Eye‐tracking as a window into primate social cognition

Abstract

Over the past decade, noninvasive, restraint-free eye-tracking research with primates has transformed our understanding of primate social cognition. The use of this technology with many primate species allows for the exploration and comparison of how these species attend to and understand social agents and interactions. The ability to compare and contrast the cognitive capacities of various

Primatology in zoos: Studying behavior, cognition, and welfare

“…Beyond the number of projects, this report demonstrates the breadth of genera represented in AZA-led research (Table 1), although of the 109 projects for which the species was named, over two thirds of the studies involved apes (bonobos, chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, or gibbons). This overrepresentation of apes reflects patterns identified in previous reviews of zoo-based primate research (Cronin et al, 2017;Hopper, 2017;Lewis & Krupenye, 2022;Melfi, 2005Melfi, , 2007Stoinski et al, 1998), but does not reflect the population of primates living in zoos: only 15% of the primates housed in North American AZA-accredited zoos are great apes (Gorilla, Pan, and Pongo) (Species360, 2021). Accordingly, Note: Only project titles that described a primate species, or the terms "ape" or "primate" are included.…”

“…Accordingly, the contributed articles in this special issue also reflect the growing use of technology to help us monitor, evaluate, and enhance primate welfare (e.g., Cairo‐Evans et al, 2022; Hayden et al, 2022; Laméris et al, 2022; Vonk, 2022; Yamanashi et al, 2022). Moreover, technological advances also offer refinements to the ways in which we can study primate behavior and cognition in zoos, via the use of touchscreens (Martin & Shumaker, 2022), eye‐tracking devices (Lewis & Krupenye, 2022), and automated behavioral monitoring systems (Hayden et al, 2022), although “physical” tasks also continue to be used to test zoo primate cognition (Motes‐Rodrigo & Tennie, 2022; Spiezio et al, 2022), as reviewed in McEwen et al ( 2022). These technological approaches offer more nuanced perspectives about the experiences of primates while also allowing for more flexible testing procedures that promote primate welfare (Hopper et al, 2021; Lewis & Krupenye, 2022; Ross et al in press).…”

The Role of Nonhuman Primates in Neurotoxicology Research: Preclinical Models and Experimental Methods

“…Social behaviors such as play, aggression, approach, withdrawal, contact, grooming, and fear can be recorded by trained human observers using multidigit coding systems. A relatively new testing paradigm involves the tracking of gaze and attentional variables to measure aspects of social cognition (Lewis & Krupenye, 2022). Reduced levels of social play have been reported in young macaque monkeys prenatally exposed to methylmercury (Burbacher, Sackett, & Mottet, 1990) or lead (Laughlin, Bushnell, & Bowman, 1991).…”

Emotional tears: What they are and how they work

“…The eye region of faces too affords perceivers a lot of information, including the target's wakefulness status, the direction of the target's gaze (and thus what the target is seeing and perhaps thinking; Baron-Cohen & Cross, 1992;Emery, 2000), and the target's ophthalmic and mental health (Armstrong & Olatunji, 2012) and emotional state (Itier & Batty, 2009). Given the intense visual attention paid to other people's eyes and faces-a trait that humans share with other primates and which is therefore likely ancestral to humans (Lewis & Krupenye, 2022;Machado & Nelson, 2011)-tears as cues of physical distress may have been more readily detected compared to other cues of physical distress occurring elsewhere externally or internally in the body of a target.…”