How capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) quantify objects and substances.

vanMarle, Kristy; Aw, Justine; McCrink, Koleen; Santos, Laurie R.

doi:10.1037/0735-7036.120.4.416

Cited by 65 publications

(59 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…Experiment 2, thus, required inhibiting responses to visible food items for those trials in which the visible items were in the overall smaller set of food items. These data could be compared with the performance of other nonhuman primates with regard to well-established constraints on performance [such as the ratio between sets; e.g., Beran, 2004;Call, 2000;van Marle et al, 2006], and the data will indicate how memory, quantification, and summation interact in capuchins as they compare food quantities.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Summation and quantity judgments of sequentially presented sets by capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella)

Beran

Evans

Leighty

et al. 2007

American J Primatol

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Capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) were presented with two sets of food items, identical in food type but differing in number. Animals selected one set and were permitted to consume their choice. Set sizes ranged from 1 to 6 items. In experiment 1, each set was uncovered and recovered before a response was made, and the monkeys selected the larger set at high levels. Experiment 2 presented sets that had both visible and nonvisible food items in them at the time of the response, thus requiring the monkeys to sum the total amount of food that was available. The monkeys again selected the larger set with no decrement in performance. Overall, the data indicate that capuchins, like other more extensively studied primate species in this area of research, are responsive to quantitative differences between sets. Capuchins succeed in making these quantity judgments when sets are nonvisible at choice time and when summation of items must be performed, thus demonstrating coordination of quantification skills and memory. Capuchins also inhibit responses to visible food items when those items are only part of an overall smaller quantity of food compared with a completely nonvisible set.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Summation and quantity judgments of sequentially presented sets by capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella)

Beran

Evans

Leighty

et al. 2007

American J Primatol

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“…In one set of studies, vanMarle and colleagues (vanMarle, Aw, McCrink, & Santos, 2006) The present study had three goals. First, we asked whether an Old World primate, the rhesus monkey, can spontaneously individuate portions of a non-solid substance defined by discrete pouring actions, maintain representations over occlusion, and choose the box with the most food (i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Free-ranging rhesus monkeys spontaneously individuate and enumerate small numbers of non-solid portions

et al. 2008

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Fundamental questions in cognitive science concern the origins and nature of the units that compose visual experience. Here, we investigate the capacity to individuate and store information about non-solid portions, asking in particular whether free-ranging rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) quantify portions of a non-solid substance presented in discrete pouring actions. When presented with portions of carrot pieces poured from a cup into opaque boxes, rhesus picked the box with the greatest number of portions for comparisons of 1 vs. 2, 2 vs. 3, and 3 vs. 4, but not for comparisons of 4 vs. 5 and 3 vs. 6. Additional experiments indicate that rhesus based their decisions on both the number of portions and the total amount of food. These results show that the capacity to individuate non-solid portions is not unique to humans, and does not depend on structures of natural language. Further, the fact that rhesus' ability to represent non-solid portions is constrained by the same 4-item limit typically ascribed to the system of parallel individuation that operates over solid objects suggests that the visual system recruits common working memory processes for retaining information about solid objects and non-solid portions. We discuss our results with respect to theories of visual processing, as well as to the role that the human language faculty may have played in both the evolution and development of quantification.3

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“…The primates are particularly well studied in these kinds of tests, and they accurately judge discrete quantities and continuous quantities (e.g. Boysen & Berntson 1995;Brannon & Terrace 2000;Hauser et al 2000;Beran & Beran 2004;Cantlon & Brannon 2006;Suda & Call 2006;vanMarle et al 2006;Hanus & Call 2007;Tomonaga 2007;Beran et al 2008a).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

When in doubt, chimpanzees rely on estimates of past reward amounts

2008

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Many animals can repeatedly judge the larger of two sets of food items. However, it remains unclear as to what information might accrue regarding the relative rates of return from these repeated responses. Information about overall rates of return is, in fact, unnecessary to perform well at the task itself. However, if an uncertain situation arose, such as when the quantity in one set was unknown, that information would be useful in determining whether to select a known quantity or an unknown quantity. We gave chimpanzees this test. First, they made multiple judgements between two visible food sets that varied in the number of items across trials. Then, they were faced with the same combinations of set sizes, but only one set was revealed while the other remained unknown. Rather than using a specific quantity as a threshold for choosing the known or the unknown set, the chimpanzees' choice of the unknown set varied in relation to the rate of return from responses in the first phase (when both sets were known). This indicated that the chimpanzees' decisions in the face of uncertainty were guided by a sense of how well they were rewarded overall during the session.

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How capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) quantify objects and substances.

Cited by 65 publications

References 55 publications

Summation and quantity judgments of sequentially presented sets by capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella)

Summation and quantity judgments of sequentially presented sets by capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella)

Free-ranging rhesus monkeys spontaneously individuate and enumerate small numbers of non-solid portions

When in doubt, chimpanzees rely on estimates of past reward amounts

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