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Infant sensorimotor and social skills, playfulness, and nonplayful behaviors were measured in common marmosets from 6 to 22 weeks old. Different measures of skill showed a low concordance, implying that skill is a multiple rather than unitary attribute. Significant correlations were found between the amount of social play infants performed from 11 to 13 weeks of age and their performance at 14 weeks in (1) competitive food tests with their mothers, and in (2) their ability to negotiate an obstacle for a food reward. Significant correlations were also found between these skills and nonplayful behaviors, however. Comparable analyses at other ages revealed few significant correlations, suggesting that the association between social play and skills is restricted to the age when infants are rapidly becoming independent of their caregivers both for locomotion and food. Age-specific correlations occurred between changes in levels of skills and both playful and nonplay behaviors. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that social play promotes the development of skills, but alternative explanations are possible.

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The effects of separating 4-week-old twin marmosets for 8 days from their families are compared with the effects of leaving 4-week-old infants with their families, but reducing the responsiveness of their caregivers for 8 days by administration of the tranquilizer fluphenazine decanoate. Both treatments reduce infant mobility, abolish play, and increase the time that infants spend with each other. During the period after the termination of the treatment, both treatment groups continue to play and move less than controls, and try to climb onto the mothers more frequently. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that the principal factor precipitating disturbed behaviors in infant monkeys subjected to long-term separation is disruption of the infant-caregiver relationship rather than the separation itself. Some post-treatment differences occur between separated and tranquilized groups. Notably, reunion after separation appears to involve a marked readjustment of the behavior of all family members to the return of the infants, whereas withdrawal of the tranquilizer does not.