Abstract
In a previous study, Kuroshima and colleagues demonstrated that capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) learned to discriminate between a “knower” who inspected a box for food, and a “guesser” who did not. The aim of the present study was to specify whether the subjects learned a simple conditional discrimination or a causal relationship that seeing leads to knowing. In experiment 1, we introduced five types of novel containers to two subjects. Each container was of different shape and color. The subjects gradually learned to reach toward the container the knower suggested. In experiment 2, we diversified the behavior of the knower and the guesser. In experiment 3, in order to eliminate the possibility of discrimination based on differences in the magnitude and the complexity of two trainers, we equated their behaviors. One subject adapted to the novel behaviors of the knower and the guesser, successfully discriminating the two trainers. Thus this monkey clearly learned to use the inspecting action of the knower and the non-inspecting action of the guesser as a discriminative cue to recognize the baited container. This result suggests that one capuchin monkey learned to recognize the relationship between seeing and knowing.
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Acknowledgements
This study was supported by Research Fellowships of the Japan Society of the Promotion of Science for Young Scientists to the first author, and by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports, and Culture (Nos. 10610072, and 13410026) to the second author. It was also supported by the Cooperative Research Program from the Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University. We thank Satoru Ishikawa, Shunji Awazu, and Hiroko Kuwahata for useful comments in conducting experiments. Thanks are also due to James R. Anderson for his editing of and many comments on the manuscript. The experiments complied with the Guide for the care and use of laboratory primates, Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University.
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Kuroshima, H., Fujita, K., Adachi, I. et al. A Capuchin monkey (Cebus apella) recognizes when people do and do not know the location of food. Anim Cogn 6, 283–291 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-003-0184-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-003-0184-9