An article in the NYTimes from April 26th reported on a study published in *Science *about Vervet monkeys who were trained to eat only pink-dyed or blue-dyed corn and shun other colors. But when they were moved in with monkeys who were trained to eat other colors only, they began eating the previously shunned color - and now rejecting their previous choice.
The author points out that humans have similar cultural shifts such as having a multicourse sit-down lunch and a glass of wine if in Paris, but maybe a sandwich and a Snapple to go "back home." Cool stuff for social psychology courses perhaps: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/26/science/science-study-shows-monkeys-pick-up-social-cues.html?_r=0 Beth Benoit Granite State College Plymouth State University New Hampshire Monkeys Are Adept at Picking Up Social Cues, Research Shows *Even Monkeys Learn to Eat Local:* A new study on groups of vervet monkeys suggests that social learning may have a greater influence on behavior development than previously thought. By PAM BELLUCK<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/pam_belluck/index.html> Published: April 25, 2013 34 Comments<http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/26/science/science-study-shows-monkeys-pick-up-social-cues.html?_r=0#commentsContainer> - FACEBOOK - TWITTER - GOOGLE+ - SAVE - E-MAIL - SHARE - PRINT<http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/26/science/science-study-shows-monkeys-pick-up-social-cues.html?_r=0&pagewanted=print> - REPRINTS - <http://www.nytimes.com/adx/bin/adx_click.html?type=goto&opzn&page=www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day&pos=Frame4A&sn2=72270860/53be7632&sn1=1f7bab36/67e2d1a&camp=FSL2013_ArticleTools_120x60_1849317b_nyt5&ad=TheEast_120x60_Jan23&goto=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Efoxsearchlight%2Ecom%2Ftheeast> If you are eating lunch in Pittsburgh or Dallas, you might grab a sandwich and a Snapple to go. But should you get transferred to Paris, you will probably eat like the French: multicourse sit-down lunches plus a glass of wine. Science Times Podcast Two Norwegian scientists on what a rat brain knows about location; new research into how some traveling primates take digestive cues from their hosts; demystifying talk of a cure for H.I.V./AIDS. - 9:42 Your Brain’s GPS - play - - - - - max volume 9:41 - 6:31 Eating Like a Local (Monkey) - play - - - - - max volume 6:30 - 9:09 Weakness in AIDS’s Armor - play - - - - - max volume 9:08 [image: Science Twitter Logo.] <http://twitter.com/#!/nytimesscience> Connect With Us on Social Media <http://twitter.com/#!/nytimesscience> @nytimesscience <http://twitter.com/#!/nytimesscience>on Twitter. - Science Reporters and Editors on Twitter<https://twitter.com/nytimesscience/sci-times-reporters-eds/members> Like the science desk on Facebook. <http://www.facebook.com/nytimesscience> Enlarge This Image Erica van de Waal Vervet monkeys relinquished their dislike of a colored corn when they changed location and saw other monkeys eating it. Readers’ Comments Readers shared their thoughts on this article. - Read All Comments (34) »<http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/26/science/science-study-shows-monkeys-pick-up-social-cues.html?_r=0#comments> But it turns out people are not the only ones who make monkey-see-monkey-do cultural shifts. Monkeys, and apparently several other species, do, too. In a clever, groundbreaking studypublished<http://www.sciencemag.org/content/340/6131/483> Thursday in the journal Science, researchers showed that when Vervet monkeys roam, they act in when-in-Rome fashion. Wild Vervet monkeys, trained to eat only pink-dyed or blue-dyed corn and shun the other color, quickly began eating the disliked-color corn when they moved from a pink-preferred setting to a blue-is-best place, and vice versa. The switch occurred even though both corn colors were equally accessible, side-by-side in open containers. Scientists said the monkeys relinquished their color convictions because they saw the locals eating the hated hue. The findings addressed a long-contentious question among animal experts: is animal behavior determined only by genes and individual learning, or can animals, like humans, learn socially? “Culture was thought to be something only humans had,” said Carel van Schaik, an evolutionary anthropologist at the University of Zurich who was not involved in the study. “But if you define culture as socially transmitted knowledge, skills and information, it turns out we see some of that in animals. Now this experiment comes along and I must say it really blew me away.” He added: “Imagine you’ve just learned to eat pink corn and for a while blue corn was really bad, but then you move to an area where it’s the opposite and basically you wipe your slate clean. You think, ‘Oh, these locals, they must know what’s the best thing.’ ” Other studies have found similar learning abilities in social animals. In the same issue of Science, researchers reported that by observing others, humpback whales learned to whack the water with their tail fins to attract prey. But while previous research often relied on anecdotes, observations or animals in captivity, the monkey study documented social learning in wild animals. “We long believed that cultural transmission was important,” said Frans de Waal, a primatologist at Emory University who did not take part in the study. “But I never thought it would be at the scale where the results would be so strong.” The scientists set out pink and blue corn in adjacent Tupperware containers for four groups of wild monkeys in neighboring regions in a South African reserve. A study leader, Erica van de Waal, a researcher at University of St. Andrews in Scotland, said she wanted to use red and blue, shades monkeys are known to see because they are the colors of male Vervet genitalia. But South African grocery stores stocked mostly blue and pink food coloring because people use them for cakes celebrating girl and boy birthdays. After trying vinegar and chilies to make corn taste bitter, researchers settled on soaking corn in acrid-tasting aloe leaves. Pink corn was “aloe treated” for two groups; blue for the other two. Soon, monkeys in each group consistently rejected the colored corn soaked in aloe leaves. After several months, researchers stopped treating the corn with aloe, but monkeys continued eating only the color that had never been made bitter. Dominant monkeys never sampled the disliked color; subordinate monkeys might, but only if dominants were hogging the liked color. Baby monkeys, which received no color training, instantly ate only what their mothers ate, even squatting on the other color, “totally ignoring that there was an edible color under their feet,” Dr. van de Waal said. Most strikingly, when male monkeys migrated from a different-colored region, they ate the local color. The one exception was a blue-is-best male who entered a pink area with no dominant male, took control and continued eating blue corn. But he “might be a stupid male that had too much testosterone and was just not looking at what the others are doing,” Dr. van de Waal said. She said researchers hoped to test if social learning applied to other behaviors, like mating calls and grooming. Experts said that to survive, species must balance experimentation with conservatism, so it makes sense that monkeys would develop rigid aversions to a once bitter-tasting color, and drop that aversion in another community. Both behaviors have advantages for survival, saving learning time and avoiding deadly risks. “I don’t expect it in bacteria or slugs,” Dr. van Schaik said. “But in these long-lived species that are social, you’re actually willing to give up what you know, drop that memory like a hot potato, because those in the other place do something else.” --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@jab.org. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=25327 or send a blank email to leave-25327-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
