[3] In 1996, Whiten and his colleagues invented an artificial fruit that allowed to study learning in apes and humans.
[3] In 2003, he founded the Centre for Social Learning and Cultural Evolution at the University of St Andrews.
He has demonstrated the existent of traditions in primate culture in areas such as foraging, tool use and courtship.
He has also shown that it is possible to introduce new traditions, by teaching primates in different groups different methods for getting a treat from a box.
[1][9] Whiten was awarded the Delwart International Scientific Prize by the Royal Academies for Science and the Arts of Belgium in 2001,[11] the Rivers Memorial Medal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (RAI), and the Osman Hill Medal of the Primate Society of Great Britain in 2007.