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How Primate Mothers and Infants Communicate: Characterizing Interaction in Mother–Infant Studies

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The Evolution of Social Communication in Primates

Part of the book series: Interdisciplinary Evolution Research ((IDER,volume 1))

Abstract

All methodologies used to characterize mother–infant interaction in non-human primates include mother, infant, and other social factors. The chief difference is their understanding of how this interaction takes place. Using chimpanzees as a model, I will compare the different methodologies used to describe mother–infant interaction and show how implicit notions of communication and social interaction shape descriptions of this kind of interaction. I will examine the limitations and advantages of different approaches used in mother–infant studies, and I will sketch an alternative approach to studying mother–infant interaction in non-human primates that adopts Bruner’s developmental studies on human infant communication.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Among the examples of how this approach is used in the research of different species we can find the following: Baboons (Altmann 1980), Japanese macaques (Bardi and Huffman 2002; Schino et al. 1995), rhesus macaques (Maestripieri 1993, 1998, 1999; Maestripieri et al. 2006), bonobos and chimpanzees (De Lathowres and Eslacker 2004), chimpanzees (Bloomsmith et al. 2003), and in general reviews of vervets, rhesus monkeys, Japanese macaques, and baboons (Fairbanks 1993, 1996; Fleming et al. 2002; Hinde 1983, 1984; Maestripieri 1999).

  2. 2.

    The structure varies in female and male monkeys but does not alter the idea that a call is a unit of information which shares the same structure among individuals.

  3. 3.

    When I describe these units as pre-set, this does not entail that they are not defined through observation. I am describing how a researcher, after hours of observation, divides her observations into categories or units and later uses these units to describe behaviors. In this way, by the time she observes the behavior she is interested in, these units that are already pre-set, ready to be used.

  4. 4.

    Emphasis is not in the original.

  5. 5.

    For chimpanzees, the effects of a mother’s absence have been observed in chimpanzees raised in isolation (for reviews see Yerkes 1943; Menzel 1964; King and Mellen 1994) and under captivity in enriched environments (for reviews see Clarke et al. (1982), Brent et al. (1991), Baker (1996) and van Ijzendoorn et al. (2009)).

  6. 6.

    This behavior is important for forming an attachment bond because, as Bowlby (1958) notes, the infant chooses only one object of attachment. Thus, it needs to be able to discriminate among faces to be able to form its attachment bond.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology and Philosophy, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX, USA

    Maria Botero

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  1. Maria Botero
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Correspondence to Maria Botero .

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  1. Centre for Philosophy of Science, University of Lisbon AppEEL, Lisbon, Portugal

    Marco Pina

  2. Centre for Philosophy of Science, University of Lisbon AppEEL, Lisbon, Portugal

    Nathalie Gontier

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Botero, M. (2014). How Primate Mothers and Infants Communicate: Characterizing Interaction in Mother–Infant Studies. In: Pina, M., Gontier, N. (eds) The Evolution of Social Communication in Primates. Interdisciplinary Evolution Research, vol 1. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02669-5_5

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