How kids learn: Do capuchins have culture?
It seems that capuchin babies have a lot to learn–about tool use, politics, predators, and social relationships. Do they have to learn it all by themselves, or do they get a little help from their friends? Humans take culture for granted. Kids dont have to reinvent the wheel every generation. They learn from us. Have capuchins evolved the capacity for culture? Perry thinks they do. For example, capuchins can open the edible seeds of the Luehea fruit in one of two waysby pounding or scrubbing. Both ways are equally effective, but young monkeys eventually settle on just one techniquewhichever technique theyve most frequently observed other monkeys using (Perry 2009). These findings are supported by experiments on captive capuchins. In one study, researchers presented a capuchin monkey with a box that could be opened in two waysby lifting or sliding a door. The monkey was trained to get food from the box using just one method. Then he was paired with a nave monkeysomebody who had never s
