Josep Call
Biographic Data
| ID | 130860 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Josep Call |
| GIVEN NAMES | Josep |
| FAMILY NAME | Call |
| SIGNATURE | CALL J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8597-8336 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 62 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 167 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 60 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1994 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Infants Produce Optimally Informative Points to Satisfy the Epistemic Needs of Their Communicative Partner
Pragmatic theories assume that during communicative exchanges humans strive to be optimally informative and spontaneously adjust their communicative signals to satisfy their addressee’s inferred epistemic needs. For instance, when necessary, adults flexibly and appropriately modify their communicative gestures to provide their partner the relevant information she lacks about the situation. To investigate this ability in infants, we designed a coo…
Chimpanzees demonstrate a behavioural signature of human joint action
The strength of human society can largely be attributed to the tendency to work together to achieve outcomes that are not possible alone. Effective social coordination benefits from mentally representing a partner's actions. Specifically, humans optimize social coordination by forming internal action models adapted to joint rather than individual task demands. To what extent do humans share the cognitive mechanisms that support optimal human coor…
Challenges and promises of big team comparative cognition
Chimpanzees use social information to acquire a skill they fail to innovate
Cumulative cultural evolution has been claimed to be a uniquely human phenomenon pivotal to the biological success of our species. One plausible condition for cumulative cultural evolution to emerge is individuals' ability to use social learning to acquire know-how that they cannot easily innovate by themselves. It has been suggested that chimpanzees may be capable of such know-how social learning, but this assertion remains largely untested. Her…
Do chimpanzees reason logically
Psychologists disagree about the development of logical concepts such as or and not. While some theorists argue that infants reason logically, others maintain that logical inference is contingent on linguistic abilities and emerges around age 4. In this Registered Report, we conducted five experiments on logical reasoning in chimpanzees. Subjects (N = 16; 10 females; M = 24 years) participated in the same setup that has been administered to child…
The Ontogeny of Vocal Sequences: Insights from a Newborn Wild Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii)
Observations of early vocal behaviours in non-human primates (hereafter primates) are important for direct comparisons between human and primate vocal development. However, direct observations of births and perinatal behaviour in wild primates are rare, and the initial stages of behavioural ontogeny usually remain undocumented. Here, we report direct observations of the birth of a wild chimpanzee ( Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii ) in Budongo Fore…
Raising the level: Orangutans solve the floating peanut task without visual feedback
Chimpanzees and orangutans are able to generate innovative behaviors to solve complicated physical problems. For example, when presented with an out-of-reach peanut at the bottom of a vertical tube (floating peanut task—FPT), some of them spontaneously spit water into the tube until the peanut floats to the top. Yet, it is unclear whether this innovative solution results from repeating those actions that bring the peanut incrementally closer to t…
Primate cognition in zoos: Reviewing the impact of zoo‐based research over 15 years
Primate cognition research is reliant on access to members of the study sp ecies and logistical infrastructures to conduct observations and experiments. Historically founded in research centers and private collections, and spreading to modern zoos, sanctuaries, and the field, primate cognition has been investigated in diverse settings, each with benefits and challenges. In our systematic review of 12 primatology, animal behavior, and animal cogni…
Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) show subtle signs of uncertainty when choices are more difficult
Humans can tell when they find a task difficult. Subtle uncertainty behaviors like changes in motor speed and muscle tension precede and affect these experiences. Theories of animal metacognition likewise stress the importance of endogenous signals of uncertainty as cues that motivate metacognitive behaviors. However, while researchers have investigated second-order behaviors like information seeking and declining difficult trials in nonhuman ani…
Evolutionary Precursors of Negation in Non-Human Reasoning
Logical reasoning has been argued to crucially depend on linguistic or symbolic representations. This suggests that animals are incapable of negation. Nevertheless, animals have been found to behave in ways that suggest reasoning by negation. This chapter discusses the findings from the animal cognition literature in light of theoretical accounts of negation based on propositional and non-propositional thought. Instead of engaging in negation pro…
Chimpanzees and children avoid mutual defection in a social dilemma
Chimpanzees use observed temporal directionality to learn novel causal relations
We investigated whether chimpanzees use the temporal sequence of external events to determine causation. Seventeen chimpanzees ( Pan troglodytes ) witnessed a human experimenter press a button in two different conditions. When she pressed the “causal button” the delivery of juice and a sound immediately followed (cause-then-effect). In contrast, she pressed the “non-causal button” only after the delivery of juice and sound (effect-then-cause). Wh…
Theory of Mind in Primates and Humans, Comparative Evolution of
Theory of mind is defined as the ability to impute mental states to one self and others. This is not a precise definition as it encompasses various aspects of mental states. This entry covers the acquisition of these different aspects to a full‐fledged theory of mind in human children and the aspects of a theory of mind that can also be found in nonhuman primates such as an understanding of others' perception, knowledge, and intentions. However, …
Author Correction: Preschool children and chimpanzees incur costs to watch punishment of antisocial others
APA handbook of comparative psychology: Perception, learning, and cognition.
