Are monkeys sensitive to informativeness: An experimental study with baboons (Papio papio)

Informativeness (defined as reduction of uncertainty) is central in human communication. In the present study, we investigate baboons’ sensitivity to informativeness by manipulating the informativity of a cue relative to a response display and by allowing participants to anticipate their answers or...

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Published inPloS one Vol. 17; no. 7; p. e0270502
Main Authors Reboul, Anne, Mascaro, Olivier, Claidière, Nicolas, Fagot, Joël
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published San Francisco Public Library of Science 05.07.2022
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Subjects
Animal cognition
Animal welfare
Automation
Baboons
Behavior
Biology and life sciences
Cognitive ability
Cognitive science
Communication
Competence and performance (Linguistics)
Evaluation
Evolution
Experiments
Human communication
Linguistics
Metacognition
Papio papio
Primates
Psychological aspects
Psychology
Reinforcement
Social Sciences
Test systems
Tracking
France
Baboons
Sensory cues
Metacognition
Primates
Communications
Reaction time
Leopards
Monkeys
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Summary:Informativeness (defined as reduction of uncertainty) is central in human communication. In the present study, we investigate baboons’ sensitivity to informativeness by manipulating the informativity of a cue relative to a response display and by allowing participants to anticipate their answers or to wait for a revealed answer (with variable delays). Our hypotheses were that anticipations would increase with informativity, while response times to revealed trials would decrease with informativity. These predictions were verified in Experiment 1. In Experiments 2 and 3, we manipulated rewards (rewarding anticipation responses at 70% only) to see whether reward tracking alone could account for the results in Experiment 1. We observed that the link between anticipations and informativeness disappeared, but not the link between informativeness and decreased RTs for revealed trials. Additionally, in all three experiments, the number of correct answers in revealed trials with fast reaction times (< 250ms) increased with informativeness. We conclude that baboons are sensitive to informativeness as an ecologically sound means to tracking reward.
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Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0270502