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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 | ||||
Corporate Author | Thesis | ||||
Publisher | Place of Publication | Editor | |||
Language | English | Summary Language | Original Title | ||
Series Editor | Series Title | Abbreviated Series Title | |||
Series Volume | Series Issue | Edition | |||
ISSN | 1435-9448 | ISBN | Medium | ||
Area | Expedition | Conference | |||
Notes | PMID:12736800 | Approved | no | ||
Call Number | Equine Behaviour @ team @ | Serial | 2570 | ||
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