Do rhesus macaques, Macaca mulatta, understand what others know when gaze following?
Publication Type: |
Journal Article |
Year of Publication: |
2017 |
Authors: |
Lindsey A. Drayton, Laurie R. Santos |
Publication/Journal: |
Animal Behaviour |
Keywords: |
gaze following, rhesus macaque, theory of mind |
ISBN: |
0003-3472 |
Abstract:
A basic tendency to look where others are looking provides animals with the opportunity to learn about important objects in the environment, such as the location of conspecifics, food and predators. Although research has shown that many social species are able to follow others’ gaze, the extent to which different species rely on sophisticated cognitive capacities when gaze following is debated. Whereas some species follow gaze via a relatively inflexible orienting response, gaze following in other species may reflect a deeper understanding of the visual perspective and attentional states of agents. Identifying the mechanisms underlying gaze following in different species is the critical first step to addressing the challenging ultimate question of why different species vary in their gaze-following skills. Therefore, we explored whether rhesus macaques have a mentalistic understanding of gaze. Specifically, we tested whether rhesus macaques are able to incorporate representations of a partner’s knowledge state into their gaze-following response. In our study, macaques saw a human actor look to a distant location in a surprised manner. We manipulated whether or not the actor had previously seen the very first object in his line of sight. We found that monkeys looked for an alternative target of the actor’s gaze more quickly when the actor had previously seen the object compared to when he had not. This suggests that rhesus macaques may have a mentalistic understanding of gaze cues.