APA Handbook of Comparative Psychology
Are great apes able to reason from multi‐item samples to populations of food items
Inductive learning from limited observations is a cognitive capacity of fundamental importance. In humans, it is underwritten by our intuitive statistics, the ability to draw systematic inferences from populations to randomly drawn samples and vice versa. According to recent research in cognitive development, human intuitive statistics develops early in infancy. Recent work in comparative psychology has produced first evidence for analogous cogni…
Distinctiveness enhances long‐term event memory in non‐human primates, irrespective of reinforcement
Non-human primates are capable of recalling events that occurred as long as 3 years ago, and are able to distinguish between similar events; akin to human memory. In humans, distinctiveness enhances memory for events, however, it is unknown whether the same occurs in non-human primates. As such, we tested three great ape species on their ability to remember an event that varied in distinctiveness. Across three experiments, apes witnessed a baitin…
Preschool children and chimpanzees incur costs to watch punishment of antisocial others
Great apes anticipate that other individuals will act according to false beliefs
Apes understand false beliefs We humans tend to believe that our cognitive skills are unique, not only in degree, but also in kind. The more closely we look at other species, however, the clearer it becomes that the difference is one of degree. Krupenye et al. show that three different species of apes are able to anticipate that others may have mistaken beliefs about a situation (see the Perspective by de Waal). The apes appear to understand that…
Apes produce tools for future use
There is now growing evidence that some animal species are able to plan for the future. For example great apes save and exchange tools for future use. Here we raise the question whether chimpanzees, orangutans, and bonobos would produce tools for future use. Subjects only had access to a baited apparatus for a limited duration and therefore should use the time preceding this access to create the appropriate tools in order to get the rewards. The …
Calculated reciprocity? A comparative test with six primate species
Delayed response task performance as a function of age in cynomolgus monkeys (Macaca fascicularis)
We compared delayed response task performance in young, middle-aged, and old cynomolgus monkeys using three memory tests that have been used with non-human primates. Eighteen cynomolgus monkeys--6 young (4-9 years), 6 middle-aged (10-19 years), and 6 old (above 20 years)--were tested. In general, the old monkeys scored significantly worse than did the animals in the two other age groups. Longer delays between stimulus presentation and response in…
Response facilitation in the four great apes: Is there a role for empathy?
Chimpanzees form long‐term memories for food locations after limited exposure
Remembering the location of fruiting trees for extended periods of time has been hypothesized to play a major role in the evolution of primate cognition. Such ability would be especially useful when paired with a fast learning mechanism capable of consolidating long-term memory after minimal exposure. We investigated whether chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) can remember different food locations after minimal exposure (i.e., 1-2 trials) both after 24…
Fission-Fusion Dynamics: New Research Frameworks
Renewed interest in fission-fusion dynamics is due to the recognition that such dynamics may create unique challenges for social interaction and distinctive selective pressures acting on underlying communicative and cognitive abilities. New frameworks for integrating current knowledge on fission-fusion dynamics emerge from a fundamental rethinking of the term "fission-fusion" away from its current general use as a label for a particular modal typ…
Reliance on head versus eyes in the gaze following of great apes and human infants: The Cooperative Eye Hypothesis
Unwilling Versus Unable: Infants' Understanding of Intentional Action
Infants experienced a female adult handling them toys. Sometimes, however, the transaction failed, either because the adult was in various ways unwilling to give the toy (e.g., she teased the child with it or played with it herself) or else because she was unable to give it (e.g., she accidentally dropped it). Infants at 9, 12, and 18 months of age reacted with more impatience (e.g., reaching, looking away) when the adult was unwilling to give th…
Preschool children and chimpanzees incur costs to watch punishment of antisocial others
Social cognition of monkeys and apes
This paper reviews what is known about the social cognition of monkeys and great apes. The literature reviewed is divided into three main content areas: (1) social interaction, including knowledge of individuals, knowledge of social relationships, alliance formation, and cooperation; (2) communication, including alarm calls, calls for recruiting allies, gestures, and the "language" skills of human-raised apes; and (3) social learning, including t…
