Data from: The fourth dimension of tool use: temporally enduring artefacts aid primates learning to use tools

All investigated cases of habitual tool use in wild chimpanzees and capuchin monkeys include youngsters encountering durable artefacts, most often in a supportive social context. We propose that enduring artefacts associated with tool use, such as previously used tools, partly processed food items and residual material from previous activity, aid non-human primates to learn to use tools, and to develop expertise in their use, thus contributing to traditional technologies in non-humans. Therefore, social contributions to tool use can be considered as situated in the three dimensions of Euclidean space, and in the fourth dimension of time. This notion expands the contribution of social context to learning a skill beyond the immediate presence of a model nearby. We provide examples supporting this hypothesis from wild bearded capuchin monkeys and chimpanzees, and suggest avenues for future research.

针对野生黑猩猩与卷尾猴的习惯性工具使用行为的所有已调研案例均显示，幼年个体常会接触到耐用人工制品，且此类接触大多发生在具备支持性的社会情境中。我们提出，与工具使用相关的耐用人工制品（如曾被使用过的工具、半加工食物及此前活动遗留的残留物料），可辅助非人灵长类学习工具使用方法，并提升其工具使用的专业熟练度，进而推动非人动物传统技术体系的形成与传承。据此，工具使用所依托的社会支持因素，可被界定为存在于欧几里得空间（Euclidean space）的三维维度与时间的第四维度之中。这一观点拓展了社会情境对技能学习的作用范畴，突破了“仅依赖近距离示范个体在场”的传统认知边界。我们从野生髭卷尾猴与黑猩猩群体中获取了支撑该假说的实证案例，并为未来的研究方向提供了建议。