Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T19:24:01.890Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Play to learn, teach by play

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 June 2015

Elisabetta Palagi
Affiliation:
Natural History Museum, University of Pisa, 56011 Calci, Pisa, Italy. elisabetta.palagi@unipi.ithttp://unimap.unipi.it/cercapersone/cercapersone.php Unit of Cognitive Primatology & Primate Center, Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies CNR, 00197 Rome, Italy.
Roscoe Stanyon
Affiliation:
Anthropology Laboratories, Department of Biology, University of Florence, 50122 Florence, Italy. roscoe.stanyon@unifi.ithttp://www.bio.unifi.it
Elisa Demuru
Affiliation:
Natural History Museum, University of Pisa, 56011 Calci, Pisa, Italy. elisabetta.palagi@unipi.ithttp://unimap.unipi.it/cercapersone/cercapersone.php Department of Bioscience, University of Parma, 43124 Parma, Italy. elidemu@yahoo.ithttp://www.bioscienze.unipr.it/it

Abstract

The synthesis provided by Kline in the target article is noteworthy, but ignores the inseparable role of play in the evolution of learning and teaching in both humans and other animals. Play is distinguished and advantaged by its positive feedback reinforcement through pleasure. Play, especially between adults and infants, is probably the platform from which human learning and teaching evolved.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Berman, C. M. (1982) The ontogeny of social relationships with group companions among free-ranging infant rhesus monkeys: II. Differentiation and attractiveness. Animal Behaviour 30:163–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burghardt, G. M. (2005) The genesis of animal play: Testing the limits. MIT Press.Google Scholar
Ciani, F., Dall'Olio, S., Stanyon, R. & Palagi, E. (2012) Social tolerance and adult play in macaque societies: A comparison with different human cultures. Animal Behaviour 84:1313–22.Google Scholar
Cordoni, G. & Palagi, E. (2011) Ontogenetic trajectories of chimpanzee social play: Similarities with humans. PLoS ONE 6:e27344.Google Scholar
Demuru, E. & Palagi, E. (2012) In bonobos yawn contagion is higher among kin and friends. PLoS ONE 7:e49613.Google Scholar
Fagen, R. (1993) Primate juveniles and primate play. In: Juvenile primates, ed. Pereira, M. E. & Fairbanks, L. A., pp. 182–96. University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Govindarajulu, P., Hunte, W., Vermeer, L. A. & Horrocks, J. A. (1993) The ontogeny of social play in a feral troop of vervet monkeys (Cercopithecus aethiops sabaeus): The function of early play. International Journal of Primatology 14:701–19.Google Scholar
Hoff, M. P., Nadler, R. D. & Maple, T. L. (1981) The development of infant play in a captive group of lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla). American Journal of Primatology 1:6572.Google Scholar
Huffman, M. A., Leca, J. B. & Nahallage, C. A. D. (2010) Cultured Japanese macaques: A multidisciplinary approach to stone handling behavior and its implications for the evolution of behavioral traditions in nonhuman primates. In: The Japanese Macaques, ed. Nakagawa, N., Nakamichi, M. & Sugiura, H., pp. 191219. Springer.Google Scholar
Huizinga, J. (1938/1949) Homo Ludens: A study of the play element in culture. Vol. 3. Taylor & Francis. (Original work published in 1938).Google Scholar
Lewis, K. P. & Barton, R. A. (2006) Amygdala size and hypothalamus size predict social play frequency in nonhuman primates: A comparative analysis using independent contrasts. Journal of Comparative Psychology 120:3137.Google Scholar
Luef, E. & Liebal, K. (2012) Infant-directed communication in lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla): Do older animals scaffold communicative competence in infants? American Journal of Primatology 74:841–52.Google Scholar
Mancini, G. & Palagi, E. (2009) Play and social dynamics in a captive herd of gelada baboons (Theropithecus gelada). Behavioural Processes 82:286–92.Google Scholar
Palagi, E. (2014) Playing alone and with others: A lesson from animals. In: The handbook of solitude: Psychological perspectives on social isolation, social withdrawal, and being alone, ed. Coplan, R. J. & Bowker, J. C., pp. 463–82. Wiley Blackwell.Google Scholar
Palagi, E. & Cordoni, G. (2012) The right time to happen: Play developmental divergence in the two Panspecies. PLoS ONE 7:e52767.Google Scholar
Palagi, E., Cordoni, G. & Borgognini Tarli, S. (2004) Immediate and delayed benefits of play behaviour: New evidence from chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Ethology 110:949–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Palagi, E., Dall'Olio, S., Demuru, E. & Stanyon, R. (2014) Exploring the evolutionary foundations of empathy: Consolation in monkeys. Evolution and Human Behavior 35:341–49. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2014.04.002.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Palagi, E., Leone, A., Mancini, G. & Ferrari, P. F. (2009) Contagious yawning in gelada baboons as a possible expression of empathy. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 106:19262–67.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Palagi, E., Paoli, T. & Borgognini Tarli, S. (2006) Short-term benefits of play behaviour: Conflict prevention in captive bonobos (Pan paniscus). International Journal of Primatology 27:1257–70.Google Scholar
Pellegrini, A. D., ed. (2011) The Oxford handbook of the development of play. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Pellis, S. M. & Pellis, V. C. (2009) The playful brain: Venturing to the limits of neuroscience. Oneworld Publications.Google Scholar
Power, T. G. (2000) Play and exploration in children and animals. Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Rilling, J. K., Scholz, J., Preuss, T. M., Glasser, M. F., Errangi, B. K. & Behrens, T. E. (2011) Differences between chimpanzees and bonobos in neural systems supporting social cognition. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience 7:369–79.Google Scholar
van Lawick-Goodall, J. (1968) The behaviour of free-living chimpanzees in the Gombe Stream Reserve. Animal Behaviour Monographs 1:161311.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whitham, J. C., Gerard, M. S. & Maestripieri, D. (2007) Intended receivers and functional significance of grunt and girney vocalizations in free-ranging female rhesus macaques. Ethology 113:862974.Google Scholar