facilitation of eating familiar
foods in capuchins support isomorphic coordination, a process that
occurs when one individual’s activity focuses the attention of another individual
to the same activity, thereby increasing behavioral similarity in a
group.
Social Facilitation of Eating Familiar Food in Tufted Capuchins (Cebus apella): Does it Involve Behavioral Coordination?
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Created on 12/19/2011
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Additional Information
- Publication
- Galloway, A. T., Addessi, E., Fragaszy, D. M., Visalberghi, E. (2005). Social facilitation of eating familiar food in tufted capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella): Does it involve behavioral coordination? International Journal of Primatology, 26(1): 181-189. (Feb 2005) Published by Springer (ISSN: 1573-8604). DOI: 10.1007/s10764-005-0729-7
- Language: English
- Date: 2005