Serial Cognition and Personality in Macaques
We examined the associations between serial cognition and personality in rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta). Nine macaques were tested on a simultaneous chaining task to assess their cognitive abilities. They were also rated for personality traits and scored according to a previously extracted six component structure derived from free-ranging rhesus macaques. Friendliness and Openness were positively […]
A review of zoo-based cognitive research using touchscreen interfaces
In the past few decades, there has been an increase in the number of zoo-based touchscreen studies of animal cognition around the world. Such studies have contributed to the field of comparative cognition despite the fact research has only been performed at a relatively small number of institutions and with a narrow range of species. […]
Implementing portable touchscreen-setups to enhance cognitive research and enrich zoo-housed animals
To understand the evolutionary development of cognition, comparing the cognitive capacities of different animal species is essential. However, getting access to various species with sufficient sample sizes can be very challenging. Zoos, housing large ranges of animal taxa, would offer ideal research environments, but zoo-based studies on cognition are still rare. The use of touchscreen-computers […]
Visual attention and its relation to knowledge states in chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes
Primates rely on visual attention to gather knowledge about their environment. The ability to recognize such knowledge-acquisition activity in another may demonstrate one aspect of Theory of Mind. Using a series of experiments in which chimpanzees were presented with a choice between an experimenter whose visual attention was available and another whose vision was occluded, […]
Object permanence in orangutans, gorillas, and black-and-white ruffed lemurs
This study examined object permanence in Sumatran orangutans (Pongo abelii), Western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla), and black-and-white-ruffed lemurs (Varecia variegata) at Zoo Atlanta. A literature review reveals two main issues with object permanence research in non-human primates. One of the issues is that it is difficult to make valid comparisons between different species because […]