Same/different concept learning by capuchin monkeys in matching-to-sample tasks

The ability to understand similarities and analogies is a fundamental aspect of human advanced cognition. Although subject of considerable research in comparative cognition, the extent to which nonhuman species are capable of analogical reasoning is still debated. This study examined the conditions...

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Published inPloS one Vol. 6; no. 8; p. e23809
Main Authors Truppa, Valentina, Piano Mortari, Eva, Garofoli, Duilio, Privitera, Sara, Visalberghi, Elisabetta
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Public Library of Science 16.08.2011
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Subjects
Animal cognition
Animals
Biology
Birds
Cebinae
Cebus
Cebus apella
Cognition
Cognition - physiology
Cognitive ability
Concept Formation - physiology
Concept learning
Councils
Discrimination Learning - physiology
Female
Humans
Hypotheses
Hypothesis testing
International conferences
Macaca mulatta
Male
Matching
Matching-to-sample
Medicine
Monkeys
Pattern Recognition, Visual - physiology
Problem Solving - physiology
Psychomotor Performance - physiology
Reasoning
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Stimuli
Training
Italy
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Summary:The ability to understand similarities and analogies is a fundamental aspect of human advanced cognition. Although subject of considerable research in comparative cognition, the extent to which nonhuman species are capable of analogical reasoning is still debated. This study examined the conditions under which tufted capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) acquire a same/different concept in a matching-to-sample task on the basis of relational similarity among multi-item stimuli. We evaluated (i) the ability of five capuchin monkeys to learn the same/different concept on the basis of the number of items composing the stimuli and (ii) the ability to match novel stimuli after training with both several small stimulus sets and a large stimulus set. We found the first evidence of same/different relational matching-to-sample abilities in a New World monkey and demonstrated that the ability to match novel stimuli is within the capacity of this species. Therefore, analogical reasoning can emerge in monkeys under specific training conditions.
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Conceived and designed the experiments: VT EV. Performed the experiments: VT EPM DG SP. Analyzed the data: VT EPM SP. Wrote the paper: VT EPM EV.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0023809