Claudio Tennie

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Originally a behavioural biologist / comparative psychologist, I am now also a cognitive archaeologist based at the University of Tübingen (Germany) where I work as a tenured, habilitated research group leader ("Tools and Culture among Early Hominins") in the Department of Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology. In addition, I am an adjunct scientist at the Lester E. Fisher Center for the Study and Conservation of Apes. 

My main research triangulates what (if anything) makes human cognition unique - as well as why (and relatedly, when this happened and how often). In particular, I use various methods and pathways to study the ecological factors and the prehistorical beginnings that enabled the typical modern human "variant of culture":  cumulative culture of know-how - leading to supra-individual know-how (i.e. know-how beyond baseline performance levels potentially reachable by individuals even in the absence of copying this or related know-how). 

Cumulative culture of know-how is know-how that has evolved over time by way of "causally copying" earlier know-how and using that know-how as stepping stones for later know-how (this is how humans got to build whatever device you are reading this text from). 

A key here is that cumulative cultural know-how requires learning mechanisms that are able to causally produce copies of the original know-how (e.g. imitation, but also some types of emulation, and teaching varieties based on these mechanisms - and also: language). Interestingly, when we and others tested for them, these kind of know-how transmission mechanisms proved rare. Instead, most animal social learning depends on different types of knowledge being transmitted (e.g. know-what; know-where etc.). This proved true even for our closest living relatives, non-human great apes. This is consequential. Other apes are therefore restricted to the types of know-how that they can potentially individually develop from scratch - though they can be (and often are) socially channelled and triggered to develop their know-how.  The latter makes apes have cultures - they clearly do - but of a minimal type (e.g. a culture in which the know-what-to-eat is copied and which then indirectly leads to the individual development of associated know-how; or where a know-how that apes can develop on their own is socially triggered (a process more similar to catalysation that to copying; see Dan Sperber's 2000 book chapter). 

I approach these topics by studying non-human animals (mainly great apes), human adults and human children (also, sometimes, cross-culturally), hominins and also artefacts such as stone tools with a diverse set of methodological approaches (theoretically and experimentally, but also via modelling) -  combining insights from developmental psychology, evolutionary and behavioural biology, cognitive archaeology, and biological anthropology. 

Through broadening the scope of species examined, extending my findings into our evolutionary past and by developing triangulating research paradigms that can be applied non-linguistically, I aim to probe the origins of know-how copying and cumulative culture of know-how in human ontogeny and phylogeny, as well as the distribution of cumulative cultural know-how across the animal kingdom.

 

My team's work led to several theoretical advances and empirical findings. Some of these are highlighted below.

Seletected empirical findings:

1. Great apes do not spontaneously copy supra-individual know-how. Apes do not actually "ape" - that is. They only do so once/if we humans first "install" the ability of know-how copying via human training (likely as "cognitive gadgets", sensu Cecilia Heyes' work).

2. Indeed, many earlier findings of Early Stone Tool production in apes (e.g. "Kanzi", "Abang") were likely experimental artefacts created via human intereference (via human-instilled cognitive gadgets, demonstrations and even, sometimes, external molding of behaviour). However, we also found that some apes (orangutans) can and do produce and use sharp stone tools spontaneously.

3. Modern humans do not require cultural access to knapping know-how in order to knap themselves. The Oldowan - including all four knapping techniques found therein - is and was likely re-innovatable from scratch, too. 

4. Great apes can and do spontanously develop their species' know-how individually - i.e. without requiring it to be causally copied from others. In fact, they frequently develop know-how expressed by other ape species. We call these types of know-how latent solutions. this does not mean that every ape must express all their potential - that they must express all of their latent solutions. Most will remain latent - but their development could be released in principle in sufficiently motivated apes.

5. Great ape know-how is essentially on "auto-repeat" across culturally unconnected populations - which is best explained by an absence of supra-individual know-how copying. Ape populations differ in their specific "mixes" of expressed latent solutions - these are their minimal cultures. There may be exceptions to this - true cases of supraindividual know-how at the base of some ape cultures - but if so, these exceptions can only be rare. 

6. Making relevant amounts of birch bark tar (an archaeologically relevant material) proved surprisingly easy. Its initial production could likely have been individually reinnovated (at least as long as there was access to fire).


Seletected theoretical advances:

1. Ape behaviour largely or fully consists of "latent solutions": know-how that can reliably unravel in a (complex) interaction of genes and environment during ontogeny - and for which causal copying of this know-how is not being required. 

2. Ape cultures exist, but they are based on "baseline know-how" that is merely indirectly socially induced or that is merely triggered. In other words, great ape cultures are established and maintained by what my lab calls socially mediated, yet individual reinnovations, of know-how . That is, social learning often plays a large role in animal culture - especially in stabilising a population's specific mix of expressed latent solutions - but this usually happens via types of knowledge other than know-how; such as transmitting know-where (e.g. where to find this food), know-what (e.g. which type of raw material to make a tool from) etc. The know-how itself is then indvidually added. In addition or alternatively, different types of individually developable ape know-how can be socially triggered (sensu Sperber 2000).

3. Casual copying of behavioural (or tool-) forms that lie outside individual reach - copying of know-how - likely evolved surprisingly late in the human lineage. For example, Early Stone Tools (sharp stone tools) are currently most parsimoneously explained as not having required such (supra-individual) know-how copying skills. Similar to ape cultures, their underlying know-how was most likely individually derived (though again, transmission of know-where, know-what etc. played some role in regulating frequencies of specific know-hows, and triggering might have played a role, too). Early Stone Tools are more akin to ape cultures than to modern human cultures.

4. Yet, Early Stone Tools were likely based on at least some know-how that is not available to apes living today. If true, these know-how aspects must have formed on the human lineage - likely a long time after the split from the Last Common Ancestor of apes and humans (which also explains why we see reliable examples of these tools only millions of years after this split). 


Other topics I studied include potential physiological reasons for chimpanzee hunting behaviour (a behavioural ecological perspective on their hunting) the evolution of human-like cooperation (especially of reputation-based cooperation) and underlying reasons for suspected cases of altruism in great apes.

 

External Links:


 My twitter account (I also am on blue sky)

My google scholar page

[Note that Google Scholar is more up to date than ORCID etc below]

My ResearchGate profile

The website of the (finished) ERC Grant "STONECULT" 

ORCID Nr: 0000-0002-5302-4925

Researcher ID: B-7465-2013

Scopus Author ID: 15133386200


My research group's blog (note: this blog has infrequent entries)