| Records |
| Author |
Santos, L.R.; Pearson, H.M.; Spaepen, G.M.; Tsao, F.; Hauser, M.D. |
| Title |
Probing the limits of tool competence: experiments with two non-tool-using species (Cercopithecus aethiops and Saguinus oedipus) |
Type |
Journal Article |
| Year |
2006 |
Publication |
Animal Cognition |
Abbreviated Journal |
Anim. Cogn. |
| Volume |
9 |
Issue |
2 |
Pages |
94-109 |
| Keywords |
Animals; *Association Learning; Cercopithecus aethiops; *Cognition; Female; *Intelligence; Male; *Motor Skills; *Problem Solving; Saguinus; Species Specificity |
| Abstract |
Non-human animals vary in their ability to make and use tools. The goal of the present study was to further explore what, if anything, differs between tool-users and non-tool-users, and whether these differences lie in the conceptual or motor domain. We tested two species that typically do not use tools-cotton top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus) and vervet monkeys (Cercopithecus aethiops)-on problems that mirrored those designed for prolific tool users such as chimpanzees. We trained subjects on a task in which they could choose one of two canes to obtain an out-of-reach food reward. After training, subjects received several variations on the original task, each designed to examine a specific conceptual aspect of the pulling problem previously studied in other tool-using species. Both species recognized that effective pulling tools must be made of rigid materials. Subsequent conditions revealed significant species differences, with vervets outperforming tamarins across many conditions. Vervets, but not tamarins, had some recognition of the relationship between a tool's orientation and the position of the food reward, the relationship between a tool's trajectory and the substance that it moves on, and that tools must be connected in order to work properly. These results provide further evidence that tool-use may derive from domain-general, rather than domain-specific cognitive capacities that evolved for tool use per se. |
| Address |
Department of Psychology, Yale University, Box 208205, New Haven, CT, USA. laurie.santos@yale.edu |
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English |
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1435-9448 |
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| Notes |
PMID:16341524 |
Approved |
no |
| Call Number |
Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
Serial |
2478 |
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| Author |
Santos, L.R.; Rosati, A.; Sproul, C.; Spaulding, B.; Hauser, M.D. |
| Title |
Means-means-end tool choice in cotton-top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus): finding the limits on primates' knowledge of tools |
Type |
Journal Article |
| Year |
2005 |
Publication |
Animal Cognition |
Abbreviated Journal |
Anim. Cogn. |
| Volume |
8 |
Issue |
4 |
Pages |
236-246 |
| Keywords |
Animals; *Behavior, Animal; *Choice Behavior; Female; Male; *Problem Solving; Saguinus/*psychology |
| Abstract |
Most studies of animal tool use require subjects to use one object to gain access to a food reward. In many real world situations, however, animals perform more than one action in sequence to achieve their goals. Of theoretical interest is whether animals have the cognitive capacity to recognize the relationship between consecutive action sequences in which there may be one overall goal and several subgoals. Here we ask if cotton-top tamarins, a species that in captivity uses tools to solve means-end problems, can go one step further and use a sequence of tools (means) to obtain food (end). We first trained subjects to use a pulling tool to obtain a food reward. After this initial training, subjects were presented with problems in which one tool had to be used in combination with a second in order to obtain food. Subjects showed great difficulty when two tools were required to obtain the food reward. Although subjects attended to the connection between the tool and food reward, they ignored the physical connection between the two tools. After training on a two-tool problem, we presented subjects with a series of transfer tests to explore if they would generalize to new types of connections between the tools. Subjects readily transferred to new connections. Our results therefore provide the first evidence to date that tamarins can learn to solve problems involving two tools, but that they do so only with sufficient training. |
| Address |
Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA. laurie.santos@yale.edu |
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English |
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1435-9448 |
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| Notes |
PMID:15668762 |
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no |
| Call Number |
Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
Serial |
2495 |
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| Author |
Santos, L.R.; Miller, C.T.; Hauser, M.D. |
| Title |
Representing tools: how two non-human primate species distinguish between the functionally relevant and irrelevant features of a tool |
Type |
Journal Article |
| Year |
2003 |
Publication |
Animal Cognition |
Abbreviated Journal |
Anim. Cogn. |
| Volume |
6 |
Issue |
4 |
Pages |
269-281 |
| Keywords |
Animals; *Discrimination Learning; Female; Form Perception/*physiology; Habituation, Psychophysiologic/*physiology; Imitative Behavior; Macaca mulatta/*growth & development/*psychology; Male; Motor Skills; Practice (Psychology); Saguinus/*growth & development/*psychology; Species Specificity |
| Abstract |
