Social Knowledge

Question 1

Reconciliation vs. Consolation

- Def.

Answer 1

Reconciliation
= Friendly re-union of former combatants after a conflict

Consolation
= Bystander affiliation
> Socio-positive behaviour between outstander and victim of aggression

Question 2

Reconciliation

- Functions

Answer 2

• Reduce anxiety and uncertainty

- Restore valuable relationship

Question 3

Consolation

- Functions

Answer 3

• Self-protection
• Stress alleviation
• Restore opponent-relationship

Question 4

Social relationships

- Definition

Answer 4

Latent contruct of interindividual behavioural dependency.

Question 5

Social relationships

- Types

Answer 5

Affiliation

• Friendship
• Kinship
• Partnership

Dominance
- Dominance hierarchy

-> Not mutually exclusive!

Question 6

Social relationships

- Cognitive differences

Answer 6

Affiliation

• Individual recognition
• Social knowledge about individuals and familiarity (to predict their behaviour)
• For cooperation: Emotional/mental book-keeping of debits and credits

Dominance

• Transitive inference
• Dependent ranks
• Linear or circular hierarchies

Question 7

Why social relationships important for SIH?

Answer 7

SIH assumes that life in social groups comes with additional cognitive challenges:

• Animals = (re-)active, behave autonomously
• Require interactions (based on social knowledge)
• Require diff. kinds of manipulation (via communication)
• Can be used as source of information (social learning)
• Members of same group have same cogn. adaptations -> Rachet effect

Having to cope with these challenges leads to higher intelligence/sophisticated cognition -> better performance in cognitive tasks/problem solving abilities?

Question 8

Determinants for relationship quality

Answer 8

• Value (Benefits of relationship)
• Compatibility (Degree of mutual tolerance within dyad)
• Security (Predictability of partner’s actions, consistency over time)

Question 9

Determinants for relationship type

Answer 9

Affiliations

• Spatial proximity
• Socio-positive behaviours
• Social support
• Cooperation: Increased altruism betw. kin, reciprocal altruism betw. non-kin

Dominance

• Based on agonistic interactions
• When hierarchy established: Approach-retreat (few conflicts)
• Regulates access to resources

Question 10

3rd-party understanding

- Methods

Answer 10

Observational evidence:

• Protected threat
• Redirected aggression
• Seperating interventions

Experimental evidence:

• Matching-to-sample task (related pair)
• Playback exp. with distress calls
• Rank reversal (between > within families)

Question 11

3rd-party understanding

- Evidence

Answer 11

• Vervet monkeys: Playback distress call offspring to mother -> other females look at her if she is slow to respond
• Baboons: Respond stronger to rank-reversals between than within families

Question 12

Alternative to redirected aggression

Answer 12

Spatial proximity

> No specific aggression, only spatially close to sub (aggressor lets steam off at individual being close to attacker)