Data from: Vocal turn-taking in a nonhuman primate is learned during ontogeny

Conversational turn-taking is an integral part of language development, as
it reflects a confluence of social factors that mitigate communication.
Humans coordinate the timing of speech based on the behaviour of another
speaker, a behaviour that is learned during infancy. While adults in
several primate species engage in vocal turn-taking, the degree to which
similar learning processes underlie its development in these non-human
species or are unique to language is not clear. We recorded the natural
vocal interactions of common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) occurring with
both their sibling twins and parents over the first year of life and
observed at least two parallels with language development. First, marmoset
turn-taking is a learned vocal behaviour. Second, marmoset parents
potentially played a direct role in guiding the development of turn-taking
by providing feedback to their offspring when errors occurred during vocal
interactions similarly to what has been observed in humans. Though
species-differences are also evident, these findings suggest that similar
learning mechanisms may be implemented in the ontogeny of vocal
turn-taking across our Order, a finding that has important implications
for our understanding of language evolution.