The DOI matches its Crossref record; 41 of the 41 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Fission-Fusion Dynamics, Behavioral Flexibility, and Inhibitory Control in Primates
Open accessAbstract
The Machiavellian Intelligence or Social Brain Hypothesis explains the evolution of increased brain size as mainly driven by living in complex organized social systems in which individuals represent "moving targets" who can adopt multiple strategies to respond to one another. Frequently splitting and merging in subgroups of variable composition (fission-fusion or FF dynamics) has been proposed as one aspect of social complexity ( compare with) that may be associated with an enhancement of cognitive skills like inhibition, which allows the suppression of prepotent but ineffective responses in a changing social environment. We compared the performance of primates experiencing high levels of FF dynamics (chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutans, and spider monkeys) to that of species living in more cohesive groups (gorillas, capuchin monkeys, and long-tailed macaques) on five inhibition tasks. Testing species differing in diet, phylogenetic relatedness, and levels of FF dynamics allowed us to contrast ecological, phylogenetic, and socioecological explanations for interspecific differences. Spider monkeys performed at levels comparable to chimpanzees, bonobos, and orangutans, and better than gorillas. A two-cluster analysis grouped all species with higher levels of FF dynamics together. These findings confirmed that enhanced inhibitory skills are positively associated with FF dynamics, more than to phylogenetic relations or feeding ecology.
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“In primates, performance on a series of nonsocial self-control control tasks was related to variability in social systems (174), illustrating the potential link between these skills and socioecology.”
From The evolution of self-control. (2014) · cites this paper as [174]
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“Amici et al. (2008) compared seven primate species on five different tasks that assess inhibitory control. Species were ranked within each task, and these ranks were averaged across tasks to approximate relative capacities for inhibitory control.”
From How does cognition evolve? Phylogenetic comparative psychology (2012) · cites this paper as Amici et al. (2008)
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“While phylogenetic comparative methods have been applied to the study of brain evolution (e.g., Barton 1998; Dunbar 1998b; Deaner et al. 2000, 2007; Lindenfors et al. 2007; Isler and van Schaik 2009), with few exceptions (e.g., Amici et al. 2008; Shultz and Dunbar 2010), they have yet to be applied to systematic investigations of cognitive variation between species as measured through behavioral”
From How does cognition evolve? Phylogenetic comparative psychology (2012) · cites this paper as Amici et al. 2008
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Metadata
- Authors
- Amici, F., Aureli, F., & Call, J.
- Affiliations
- Utrecht University (NL)
- Liverpool John Moores University (GB)
- Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Aureli, Filippo
- Call, Josep
- Venue
- Current Biology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2008-09
- Volume
- 18
- Issue
- 18
- Pages
- 1415-1419
- ISSN
- 0960-9822 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2009549110
- Cited by
- 470
- References
- 40
- Citations by year
- 2026: 25 · 2025: 20 · 2024: 42 · 2023: 17 · 2022: 49 · 2021: 28 · 2020: 27 · 2019: 31 · 2018: 46 · 2017: 23 · 2016: 25 · 2015: 29 · 2014: 24 · 2013: 22 · 2012: 20
- FWCI
- 18.67
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Update notices
- erratum (2013-07-08)
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/ (tdm)
- www.elsevier.com/legal/tdmrep-license (tdm)
- www.elsevier.com/open-access/userlicense/1.0/ (vor, 1780 d)
- doi.org/10.15223/policy-017 (stm-asf)
- doi.org/10.15223/policy-037 (stm-asf)
- doi.org/10.15223/policy-012 (stm-asf)
- doi.org/10.15223/policy-029 (stm-asf)
- doi.org/10.15223/policy-004 (stm-asf)
- Locations
- Current Biology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (submittedVersion)
- MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Primate Behavior and Ecology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Animal Behavior and Reproduction
- Keywords
- fission-fusion dynamics, inhibitory control, behavioral flexibility, social brain hypothesis, Machiavellian intelligence, primate cognition, social complexity, group cohesion, spider monkeys, chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutans, gorillas, capuchin monkeys, Macaca fascicularis, cross-species comparison, feeding ecology, phylogenetic relatedness
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Behavior, Animal, Brain, Cebus, Pan troglodytes, Cognition, Gorilla gorilla, Learning, Macaca, Motor Activity, Pongo pygmaeus, Primates, Species Specificity, Pan paniscus, Atelinae
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