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All Outputs (43)

What drives young children to over-imitate? Investigating the effects of age, context, action type, and transitivity (2017)
Journal Article
Clay, Z., Over, H., & Tennie, C. (2018). What drives young children to over-imitate? Investigating the effects of age, context, action type, and transitivity. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 166, 520-534. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2017.09.008

Imitation underlies many traits thought to characterize our species, which includes the transmission and acquisition of language, material culture, norms, rituals, and conventions. From early childhood, humans show an intriguing willingness to imitat... Read More about What drives young children to over-imitate? Investigating the effects of age, context, action type, and transitivity.

Is Overimitation a Uniquely Human Phenomenon? Insights From Human Children as Compared to Bonobos (2017)
Journal Article
Clay, Z., & Tennie, C. (2018). Is Overimitation a Uniquely Human Phenomenon? Insights From Human Children as Compared to Bonobos. Child Development, 89(5), 1535-1544. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12857

Imitation is a key mechanism of human culture and underlies many of the intricacies of human social life, including rituals and social norms. Compared to other animals, humans appear to be special in their readiness to copy novel actions as well as t... Read More about Is Overimitation a Uniquely Human Phenomenon? Insights From Human Children as Compared to Bonobos.

Bonobos use call combinations to facilitate inter-party travel recruitment (2017)
Journal Article
Schamberg, I., Cheney, D. L., Clay, Z., Hohmann, G., & Seyfarth, R. M. (2017). Bonobos use call combinations to facilitate inter-party travel recruitment. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 71(4), Article 75. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-017-2301-9

Many primates produce vocalizations when initiating travel. These “travel calls” are often acoustically similar to vocalizations unrelated to travel, and listeners appear to rely on a shared context with callers to correctly interpret the calls. When... Read More about Bonobos use call combinations to facilitate inter-party travel recruitment.

Call combinations, vocal exchanges and interparty movement in wild bonobos (2016)
Journal Article
Schamberg, I., Cheney, D. L., Clay, Z., Hohmann, G., & Seyfarth, R. M. (2016). Call combinations, vocal exchanges and interparty movement in wild bonobos. Animal Behaviour, 122, 109-116. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2016.10.003

The vocal repertoire of nonhuman primates is largely fixed. Individuals produce their species-specific vocalizations from a young age, and do not acquire new call types over their lifetime. Despite these limitations, however, monkeys and apes are abl... Read More about Call combinations, vocal exchanges and interparty movement in wild bonobos.

A Comparison Between Bonobos and Chimpanzees: A Review and Update (2016)
Journal Article
Gruber, T., & Clay, Z. (2016). A Comparison Between Bonobos and Chimpanzees: A Review and Update. Evolutionary Anthropology, 25(5), 239-252. https://doi.org/10.1002/evan.21501

Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and bonobos (P. paniscus) are our closest living relatives, with the human lineage diverging from the Pan lineage only around five to seven Mya, but possibly as early as eight Mya.1–2 Chimpanzees and bonobos even share g... Read More about A Comparison Between Bonobos and Chimpanzees: A Review and Update.

Bonobos (Pan paniscus) vocally protest against violations of social expectations (2016)
Journal Article
Clay, Z., Ravaux, L., de Waal, F. B., & Zuberbühler, K. (2016). Bonobos (Pan paniscus) vocally protest against violations of social expectations. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 130(1), 44-54. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0040088

Research has shown that great apes possess certain expectations about social regularities and both perceive and act according to social rules within their group. During natural and experimentally induced contexts, such as the inequitable distribution... Read More about Bonobos (Pan paniscus) vocally protest against violations of social expectations.

Obstacles and catalysts to peaceful coexistence in chimpanzees and bonobos. (2016)
Journal Article
Clay, Z., de Waal, F. B., & Furuichi, T. (2016). Obstacles and catalysts to peaceful coexistence in chimpanzees and bonobos. Behaviour, 153(9-11), 1293-1330. https://doi.org/10.1163/1568539x-00003335

As our closest living relatives, comparisons of the social lives and behavioural ecologies of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and bonobos (Pan paniscus) provide relevant insights into the evolutionary constraints of peaceful coexistence in Hominid soci... Read More about Obstacles and catalysts to peaceful coexistence in chimpanzees and bonobos..

Functional flexibility in wild bonobo vocal behaviour (2015)
Journal Article
Clay, Z., Archbold, J., & Zuberbühler, K. (2015). Functional flexibility in wild bonobo vocal behaviour. PeerJ – the Journal of Life & Environmental Sciences, 3, Article e1124. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.1124

A shared principle in the evolution of language and the development of speech is the emergence of functional flexibility, the capacity of vocal signals to express a range of emotional states independently of context and biological function. Functiona... Read More about Functional flexibility in wild bonobo vocal behaviour.

