Visual Processing of Faces in Juvenile Western Lowland Gorillas without the Use of Training or Reinforcement: A Pilot Study
Cognitive research in zoos is often limited by an inability to consistently train and reinforce subjects. This feasibility study aims to address this problem by examining visual processing of faces by Western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla) at a zoo in order to identify gaze patterns without any training or reward. A Tobii Pro X2-30 eye-tracker […]
How chimpanzees look at pictures: a comparative eye-tracking study
Surprisingly little is known about the eye movements of chimpanzees, despite the potential contribution of such knowledge to comparative cognition studies. Here, we present the first examination of eye tracking in chimpanzees. We recorded the eye movements of chimpanzees as they viewed naturalistic pictures containing a full-body image of a chimpanzee, a human or another […]
Face scanning in chimpanzees and humans: continuity and discontinuity
How do chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes, the species with the closest evolutionary connection to humans, view faces? This study is the first to use the eye-tracking method to perform direct comparisons between humans and chimpanzees with regard to face scanning. Members of both species viewed the same sets of photographs representing conspecific and nonconspecific faces under […]
Face and eye scanning in gorillas (Gorilla gorilla), orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus), and humans (Homo sapiens): Unique eye-viewing patterns in humans among hominids
Because the faces and eyes of primates convey a rich array of social information, the way in which primates view faces and eyes reflects species-specific strategies for facial communication. How are humans and closely related species such as great apes similar and different in their viewing patterns for faces and eyes? Following previous studies comparing […]
What Makes a Dog Adoptable? An Eye-Tracking Investigation
ABSTRACTHumans readily attribute personality and behavioral traits to dogs, and these attributions influence decisions about adoption. This study focused on how these attributions could be influenced by breed and pose by using pictures of four breeds (Doberman Pinscher, Golden Retriever, pit bull, and Rottweiler) in 4 poses (dog sitting alone, sitting with a human, standing […]