Recognizing that two elements within a sequence of variable length depend on each other is a key ability in understanding the structure of language and music. Perception of such interdependencies has previously been documented in chimpanzees in the visual domain and in human infants and common squirrel monkeys with auditory playback experiments, but it remains unclear whether it typifies primates in general. Here, we investigated the ability of common marmosets (
Callithrix jacchus
) to recognize and respond to such dependencies. We tested subjects in a familiarization-discrimination playback experiment using stimuli composed of pure tones that either conformed or did not conform to a grammatical rule. After familiarization to sequences with dependencies, marmosets spontaneously discriminated between sequences containing and lacking dependencies (‘consistent’ and ‘inconsistent’, respectively), independent of stimulus length. Marmosets looked more often to the sound source when hearing sequences consistent with the familiarization stimuli, as previously found in human infants. Crucially, looks were coded automatically by computer software, avoiding human bias. Our results support the hypothesis that the ability to perceive dependencies at variable distances was already present in the common ancestor of all anthropoid primates (
Simiiformes
).
We investigated the role of local and global context on visual patterns produced by normal participants, examining the effects of both top-down context (framing) and bottom-up content (element-internal symmetry) in a computer-based experimental framework. In the first study, we allowed participants to generate rectangles of arbitrary proportions and found an effect of framing on width-to-height ratios of rectangles produced, demonstrating the importance of taking visual framing into account when discussing hunman shape preferences. In a second study, using FlexTiles, an interactive pattern-generation framework, we showed that the patterns humans produce are influenced by local symmetrical properties of pattem elements. Participants also had to indicate preferences between pairs of pattem variants. We found that in some cases, pattem preferences and pattem production lead to different results. We conclude that visual context, either in the form of visual framing or local symmetries, changes aesthetic patterns that humans produce and prefer in predictable ways. These differences between the productive and perceptual preferences highlight the importance of using multiple methods when studying the human aesthetic sense.
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