Gestural communication of apes
Gestural communication of nonhuman primates may allow insight into the evolutionary scenario of human communication given the flexible use and learning of gestures as opposed to vocalizations. This paper provides an overview of the work on the gestural communication of apes with the focus on their repertoire, learning mechanisms, and the flexibility of gesture use during interactions with conspecifics. Although there is a variation between the sp…
The social learning of tool use by orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus)
Chimpanzees use social information to acquire a skill they fail to innovate
Cumulative cultural evolution has been claimed to be a uniquely human phenomenon pivotal to the biological success of our species. One plausible condition for cumulative cultural evolution to emerge is individuals' ability to use social learning to acquire know-how that they cannot easily innovate by themselves. It has been suggested that chimpanzees may be capable of such know-how social learning, but this assertion remains largely untested. Her…
Sumatran Orangutans and a Yellow-Cheeked Crested Gibbon Know What Is Where
From sign to action: Studies in chimpanzee pictorial competence
Many studies of children and apes realized in psychology address issues that are highly relevant to semiotics, but they often do so indirectly, or they use a terminology that is confusing and/or too vague from a semiotical point of view. The studies reported here, however, follow the paradigm of these psychological studies, but they are couched in an explicit semiotical terminology. They involve three classical semiotical issues: the nature of th…
The Ontogeny of Vocal Sequences: Insights from a Newborn Wild Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii)
Observations of early vocal behaviours in non-human primates (hereafter primates) are important for direct comparisons between human and primate vocal development. However, direct observations of births and perinatal behaviour in wild primates are rare, and the initial stages of behavioural ontogeny usually remain undocumented. Here, we report direct observations of the birth of a wild chimpanzee ( Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii ) in Budongo Fore…
What Role Do Mothers Play in the Gestural Acquisition of Bonobos (Pan paniscus) and Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)
Tracking and inferring spatial rotation by children and great apes
Finding hidden objects in space is a fundamental ability that has received considerable research attention from both a developmental and a comparative perspective. Tracking the rotational displacements of containers and hidden objects is a particularly challenging task. This study investigated the ability of 3-, 5-, 7-, and 9-year-old children and great apes (chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans) to (a) visually track rotational displac…
The learning and use of gestural signals by young chimpanzees: A trans-generational study
The social learning of tool use by orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus)
Social cognition of monkeys and apes
This paper reviews what is known about the social cognition of monkeys and great apes. The literature reviewed is divided into three main content areas: (1) social interaction, including knowledge of individuals, knowledge of social relationships, alliance formation, and cooperation; (2) communication, including alarm calls, calls for recruiting allies, gestures, and the "language" skills of human-raised apes; and (3) social learning, including t…
Influence of kinship and spatial density on reconciliation and grooming in rhesus monkeys
Some cercopithecine primates direct disproportionate amounts of grooming, huddling, and agonistic support toward maternal kin. Disproportionate amounts of aggression are also directed toward maternal kin, however, suggesting that mechanisms that restore relationships damaged by aggression, such as reconciliation, might be biased toward these preferred social partners. Studies investigating kinship effects and reconciliation are inconsistent, howe…
Primate cognition
Soon after Charles Darwin formulated his theory of evolution, primate cognition became a major area of research. In this book, Michael Tomasello and Josep Call assess the current state of our knowledge about the cognitive skills of non-human primates. They integrate empirical findings on the topic from the beginning of the century to the present, placing this research in theoretical perspective. They begin with an examination of the way primates …
The effect of inter-opponent distance on the occurrence of reconciliation in stumptail (Macaca arctoides) and rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta)
Chimpanzees know what conspecifics do and do not see
Do chimpanzees know what conspecifics know?
