Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences: Vol 362, No 1480

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Table of Contents

Discussion Meeting Issue ‘Social intelligence: from brain to culture’ organized and edited by Nathan Emery, Nicky Clayton and Chris Frith

Introduction. Social intelligence: from brain to culture

Nathan J Emery,
Nicola S Clayton and
Chris D Frith

Published:24 January 2007Page(s): 485-488

https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2006.2022

First Page
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Cognitive adaptations of social bonding in birds

Nathan J Emery,
Amanda M Seed,
Auguste M.P von Bayern and
Nicola S Clayton

Published:24 January 2007Page(s): 489-505

https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2006.1991

Abstract
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The ‘social intelligence hypothesis’ was originally conceived to explain how primates may have evolved their superior intellect and large brains when compared with other animals. Although some birds such as corvids may be intellectually comparable to apes,...

Social cognition by food-caching corvids. The western scrub-jay as a natural psychologist

Nicola S Clayton,
Joanna M Dally and
Nathan J Emery

Published:19 February 2007Page(s): 507-522

https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2006.1992

Abstract
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Food-caching corvids hide food, but such caches are susceptible to pilfering by other individuals. Consequently, the birds use several counter strategies to protect their caches from theft, e.g. hiding most of them out of sight. When observed by potential ...

Social intelligence in the spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta)

Kay E Holekamp,
Sharleen T Sakai and
Barbara L Lundrigan

Published:08 February 2007Page(s): 523-538

https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2006.1993

Abstract
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If the large brains and great intelligence characteristic of primates were favoured by selection pressures associated with life in complex societies, then cognitive abilities and nervous systems with primate-like attributes should have evolved ...

The adaptive value of sociality in mammalian groups

Joan B Silk

Published:26 January 2007Page(s): 539-559

https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2006.1994

Abstract
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According to behavioural ecology theory, sociality evolves when the net benefits of close association with conspecifics exceed the costs. The nature and relative magnitude of the benefits and costs of sociality are expected to vary across species and ...

Social brains, simple minds: does social complexity really require cognitive complexity?

Louise Barrett,
Peter Henzi and
Drew Rendall

Published:24 January 2007Page(s): 561-575

https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2006.1995

Abstract
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The social brain hypothesis is a well-accepted and well-supported evolutionary theory of enlarged brain size in the non-human primates. Nevertheless, it tends to emphasize an anthropocentric view of social life and cognition. This often leads to confusion ...

Culture in great apes: using intricate complexity in feeding skills to trace the evolutionary origin of human technical prowess

Richard W Byrne

Published:08 February 2007Page(s): 577-585

https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2006.1996

Abstract
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Geographical cataloguing of traits, as used in human ethnography, has led to the description of ‘culture’ in some non-human great apes. Culture, in these terms, is detected as a pattern of local ignorance resulting from environmental constraints on ...

Dolphin social intelligence: complex alliance relationships in bottlenose dolphins and a consideration of selective environments for extreme brain size evolution in mammals

Richard C Connor

Published:12 February 2007Page(s): 587-602

https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2006.1997

Abstract
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Bottlenose dolphins in Shark Bay, Australia, live in a large, unbounded society with a fission–fusion grouping pattern. Potential cognitive demands include the need to develop social strategies involving the recognition of a large number of individuals ...

The evolution of animal ‘cultures’ and social intelligence

Andrew Whiten and
Carel P van Schaik

Published:24 January 2007Page(s): 603-620

https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2006.1998

Abstract
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Decades-long field research has flowered into integrative studies that, together with experimental evidence for the requisite social learning capacities, have indicated a reliance on multiple traditions (‘cultures’) in a small number of species. It is ...

Getting back to the rough ground: deception and ‘social living’

Vasudevi Reddy

Published:19 February 2007Page(s): 621-637

https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2006.1999

Abstract
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At the heart of the social intelligence hypothesis is the central role of ‘social living’. But living is messy and psychologists generally seek to avoid this mess in the interests of getting clean data and cleaner logical explanations. The study of ...

