We fold this into a conversation about variation in other types of ape social behaviour to identify areas for future research on variation in gestural communication. In this review, we present current knowledge about great ape gestural communication in terms of repertoires, meanings, and development. These researchers have drawn on concepts from philosophy, linguistics, anthropology, and ethology, but despite these broad influences the field has neglected to situate gestures into the socio-ecological context in which the diverse species, individuals, and social-units exist. Over the last 30 years, most research on non-human primate gestural communication has been produced by psychologists, which has shaped the questions asked and the methods used. The chimpanzees gestured almost exclusively during the approach or presence of a human observer (Experiment 1). The methods employed in these experiments differ from those used in previous studies in the following ways: (a) large samples were used, (b) only first-trial results were analyzed (i.e., every subject received each experimental condition only once), (c) "naturalistic" procedures avoided potential confounds with the effects of novel apparatus or unusual behavior on the part of the experimenters, and (d) the experiments sampled from a population of chimpanzees who had not been language-trained or otherwise raised in intimate association with humans. The present studies explored (a) the independent effects of the arrival of an experimenter and food on gestural production in chimpanzees (N = 35, Experiment 1), (b) the influence of food dispersion on the number of fingers extended while pointing (N = 83, Experiment 2), and (c) the effectiveness of chimpanzees in communicating the location of hidden food (N = 101, Experiment 3). Previous studies of these features of manual gesture in apes have employed very small samples (one to four subjects). A second defining feature of intentional communication is that it locates objects in time or space for an observer. To understand better the relationships between gestural laterality and brain lateralization from an evolutionary perspective, we suggest that the gestural communication of other monkey species should be examined with a multifactorial approach.Ī defining characteristic of intentional communication is that it is used socially that is, an audience is required for the display of communicative behavior. By contrast, factors related to gesture form and socio-demographic characteristics of signaler and receiver did not affect gestural laterality. These results corroborate previous findings from ape studies. Although we did not evidence any significant gestural lateralization neither at the individual- nor population-level, we found that mangabeys preferentially use their right hands to gesture in negative social contexts, such as aggressions, suggesting an effect of emotional lateralization, and that they adapt to the position of their receiver by preferentially using their ipsilateral hand to communicate. We described the spontaneous production of brachio-manual intentional gestures in twenty-five captive subjects. We present here a preliminary investigation of intraspecific gestural laterality in catarrhine monkeys, red-capped mangabeys (Cercocebus torquatus). However, the factors influencing this gestural laterality remain understudied in non-hominoid species, particularly in intraspecific contexts, although it may bring valuable insights into the proximate and ultimate causes of language lateralization. Catarrhine primates gesture preferentially with their right hands, which led to the hypothesis of a gestural origin of human left-hemispheric specialization for language.
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