Maternal behaviors that mediate skill development in Sumatran orangutans
Sauciuc, Gabriela-Alina LU ; Luna Martinez, Adriana LU ; Wester, Anna ; Hellgren, Tora and Persson, Tomas LU
(2021)
The annual conference of the Cognitive Science Society
In Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society
43.
p.1187-1193
- Abstract
- Although orangutans are closely related to humans, very little is known about their ontogenetic development. In particular, there is a lack of systematic research on the maternal behaviors that mediate skill development in early infancy. To address this topic, we conducted a longitudinal study in which a Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii) mother-infant dyad was systematically observed across 28 months, starting with the infant’s birth. Our data revealed several classes of maternal behavior that potentially influenced infant skill development. The timing of these behaviors was contingent upon infant competence level, as active interventions were intense during periods of skill acquisition. The same behaviors were... (More)
- Although orangutans are closely related to humans, very little is known about their ontogenetic development. In particular, there is a lack of systematic research on the maternal behaviors that mediate skill development in early infancy. To address this topic, we conducted a longitudinal study in which a Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii) mother-infant dyad was systematically observed across 28 months, starting with the infant’s birth. Our data revealed several classes of maternal behavior that potentially influenced infant skill development. The timing of these behaviors was contingent upon infant competence level, as active interventions were intense during periods of skill acquisition. The same behaviors were flexibly deployed independent of whether the infant was in the process of acquiring foraging, locomotor or social skills. Our findings suggest that the maternal behaviors that mediate infant skill development in Sumatran orangutans have features reminiscent of human scaffolding, and raise questions about intentionality in such behaviors (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/614db686-504e-46d6-afa9-571acc6e2dd6
- author
- Sauciuc, Gabriela-Alina
LU
; Luna Martinez, Adriana
LU
; Wester, Anna
; Hellgren, Tora
and Persson, Tomas
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2021
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- orangutan ontogeny, skill acquisition, scaffolding, teaching
- in
- Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society
- volume
- 43
- pages
- 7 pages
- conference name
- The annual conference of the Cognitive Science Society
- conference location
- Vienna, Austria
- conference dates
- 2021-07-26 - 2021-07-29
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85139389790
- ISSN
- 1069-7977
- project
- The development of social-cognitive abilities in a Sumatran orangutan infant
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 614db686-504e-46d6-afa9-571acc6e2dd6
- alternative location
- https://escholarship.org/uc/item/35h6z1hg
- date added to LUP
- 2021-09-02 09:57:51
- date last changed
- 2025-10-14 10:25:13
@article{614db686-504e-46d6-afa9-571acc6e2dd6,
abstract = {{Although orangutans are closely related to humans, very little is known about their ontogenetic development. In particular, there is a lack of systematic research on the maternal behaviors that mediate skill development in early infancy. To address this topic, we conducted a longitudinal study in which a Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii) mother-infant dyad was systematically observed across 28 months, starting with the infant’s birth. Our data revealed several classes of maternal behavior that potentially influenced infant skill development. The timing of these behaviors was contingent upon infant competence level, as active interventions were intense during periods of skill acquisition. The same behaviors were flexibly deployed independent of whether the infant was in the process of acquiring foraging, locomotor or social skills. Our findings suggest that the maternal behaviors that mediate infant skill development in Sumatran orangutans have features reminiscent of human scaffolding, and raise questions about intentionality in such behaviors}},
author = {{Sauciuc, Gabriela-Alina and Luna Martinez, Adriana and Wester, Anna and Hellgren, Tora and Persson, Tomas}},
issn = {{1069-7977}},
keywords = {{orangutan ontogeny; skill acquisition; scaffolding; teaching}},
language = {{eng}},
pages = {{1187--1193}},
series = {{Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society}},
title = {{Maternal behaviors that mediate skill development in Sumatran orangutans}},
url = {{https://escholarship.org/uc/item/35h6z1hg}},
volume = {{43}},
year = {{2021}},
}