ArticleEvolutionary human sciences2021
The ontogeny of exploratory object manipulation behaviour in wild orangutans.
Article in Evolutionary human sciences, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 13 citations in OpenAlex.
- The flexible, the stereotyped and the in-between: putting together the combinatory tool use origins hypothesis.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2026Review
- Chimpanzees and children are curious about social interactions.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Wild and zoo-housed orangutans differ in how they explore objects.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Play Behavior Varies with Age, Sex, and Socioecological Context in Wild, Immature Orangutans (International journal of primatology · 2024Article
- Ecological, social, and intrinsic factors affecting wild orangutans' curiosity, assessed using a field experiment.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Raising the level: orangutans solve the floating peanut task without visual feedback.Primates; journal of primatology · 2022Article
- Editorial - Déjà vu all over again.Evolutionary human sciences · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
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Abstract
In human infants, exploratory object manipulation is a major vehicle for cognitive stimulation as well as an important way to learn about objects and basic physical concepts in general. The development of human infants' exploratory object manipulation follows distinct developmental patterns. So far, the degree of evolutionary continuity of this developmental process remains unclear. We investigated the development of exploratory object manipulations in wild orangutans. Our data included 3200 exploration events collected on 13 immatures between the ages of 0.5 and 13 years, at the Suaq Balimbing monitoring station in Indonesia. Our results identify several parallels between the development of exploratory behaviour in humans and orangutans: on top of a highly similar overall age trajectory, we found an increase in variability of the actions used, an increase in the number of body parts involved in each event, and an overall decrease of mouthing of the objects. All in all, our results show that orangutans progress through a developmental sequence of different aspects of exploration behaviour. In combination with previous findings from captivity, our results also provide evidence that exploratory object manipulations reflect cognitive development and might function as a means of cognitive stimulation not just in humans but across the great apes.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.