Cooperation and human cognition: the Vygotskian intelligence hypothesis

Henrike Moll and
Michael Tomasello

Published:12 February 2007Page(s): 639-648

https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2006.2000

Abstract
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Nicholas Humphrey's social intelligence hypothesis proposed that the major engine of primate cognitive evolution was social competition. Lev Vygotsky also emphasized the social dimension of intelligence, but he focused on human primates and cultural ...

Understanding primate brain evolution

R.I.M Dunbar and
Susanne Shultz

Published:13 February 2007Page(s): 649-658

https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2006.2001

Abstract
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We present a detailed reanalysis of the comparative brain data for primates, and develop a model using path analysis that seeks to present the coevolution of primate brain (neocortex) and sociality within a broader ecological and life-history framework. ...

Before and below ‘theory of mind’: embodied simulation and the neural correlates of social cognition

Vittorio Gallese

Published:13 February 2007Page(s): 659-669

https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2006.2002

Abstract
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The automatic translation of folk psychology into newly formed brain modules specifically dedicated to mind-reading and other social cognitive abilities should be carefully scrutinized. Searching for the brain location of intentions, beliefs and desires—...

The social brain?

Chris D Frith

Published:24 January 2007Page(s): 671-678

https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2006.2003

Abstract
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The notion that there is a ‘social brain’ in humans specialized for social interactions has received considerable support from brain imaging and, to a lesser extent, from lesion studies. Specific roles for the various components of the social brain are ...

Socially intelligent robots: dimensions of human–robot interaction

Kerstin Dautenhahn

Published:13 February 2007Page(s): 679-704

https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2006.2004

Abstract
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Social intelligence in robots has a quite recent history in artificial intelligence and robotics. However, it has become increasingly apparent that social and interactive skills are necessary requirements in many application areas and contexts where ...

Did farming arise from a misapplication of social intelligence?

Steven Mithen

Published:26 January 2007Page(s): 705-718

https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2006.2005

Abstract
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The origins of farming is the defining event of human history—the one turning point that has resulted in modern humans having a quite different type of lifestyle and cognition to all other animals and past types of humans. With the economic basis provided ...

Social intelligence, human intelligence and niche construction

Kim Sterelny

Published:24 January 2007Page(s): 719-730

https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2006.2006

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This paper is about the evolution of hominin intelligence. I agree with defenders of the social intelligence hypothesis in thinking that externalist models of hominin intelligence are not plausible: such models cannot explain the unique cognition and ...

On the lack of evidence that non-human animals possess anything remotely resembling a ‘theory of mind’

Derek C Penn and
Daniel J Povinelli

Published:30 January 2007Page(s): 731-744

https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2006.2023

Abstract
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After decades of effort by some of our brightest human and non-human minds, there is still little consensus on whether or not non-human animals understand anything about the unobservable mental states of other animals or even what it would mean for a non-...

The society of selves

Nicholas Humphrey

Published:24 January 2007Page(s): 745-754

https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2006.2007

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Human beings are not only the most sociable animals on Earth, but also the only animals that have to ponder the separateness that comes with having a conscious self. The philosophical problem of ‘other minds’ nags away at people's sense of who—and why—...

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences cover image

29 April 2007

Volume 362Issue 1480

Editor-In-Chief

Professor Richard Dixon FRS

About the cover

Left, photograph of an ebony wood ‘Tree of Life’ carving, made by a craftsman of the Makonde tribe in Tanzania, about 1970 (provided by Nicholas Humphrey; see pages 745–754). Top right, a social group of captive rooks, including a bonded pair (48 and 49). These pairs resemble the alliances of primates (photograph, Christopher Bird and Nathan Emery; see pages 489–505). Bottom right, chimpanzees communally ‘ant-dipping’ using long wands at a nest hole, in Gombe, Tanzania. Social complexity here ranges from multi-party competition to opportunties for social learning of a challenging foraging skill (photograph, D. Bygott and A. Whiten; see pages 603–620).
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