NDLI: Monkeys perform as well as apes and humans in a size discrimination task

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Schmitt, Vanessa Kröger, Iris Zinner, Dietmar Call, Josep Fischer, Julia
Copyright Year	2013
Abstract	Whether the cognitive competences of monkeys and apes are rather similar or whether the larger-brained apes outperform monkeys in cognitive experiments is a highly debated topic. Direct comparative analyses are therefore essential to examine similarities and differences among species. We here compared six primate species, including humans, chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas (great apes), olive baboons, and long-tailed macaques (Old World monkeys) in a task on fine-grained size discrimination. Except for gorillas, subjects of all taxa (i.e. humans, apes, and monkeys) were able to discriminate three-dimensional cubes with a volume difference of only 10 % (i.e. cubes of 50 and 48 mm side length) and performed only slightly worse when the cubes were presented successively. The minimal size discriminated declined further with increasing time delay between presentations of the cubes, highlighting the difficulty to memorize exact size differences. The results suggest that differences in brain size, as a proxy for general cognitive abilities, did not account for variation in performance, but that differential socio-ecological pressures may better explain species differences. Our study highlights the fact that differences in cognitive abilities do not always map neatly onto phylogenetic relationships and that in a number of cognitive experiments monkeys do not fare significantly worse than apes, casting doubt on the assumption that larger brains per se confer an advantage in such kinds of tests.
Starting Page	829
Ending Page	838
Page Count	10
File Format	PDF
ISSN	14359448
Journal	Animal Cognition
Volume Number	16
Issue Number	5
e-ISSN	14359456
Language	English
Publisher	Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Publisher Date	2013-02-27
Publisher Place	Berlin, Heidelberg
Access Restriction	Subscribed
Subject Keyword	Great apes Baboons Macaques Humans Cognition Brain size Behavioural Sciences Zoology Human Physiology Evolutionary Biology
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Experimental and Cognitive Psychology Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

Sl.	Authority	Responsibilities	Communication Details
1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
5	Website/Portal (Helpdesk)	Queries regarding NDLI and its services	support@ndl.gov.in
6	Contents and Copyright Issues	Queries related to content curation and copyright issues	content@ndl.gov.in
7	National Digital Library of India Club (NDLI Club)	Queries related to NDLI Club formation, support, user awareness program, seminar/symposium, collaboration, social media, promotion, and outreach	clubsupport@ndl.gov.in
8	Digital Preservation Centre (DPC)	Assistance with digitizing and archiving copyright-free printed books	dpc@ndl.gov.in
9	IDR Setup or Support	Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops	idr@ndl.gov.in

Monkeys perform as well as apes and humans in a size discrimination task

Monkeys perform as well as apes and humans in a size discrimination task

Great apes’ performance in discriminating weight and achromatic color

Rapid cognitive flexibility of rhesus macaques performing psychophysical task-switching

Great apes’ strategies to map spatial relations

How great apes perform on a modified trap-tube task

Comparing dogs and great apes in their ability to visually track object transpositions

Lemurs and macaques show similar numerical sensitivity

Keeping track of time: evidence for episodic-like memory in great apes

Monkeys perform as well as apes and humans in a size discrimination task

Similar Documents

Monkeys perform as well as apes and humans in a size discrimination task

Monkeys perform as well as apes and humans in a size discrimination task

Great apes’ performance in discriminating weight and achromatic color

Rapid cognitive flexibility of rhesus macaques performing psychophysical task-switching

Great apes’ strategies to map spatial relations

How great apes perform on a modified trap-tube task

Comparing dogs and great apes in their ability to visually track object transpositions

Lemurs and macaques show similar numerical sensitivity

Keeping track of time: evidence for episodic-like memory in great apes

Monkeys perform as well as apes and humans in a size discrimination task