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Andrew Whiten

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Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior

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Biography

Andrew (Andy) Whiten is Emeritus Wardlaw Professor at the School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, Scotland. He is an elected Fellow of the British Academy, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and the International Cognitive Science Society. Whiten’s research focuses on social learning and cultural transmission, providing insights into this “second inheritance system” and the role it plays in shaping behavior in concert with genetic inheritance and individual learning. Through his collaborations, Whiten has published papers on humans and nonhuman primates and has used experimental and observational techniques to answer questions about the social drivers of primate cognition.

Whiten joined the University of St Andrews as a Lecturer in 1975 after studying at the Universities of Sheffield, Bristol, and Oxford. He became Professor of Evolutionary and Developmental Psychology at the University of St Andrews in 1997 and was made Wardlaw Professor in 2001. In...

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References

  • Byrne, R., & Whiten, A. (1998). Machiavellian intelligence: Social expertise and the evolution of intellect in monkeys, apes, and humans. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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  • Caldwell, C. A., & Whiten, A. (2003). Scrounging facilitates social learning in common marmosets, Callithrix jacchus. Animal Behaviour, 65(6), 1085–1092.

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  • Claidière, N., Whiten, A., Mareno, M. C., Messer, E. J. M., Brosnan, S. F., Hopper, L. M., Lambeth, S. P., Schaprio, S. J., & McGuigan, N. (2015). Selective and contagious prosocial resource donation in capuchin monkeys, chimpanzees and humans. Scientific Reports, 5, 7631.

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  • Hopper, L. M., Lambeth, S. P., Schapiro, S. J., & Whiten, A. (2015). The importance of witnessed agency in chimpanzee social learning of tool use. Behavioural Processes, 112, 120–129.

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  • Kendal, R., Hopper, L. M., Whiten, A., Brosnan, S. F., Lambeth, S. P., Schapiro, S. J., & Hoppitt, W. (2015). Chimpanzees copy dominant and knowledgeable individuals: Implications for cultural diversity. Evolution and Human Behavior, 36(1), 65–72.

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  • Vale, G. L., Davis, S. J., van de Waal, E., Schapiro, S. J., Lambeth, S. P., & Whiten, A. (2017). Lack of conformity to new local dietary preferences in migrating captive chimpanzees. Animal Behaviour, 124, 135–144.

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  • van de Waal, E., Borgeaud, C., & Whiten, A. (2013). Potent social learning and conformity shape a wild primate’s foraging decisions. Science, 340(6131), 483–485.

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  • Whiten, A., & Flynn, E. (2010). The transmission and evolution experimental microcultures in groups of young children. Developmental Psychology, 46(6), 1694–1709.

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  • Whiten, A., Custance, D. M., Gomez, J. C., Teixidor, P., & Bard, K. A. (1996). Imitative learning of artificial fruit processing in children (Homo sapiens) and chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Journal of Comparative Psychology, 110(1), 3–14.

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  • Whiten, A., Goodall, J., McGrew, W. C., Nishida, T., Reynolds, V., Sugiyama, Y., Tutin, C. E. G., Wrangham, R. W., & Boesch, C. (1999). Cultures in chimpanzees. Nature, 399, 682–685.

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  • Whiten, A., Goodall, J., McGrew, W. C., Nishida, T., Reynolds, V., Sugiyama, Y., Tutin, C. E. G., Wrangham, R. W., & Boesch, C. (2001). Charting cultural variation in chimpanzees. Behaviour, 138(11–12), 1481–1516.

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  • Whiten, A., Horner, V., & de Waal, F. B. M. (2005). Conformity to cultural norms of tool use in chimpanzees. Nature, 437, 737–740.

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  • Williams, J. H., Whiten, A., Suddendorf, T., & Perrett, D. I. (2001). Imitation, mirror neurons and autism. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 25(4), 287–295.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lester E. Fisher Center for the Study and Conservation of Apes, Lincoln Park Zoo, 2001 N Clark Street, Chicago, IL, 60614, USA

    Lydia M Hopper

Authors
  1. Lydia M Hopper
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Correspondence to Lydia M Hopper .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland University , Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Jennifer Vonk

  2. Department of Psychology, Oakland University Department of Psychology, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Todd Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, UK

    Lauren Guillette

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Hopper, L.M. (2017). Andrew Whiten. In: Vonk, J., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_904-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_904-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-47829-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-47829-6

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