Few studies have examined whether non-human tool-users understand the properties that are relevant for a tool's function. We tested cotton-top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus) and rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) on an expectancy violation procedure designed to assess whether these species make distinctions between the functionally relevant and irrelevant features of a tool. Subjects watched an experimenter use a tool to push a grape down a ramp, and then were presented with different displays in which the features of the original tool (shape, color, orientation) were selectively varied. Results indicated that both species looked longer when a newly shaped stick acted on the grape than when a newly colored stick performed the same action, suggesting that both species perceive shape as a more salient transformation than color. In contrast, tamarins, but not rhesus, attended to changes in the tool's orientation. We propose that some non-human primates begin with a predisposition to attend to a tool's shape and, with sufficient experience, develop a more sophisticated understanding of the features that are functionally relevant to tools. |
| Address |
Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. laurie.santos@yale.edu |
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1435-9448 |
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| Notes |
PMID:12736800 |
Approved |
no |
| Call Number |
Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
Serial |
2570 |
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| Author |
Neiworth, J.J.; Steinmark, E.; Basile, B.M.; Wonders, R.; Steely, F.; DeHart, C. |
| Title |
A test of object permanence in a new-world monkey species, cotton top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus) |
Type |
Journal Article |
| Year |
2003 |
Publication |
Animal Cognition |
Abbreviated Journal |
Anim. Cogn. |
| Volume |
6 |
Issue |
1 |
Pages |
27-37 |
| Keywords |
Animals; Feeding Behavior; Female; Male; *Memory; *Saguinus; *Visual Perception |
| Abstract |
Cotton top tamarins were tested in visible and invisible displacement tasks in a method similar to that used elsewhere to test squirrel monkeys and orangutans. All subjects performed at levels significantly above chance on visible ( n=8) and invisible ( n=7) displacements, wherein the tasks included tests of the perseverance error, tests of memory in double and triple displacements, and “catch” trials that tested for the use of the experimenter's hand as a cue for the correct cup. Performance on all nine tasks was significantly higher than chance level selection of cups, and tasks using visible displacements generated more accurate performance than tasks using invisible displacements. Performance was not accounted for by a practice effect based on exposure to successive tasks. Results suggest that tamarins possess stage 6 object permanence capabilities, and that in a situation involving brief exposure to tasks and foraging opportunities, tracking objects' movements and responding more flexibly are abilities expressed readily by the tamarins. |
| Address |
Department of Psychology, Carleton College, MN 55057, Northfield, USA. jneiwort@carleton.edu |
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1435-9448 |
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| Notes |
PMID:12658533 |
Approved |
no |
| Call Number |
Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
Serial |
2583 |
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| Author |
Hauser, M.D.; Kralik, J.; Botto-Mahan, C.; Garrett, M.; Oser, J. |
| Title |
Self-recognition in primates: phylogeny and the salience of species-typical features |
Type |
Journal Article |
| Year |
1995 |
Publication |
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |
Abbreviated Journal |
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. |
| Volume |
92 |
Issue |
23 |
Pages |
10811-10814 |
| Keywords |
Animals; *Behavior, Animal; *Cognition; Discrimination (Psychology); Exploratory Behavior; Female; Hair Color; Male; Phylogeny; Psychology, Comparative; Research Design; Saguinus/*psychology; *Self Concept; Species Specificity; Touch; *Visual Perception |
| Abstract |
Self-recognition has been explored in nonlinguistic organisms by recording whether individuals touch a dye-marked area on visually inaccessible parts of their face while looking in a mirror or inspect parts of their body while using the mirror's reflection. Only chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, and humans over the age of approximately 2 years consistently evidence self-directed mirror-guided behavior without experimenter training. To evaluate the inferred phylogenetic gap between hominoids and other animals, a modified dye-mark test was conducted with cotton-top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus), a New World monkey species. The white hair on the tamarins' head was color-dyed, thereby significantly altering a visually distinctive species-typical feature. Only individuals with dyed hair and prior mirror exposure touched their head while looking in the mirror. They looked longer in the mirror than controls, and some individuals used the mirror to observe visually inaccessible body parts. Prior failures to pass the mirror test may have been due to methodological problems, rather than to phylogenetic differences in the capacity for self-recognition. Specifically, an individual's sensitivity to experimentally modified parts of its body may depend crucially on the relative saliency of the modified part (e.g., face versus hair). Moreover, and in contrast to previous claims, we suggest that the mirror test may not be sufficient for assessing the concept of self or mental state attribution in nonlinguistic organisms. |
| Address |
Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA |
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English |
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0027-8424 |
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| Notes |
PMID:7479889 |
Approved |
no |
| Call Number |
Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
Serial |
2825 |
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