Social interactions have a surprising influence on memory in great apes

Memory plays a critical role in learning and survival across species. Particularly in primates, social interaction significantly shapes how memory develops and functions.

Primates, from monkeys to great apes, spend substantial time in social environments, making it crucial for them to observe and learn from others effectively.

Social interactions among primates

Primates live closely together in groups. They rely heavily on noticing social signals from others, like facial expressions and gestures.

From birth, primates naturally focus more on interacting with each other than with objects or things.

This strong preference for social interaction helps them develop important skills, especially in how they learn and remember information.

Paying attention to others is crucial for their brain development and memory formation, influencing how primates learn and adapt throughout life.

Social interactions boost ape memory

A team of researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, examined how social interactions affect memory in great apes.

They presented both young and adult apes with videos showing a human hand (social model) or a mechanical claw (non-social model) constructing a tower.

“We found that apes better remembered a tower when they saw a hand building it rather than a mechanical claw. This is because they paid more attention to the actions of a social being rather than a machine,” noted Marie Padberg, the first author of the study.

Attention improves social memory

To understand this better, the researchers partnered with the University of South Australia. They used artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze regular video recordings of the apes.

The AI technology measured the apes’ heart rates to determine their attention levels during the experiment.

The results showed that apes paid more attention during social demonstrations. Higher attention was directly linked to better memory, showing how closely attention and memory are connected.

Processing social stimuli

Interestingly, improved memory for social events was evident only in adult apes. Younger apes, including juveniles and infants, did not show memory enhancement when viewing social models.

This outcome differs from humans, who exhibit superior social memory from infancy. These findings suggest a developmental difference between humans and other apes in processing social stimuli.

Study senior author Daniel Haun is the director of the Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

“Non-human ape infants and juveniles did not show superior memory for social events. There could be several reasons for this, including the nature of the objects, the complexity of the task, or the duration of the videos,” noted Haun.

“Further research is needed to determine whether superior social memory at younger ages is truly a uniquely human phenomenon.”

Developmental timing and memory

This study highlights how important the timing of cognitive development is in primates. It suggests that non-human primates, like apes, might only show improved memory from social interactions as they grow older.

Younger apes do not experience this benefit early in life, unlike human infants who show strong social memory from birth.

By understanding these differences in developmental timing, scientists can better distinguish how human thinking differs from that of other primates.

Social memory across apes

The research took place at the Wolfgang Köhler Primate Research Center in Leipzig, Germany.

The scientists studied 42 great apes, including chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans. These apes ranged in age from as young as 3 months to as old as 47 years.

This study is the first to investigate how social memory develops as apes grow older. The results represent an important step forward in understanding similarities and differences between human and ape psychology.

Future research directions

The detailed results are published in the journal Animal Behaviour. They show how paying attention to social interactions helps improve memory in different species.

Future research may explore how the difficulty of tasks, familiarity with objects, and interactions within social groups affect memory. These studies will help scientists understand more clearly how both humans and other primates develop and use social memory.

The study is published in the journal Animal Behaviour.

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