Dados do Trabalho

Título

Acquisition and development of turn-taking abilities in mammals

Resumo

How language evolved is one of the most intriguing questions in the western intellectual tradition. One recent hypothesis, the “Interaction Engine Hypothesis”, postulates that language is made possible through a unique capacity for social interaction involving different social cognitive skills and specific characteristics, including face-to-face interaction and the exchange of rapid communicative turns - turn-taking. Recently, this turn-taking infrastructure has been argued to be a foundational and ancient mechanism found in all the major primate branches. Surprisingly, the existing studies mainly focused on adult turn-taking, while relatively little is known about the development of turn-taking skills in nonhuman animals. Mammals, especially primates, exhibit an extended development period, including learning and strong parental care, making them an excellent group to investigate the acquisition and development of these abilities. Hence, we carried out a systematic review of turn-taking development and acquisition to evaluate the bias and gaps in the existing knowledge and discuss whether turn-taking is an ancient mechanism present in the primate order or whether distinct elements can be found beyond. Overall, we found a considerable variation in the terminologies and methodological approaches used. Most studies did not utilize the term “turn-taking”, investigated specific elements only (e.g., temporal relationships), and were biased towards primates, specifically great apes. In addition, studies examining turn-taking abilities across different development periods and in relation to different social partners were scarce, thereby hampering direct, systematic comparisons across species. Yet, we were able to discuss the evolutionary trajectories of the key elements characterizing turn-taking interaction and pinpoint fruitful research avenues to stir more interest in this field and improve our understanding of turn-taking for language evolution.

Financiadores

EU-Consolidator grant (Grant agreement ID: 772000 Turn Taking) of the European Research Council

Palavras-chave

Ontogeny; Primates; Language Evolution

Área

Área 8 – Outros (ex. Educação Ambiental)