Young Children Make Their Gestural Communication Systems More Language-Like: Segmentation and Linearization of Semantic Elements in Motion Events (2014)
Journal Article
Clay, Z., Pople, S., Hood, B., & Kita, S. (2014). Young Children Make Their Gestural Communication Systems More Language-Like: Segmentation and Linearization of Semantic Elements in Motion Events. Psychological Science, 25(8), 1518-1525. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797614533967

Research on Nicaraguan Sign Language, created by deaf children, has suggested that young children use gestures to segment the semantic elements of events and linearize them in ways similar to those used in signed and spoken languages. However, it is... Read More about Young Children Make Their Gestural Communication Systems More Language-Like: Segmentation and Linearization of Semantic Elements in Motion Events.

Sex and strife: post-conflict sexual contacts in bonobos. (2014)
Journal Article
Clay, Z., & de Waal, F. B. (2015). Sex and strife: post-conflict sexual contacts in bonobos. Behaviour, 152(3-4), 313-334. https://doi.org/10.1163/1568539x-00003155

Sexual contacts are thought to play an important role in regulating social tension in bonobos (Pan paniscus), and are especially common following aggressive conflicts, either between former opponents or involving bystanders. Nevertheless, research on... Read More about Sex and strife: post-conflict sexual contacts in bonobos..

Multi-Modal Use of a Socially Directed Call in Bonobos (2014)
Journal Article
Genty, E., Clay, Z., Hobaiter, C., & Zuberbühler, K. (2014). Multi-Modal Use of a Socially Directed Call in Bonobos. PLoS ONE, 9(1), Article e84738. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0084738

‘Contest hoots’ are acoustically complex vocalisations produced by adult and subadult male bonobos (Pan paniscus). These calls are often directed at specific individuals and regularly combined with gestures and other body signals. The aim of our stud... Read More about Multi-Modal Use of a Socially Directed Call in Bonobos.

Development of socio-emotional competence in bonobos (2013)
Journal Article
Clay, Z., & de Waal, F. (2013). Development of socio-emotional competence in bonobos. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(45), 18121-18126. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1316449110

Social and emotional skills are tightly interlinked in human development, and both are negatively impacted by disrupted social development. The same interplay between social and emotional skills, including expressions of empathy, has received scant a... Read More about Development of socio-emotional competence in bonobos.

Bonobos Respond to Distress in Others: Consolation across the Age Spectrum (2013)
Journal Article
Clay, Z., & de Waal, F. B. (2013). Bonobos Respond to Distress in Others: Consolation across the Age Spectrum. PLoS ONE, 8(1), Article e55206. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0055206

How animals respond to conflict provides key insights into the evolution of socio-cognitive and emotional capacities. Evidence from apes has shown that, after social conflicts, bystanders approach victims of aggression to offer stress-alleviating con... Read More about Bonobos Respond to Distress in Others: Consolation across the Age Spectrum.

Communication during sex among female bonobos: effects of dominance, solicitation and audience (2012)
Journal Article
Clay, Z., & Zuberbühler, K. (2012). Communication during sex among female bonobos: effects of dominance, solicitation and audience. Scientific Reports, 2, Article 291. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep00291

Bonobo females frequently form close bonds, which give them social power over other group members. One potential mechanism to facilitate female bonding is the performance of sexual interactions. Using naturalistic observations and experiments, we fou... Read More about Communication during sex among female bonobos: effects of dominance, solicitation and audience.

Food-associated vocalizations in mammals and birds: what do these calls really mean? (2012)
Journal Article
Clay, Z., Smith, C. L., & Blumstein, D. T. (2012). Food-associated vocalizations in mammals and birds: what do these calls really mean?. Animal Behaviour, 83(2), 323-330. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2011.12.008

Alarm calls and food-associated calls from a diverse range of species are said to be functionally referential, in that receivers can use these sounds to predict environmental events in the absence of other contextual cues. The evolutionary driver for... Read More about Food-associated vocalizations in mammals and birds: what do these calls really mean?.

Mirroring Fictional Others (2011)
Book Chapter
Clay, Z., & Iacoboni, M. (2011). Mirroring Fictional Others. In E. Schellekens, & P. Goldie (Eds.), The Aesthetic Mind, Philosophy and Psychology. Oxford University Press

The Structure of Bonobo Copulation Calls During Reproductive and Non-Reproductive Sex. (2011)
Journal Article
Clay, Z., & Zuberbühler, K. (2011). The Structure of Bonobo Copulation Calls During Reproductive and Non-Reproductive Sex. Ethology: international journal of behavioural biology, 117(12), 1158-1169. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1439-0310.2011.01975.x

Copulation calls in primates are usually identified as sexually selected signals that promote the reproductive success of the caller. In this study, we investigated the acoustic structure of copulation calls in bonobos (Pan paniscus), a great ape kno... Read More about The Structure of Bonobo Copulation Calls During Reproductive and Non-Reproductive Sex..

Bonobos Extract Meaning from Call Sequences (2011)
Journal Article
Clay, Z., & Zuberbühler, K. (2011). Bonobos Extract Meaning from Call Sequences. PLoS ONE, 6(4), Article e18786. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0018786

Studies on language-trained bonobos have revealed their remarkable abilities in representational and communication tasks. Surprisingly, however, corresponding research into their natural communication has largely been neglected. We address this issue... Read More about Bonobos Extract Meaning from Call Sequences.