Humans (Homo sapiens) but not baboons (Papio papio) demonstrate crossmodal pitch‐luminance correspondence

• Published in: American journal of primatology Vol. 86; no. 5; pp. e23613 - n/a
• Main Authors: Margiotoudi, Konstantina, Fagot, Joel, Meguerditchian, Adrien, Dautriche, Isabelle
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.05.2024; Wiley
• Subjects: Baboons; Chimpanzees; Cognitive science; comparative cognition; Cross-modal; crossmodal correspondence; Homo sapiens; Humans; iconicity; Luminance; Mapping; Monkeys & apes; Papio papio; Phylogeny; Primates; Questions; Sensory integration; Visual tasks; crossmodal correspondence; comparative cognition; iconicity
• ISSN: 0275-2565; 1098-2345; 1098-2345
• DOI: 10.1002/ajp.23613

Humans spontaneously and consistently map information coming from different sensory modalities. Surprisingly, the phylogenetic origin of such cross‐modal correspondences has been under‐investigated. A notable exception is the study of Ludwig et al. (Visuoauditory mappings between high luminance and high pitch are shared by chimpanzees [Pan troglodytes] and humans. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(51), 20661–20665) which reports that both humans and chimpanzees spontaneously map high‐pitched sounds with bright objects and low‐pitched sounds with dark objects. Our pre‐registered study aimed to directly replicate this research on both humans and baboons (Papio papio), an old world monkey which is more phylogenetically distant from humans than chimpanzees. Following Ludwig et al. participants were presented with a visual classification task where they had to sort black and white square (low and high luminance), while background sounds (low or high‐pitched tones) were playing. Whereas we replicated the finding that humans' performance on the visual task was affected by congruency between sound and luminance of the target, we did not find any of those effects on baboons' performance. These results question the presence of a shared cross‐modal pitch‐luminance mapping in other nonhuman primates. Humans spontaneously associate high‐pitched sounds with bright objects and low‐pitched sounds with dark objects, but not baboons (Papio papio). This result questions the presence of a shared cross‐modal pitch‐luminance mapping between humans and nonhuman primates. Research highlights Humans and chimpanzees spontaneously associate high‐pitched sounds with bright objects and low‐pitched sounds with dark objects. This effect was not seen in baboons (Papio papio). This result questions the presence of a shared cross‐modal pitch‐luminance mapping between humans and all nonhuman primates.