Can Black-and-White Ruffed Lemurs (Varecia variegata) Solve Object Permanence Tasks?

We examined object permanence in black-and-white-ruffed lemurs (Varecia variegata) at Zoo Atlanta. A series of visible and invisible displacement tasks with suitable controls were presented to five adult subjects. Subjects performed significantly above chance on all regular tasks, except for the double invisible displacements. Subjects failed visible and invisible controls. Failure on the control trials […]

Object permanence in domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) and gray wolves (Canis lupus)

Recent evidence suggests that phylogenetic constraints exerted on dogs by the process of domestication have altered the ability of dogs to represent the physical world and the displacement of objects. In this study, invisible (Experiment 1) and visible (Experiment 2) displacement problems were administered to determine whether domestic dogs’ and gray wolves’ cognitive capacities to […]