Redundant food searches by capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella): a failure of metacognition?

Paukner, A ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3421-1864, Anderson, JR and Fujita, K, 2006. Redundant food searches by capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella): a failure of metacognition? Animal Cognition, 9 (2), pp. 110-117. ISSN 1435-9448

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Abstract

This study investigated capuchin monkeys' understanding of their own visual search behavior as a means to gather information. Five monkeys were presented with three tubes that could be visually searched to determine the location of a bait. The bait's visibility was experimentally manipulated, and the monkeys' spontaneous visual searches before tube selection were analyzed. In Experiment 1, three monkeys selected the baited tube significantly above chance; however, the monkeys also searched transparent tubes. In Experiment 2, a bent tube in which food was never visible was introduced. When the bent tube was baited, the monkeys failed to deduce the bait location and responded randomly. They also continued to look into the bent tube despite not gaining any pertinent information from it. The capuchin monkeys' behavior contrasts with the efficient employment of visual search behavior reported in humans, apes and macaques. This difference is consistent with species-related variations in metacognitive abilities, although other explanations are also possible.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Animal Cognition
Creators:	Paukner, A., Anderson, J.R. and Fujita, K.
Publisher:	Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date:	April 2006
Volume:	9
Number:	2
ISSN:	1435-9448
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1007/s10071-005-0007-2 DOI 1427855 Other
Divisions:	Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by:	Lee Houghton
Date Added:	29 Mar 2021 11:56
Last Modified:	29 Mar 2021 11:56
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/42627

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