A chimpanzee’s (Pan troglodytes) long-term retention of lexigrams

Beran, Michael J.; Pate, James L.; Richardson, Will; Rumbaugh, Duane M.

doi:10.3758/bf03200255

Cited by 36 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…This method also could be used to investigate whether chimpanzees might show the Deese–Roediger—McDermott memory illusion in which items related to those presented in a homogeneous list are erroneously reported as having been in the list (Roediger and McDermott 1995). The present demonstration of the isolation or von Restorff effect, along with demonstrations of very-long-term memory (Beran et al 2000), recall memory (Menzel 1999), working memory span (Kawai and Matsuzawa 2000), and serial position effects (e.g., Buchanan et al 1981) indicates another close similarity in memory phenomena between humans and at least some chimpanzees.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 66%

Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) show the isolation effect during serial list recognition memory tests

Beran

2011

Anim Cogn

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The isolation effect (or von Restorff effect) occurs when one item in a to-be-remembered list is distinctive from all remaining items, and memory for that item is enhanced. Four chimpanzees were presented with a serial list of four photographs. In the homogeneous condition, all list items were from the same semantic category (e.g., four fruits). In the isolate condition, three items were from the same category, but the fourth item (the isolate) was from a different category (e.g., three fruits and one toy). Then, two photographs were presented, and the chimpanzees had to select the one that was from the list. Two of four chimpanzees were significantly more likely to select a correct isolate item than an item from the same list position in the homogeneous condition for at least some list positions. This facilitation in performance was for isolate items only, as presenting an isolate item in a list did not facilitate greater recognition of other list items compared to the homogeneous condition. These results indicated that some chimpanzees perceived the semantic categories of the photographs, and categorization of photographs led to the isolation effect. Thus, chimpanzees may share with humans some aspects of memory organization that involve spontaneously categorizing visual stimuli and recognizing categorically unique stimuli.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 66%

Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) show the isolation effect during serial list recognition memory tests

Beran

2011

Anim Cogn

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“…Future research could consider extending test and retest hiatuses to longer periods. In particular, as chimpanzee recognize specific resources and symbolic referents for up to 20 years (Beran et al, 2000; Biro et al, 2003), it would be of interest to examine whether procedural knowledge is retained following similar hiatuses.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Robust retention and transfer of tool construction techniques in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).

Vale

Flynn

Pender

et al. 2016

Journal of Comparative Psychology

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Long-term memory can be critical to a species’ survival in environments with seasonal and even longer-term cycles of resource availability. The present, longitudinal study investigated whether complex tool behaviors used to gain an out-of-reach reward, following a hiatus of about 3 years and 7 months since initial experiences with a tool use task, were retained and subsequently executed more quickly by experienced than by naïve chimpanzees. Ten of the 11 retested chimpanzees displayed impressive long-term procedural memory, creating elongated tools using the same methods employed years previously, either combining 2 tools or extending a single tool. The complex tool behaviors were also transferred to a different task context, showing behavioral flexibility. This represents some of the first evidence for appreciable long-term procedural memory, and improvements in the utility of complex tool manufacture in chimpanzees. Such long-term procedural memory and behavioral flexibility have important implications for the longevity and transmission of behavioral traditions.

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“…The 3 chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) observed in this experiment were Lana (female, 30 years of age), Sherman (male, 28 years of age), and Panzee (female, 15 years of age). These chimpanzees had been involved in comparative research projects focused on language acquisition (Rumbaugh, 1977;Savage-Rumbaugh, 1986), numerical competence (Beran, 2001;Beran & Rumbaugh, 2001;Rumbaugh, Hopkins, Washburn, & Savage-Rumbaugh, 1989), memory (Beran et al, 2000;Menzel, 1999), and other topics from cognitive psychology and neuropsychology (e.g., Beran, Savage-Rumbaugh, Pate, & Rumbaugh, 1999;Hopkins, Morris, Savage-Rumbaugh, & Rumbaugh, 1992;Hopkins, Washburn, & Rumbaugh, 1990;Johnson-Pynn, Fragaszy, Hirsh, Brakke, & Greenfield, 1999).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The associations that these chimpanzees have formed between real-world items and their lexigram counterparts are robust and long lived (Beran, Pate, Richardson, & Rumbaugh, 2000;Beran, Savage-Rumbaugh, Brakke, Kelley, & Rumbaugh, 1998;Savage-Rumbaugh, 1986). In a computerized test, these animals select the appropriate lexigram when presented with a photograph of a familiar object that has a lexigram associated with it.…”

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confidence: 99%

Chimpanzee Responding During Matching to Sample: Control by Exclusion

Beran

Washburn

2002

J Exper Analysis Behavior

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Three chimpanzees performed a computerized matching-to-sample task in which samples were photographs of items and comparison stimuli were geometric symbols called lexigrams. In Experiment 1, samples were either defined (i.e., they represented items that were associated already with a specific lexigram label by the chimpanzees) or undefined (i.e., they did not have an already learned association with a specific lexigram). On each trial, the foil (incorrect) comparison could be either a defined or an undefined lexigram. All 3 chimpanzees selected the correct comparison for undefined samples at a level significantly better than chance only when the foil comparison was defined. In Experiment 2, three comparisons were presented on each trial, and in Experiment 3, four comparisons were presented on each trial. For Experiments 2 and 3, the foil comparisons consisted of either defined or undefined comparisons or a mixture of both. For these two experiments, when the chimpanzees were presented with an undefined sample, they typically made selections of only undefined comparisons. These data indicate that the chimpanzees responded through use of exclusion. A final experiment, however, indicated that, despite the use of exclusion to complete trials with undefined samples correctly, the chimpanzees did not learn new associations between undefined samples and comparisons.

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A chimpanzee’s (Pan troglodytes) long-term retention of lexigrams

Cited by 36 publications

References 35 publications

Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) show the isolation effect during serial list recognition memory tests

Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) show the isolation effect during serial list recognition memory tests

Robust retention and transfer of tool construction techniques in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).

Chimpanzee Responding During Matching to Sample: Control by Exclusion

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