Social facilitation in a troop of Guinea Baboons ( Papio papio) living in an enclosure

A method is described of assessing whether or not social facilitation occurred in a troop of Guinea Baboons ( Papio papio) living in an enclosure. The method did not involve the removal of individuals from the troop. The study revealed an interaction between social facilitation and the quality of social relationship involved; affiliative relationships enhanced the social facilitation of leaving an experimental zone. The theoretical implications of this finding are discussed. The method also disclosed an anomaly of learning in a group: making mistakes during reversals of a discrimination problem was also subject to social facilitation. This finding corroborates Zajonc's report (1967) of several results on social facilitation of errors.