Spatial rotations and transpositions in orangutans ( Pongo pygmaeus ) and chimpanzees ( Pan troglodytes )
Chimpanzees understand psychological states – the question is which ones and to what extent
Use of gesture sequences in chimpanzees
Gestural communication in a group of 19 captive chimpanzees ( Pan troglodytes ) was observed, with particular attention paid to gesture sequences (combinations). A complete inventory of gesture sequences is reported. The majority of these sequences were repetitions of the same gestures, which were often tactile gestures and often occurred in play contexts. Other sequences combined gestures within a modality (visual, auditory, or tactile) or acros…
Understanding and sharing intentions: The origins of cultural cognition
We propose that the crucial difference between human cognition and that of other species is the ability to participate with others in collaborative activities with shared goals and intentions: shared intentionality. Participation in such activities requires not only especially powerful forms of intention reading and cultural learning, but also a unique motivation to share psychological states with others and unique forms of cognitive representati…
Gestural communication of apes
Gestural communication of nonhuman primates may allow insight into the evolutionary scenario of human communication given the flexible use and learning of gestures as opposed to vocalizations. This paper provides an overview of the work on the gestural communication of apes with the focus on their repertoire, learning mechanisms, and the flexibility of gesture use during interactions with conspecifics. Although there is a variation between the sp…
Unwilling Versus Unable: Infants' Understanding of Intentional Action
Infants experienced a female adult handling them toys. Sometimes, however, the transaction failed, either because the adult was in various ways unwilling to give the toy (e.g., she teased the child with it or played with it herself) or else because she was unable to give it (e.g., she accidentally dropped it). Infants at 9, 12, and 18 months of age reacted with more impatience (e.g., reaching, looking away) when the adult was unwilling to give th…
Primate Psychology
Sumatran Orangutans and a Yellow-Cheeked Crested Gibbon Know What Is Where
Humans Have Evolved Specialized Skills of Social Cognition: The Cultural Intelligence Hypothesis
Humans have many cognitive skills not possessed by their nearest primate relatives. The cultural intelligence hypothesis argues that this is mainly due to a species-specific set of social-cognitive skills, emerging early in ontogeny, for participating and exchanging knowledge in cultural groups. We tested this hypothesis by giving a comprehensive battery of cognitive tests to large numbers of two of humans' closest primate relatives, chimpanzees …
Reliance on head versus eyes in the gaze following of great apes and human infants: The Cooperative Eye Hypothesis
Does the chimpanzee have a theory of mind? 30 years later
An experimental study of nettle feeding in captive gorillas
Mountain gorillas ( Gorilla beringei beringei ) in Karisoke, Rwanda, feed on the stinging nettle Laportea alatipes by means of elaborate processing skills. Byrne [e.g. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B, Biological Sciences 358:529–536, 2003] has claimed that individuals acquire these skills by means of the so‐called program‐level imitation, in which the overall sequence of problem‐solving steps (not the precise a…
Tracking and inferring spatial rotation by children and great apes
Finding hidden objects in space is a fundamental ability that has received considerable research attention from both a developmental and a comparative perspective. Tracking the rotational displacements of containers and hidden objects is a particularly challenging task. This study investigated the ability of 3-, 5-, 7-, and 9-year-old children and great apes (chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans) to (a) visually track rotational displac…
Fission-Fusion Dynamics: New Research Frameworks
Renewed interest in fission-fusion dynamics is due to the recognition that such dynamics may create unique challenges for social interaction and distinctive selective pressures acting on underlying communicative and cognitive abilities. New frameworks for integrating current knowledge on fission-fusion dynamics emerge from a fundamental rethinking of the term "fission-fusion" away from its current general use as a label for a particular modal typ…
Ratcheting up the ratchet: On the evolution of cumulative culture
Some researchers have claimed that chimpanzee and human culture rest on homologous cognitive and learning mechanisms. While clearly there are some homologous mechanisms, we argue here that there are some different mechanisms at work as well. Chimpanzee cultural traditions represent behavioural biases of different populations, all within the species’ existing cognitive repertoire (what we call the ‘zone of latent solutions’) that are generated by …
Are apes inequity averse? New data on the token‐exchange paradigm
Recent studies have produced mixed evidence about inequity aversion in nonhuman primates. Brosnan et al. [Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B. Biological Sciences 272:253–258, 2005] found inequity aversion in chimpanzees and argued that effort is crucial, if subjects are to evaluate how they are rewarded in comparison to a competitor for an identical performance. In this study we investigated inequity aversion with chimpanzees, b…
Do bonobos say NO by shaking their head?
Psychology (55 works) · Primate Behavior and Ecology (48 works) · Child and Animal Learning Development (43 works) · Cognitive psychology (31 works) · Biology (30 works) · Cognition (26 works) · Computer Science (25 works) · Social Psychology (25 works) · Neuroscience (21 works) · Communication (18 works)