THE RESPONSES OF FEMALE BABOONS (PAPIO-CYNOCEPHALUS-URSINUS) TO ANOMALOUS SOCIAL INTERACTIONS - EVIDENCE FOR CAUSAL REASONING

Baboons' (Papio cynocephalus ursinus) understanding of cause-effect re lations in the context of social interactions was examined through use of a playback experiment. Under natural conditions, dominant female b aboons often grunt to more subordinate mothers when interacting with t heir infants. Mothers occasionally respond to these grunts by uttering submissive fear barks. Subjects were played causally inconsistent cal l sequences in which a lower ranking female apparently grunted to a hi gher ranking female, and the higher ranking female apparently responde d with fear barks. As a control, subjects heard a sequence made causal ly consistent by the inclusion of grunts from a 3rd female that was do minant to both of the others. Subjects responded significantly more st rongly to the causally inconsistent sequences, suggesting that they re cognized the factors that cause 1 individual to give submissive vocali zations to another.