Choosing and Using Tools: Capuchins (Cebus apella) Use a Different Metric Than Tamarins (Saguinus oedipus).

Cummins-Sebree, Sarah; Fragaszy, Dorothy M.

doi:10.1037/0735-7036.119.2.210

Cited by 46 publications

(57 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Many animals, from crows (Weir, Chappell, & Kacelnik, 2002) to non-human primates (Cummins-Sebree & Fragaszy, 2005) have been shown to use objects in their niches as tools to extend or change their action capabilities. Rather than ascribing these forms of tool use to advanced cognitive functioning in all these species, a perception-action perspective suggests instead that a common process of affordance learning underlies these kinds of adaptive behaviors.…”

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confidence: 99%

Building Tool Use From Object Manipulation: A Perception–Action Perspective

Kahrs¹,

Lockman²

2014

Ecological Psychology

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Tools are a universal feature of human culture. While most past research on tool use has focused on its cognitive underpinnings, in the present article we adopt a perception-action approach to understand how tool use emerges in early development. In this context, we review our work on infant object banging and how it may serve as a motor substrate for percussive tool use. Our results suggest that infants use banging to act on environmental surfaces selectively. Additionally, with increasing age, banging becomes more controlled and manifests many characteristics associated with skilled hammering. Taken together, the results suggest that there is much to be gained from considering the emergence of tool use as an ongoing process of perceptuomotor adaptation to handheld objects.

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confidence: 99%

Building Tool Use From Object Manipulation: A Perception–Action Perspective

Kahrs¹,

Lockman²

2014

Ecological Psychology

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“…Egyptian vultures (Neophron percnopterus) [15] and black-breasted buzzards (Hamirostra melanosternon) [16] select stones used to drop on eggs within a certain range of mass. Captive studies show that chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) [17], capuchins (Cebus apella) [18], orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) and gorillas (Gorilla gorilla) [19] select the most functional sticks to retrieve food. Similarly, wild chimpanzees select functional stick tools, by choosing sticks of appropriate size and length for honey dipping and termite fishing [20][21][22].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-tailed macaques select mass of stone tools according to food type

Gumert

Malaivijitnond

2013

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

100

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Tool selection can affect the success of a tool-based feeding task, and thus tool-using animals should select appropriate tools when processing foods. We performed a field experiment on Piak Nam Yai Island in Laem Son National Park, Thailand, to test whether Burmese long-tailed macaques ( Macaca fascicularis aurea ) selected stone tools according to food type. We baited the island's shores with stone sets (‘tool tests’) in an effort to attract macaques to use stones presented in a quasi-experimental design. Tool tests were placed at 344 locations for 126 days over a 2 year period, with each set containing four stones of different mass (categories: X, 40–60 g; S, 90–100 g; M, 150–200 g; and L, 400–1000 g). Tool tests were checked when we could access them. The number of times each tool test was checked varied (1–32), for a total of 1950 checks. We also studied 375 non-experimental stone tools that were found at naturally occurring tool-use sites. Our data were not collected by direct observation, but by inspecting stones after use. We found an association between stone mass and food type. In the tool tests, we found S-stones were chosen most often for attached oysters, and L-stones were chosen most often for unattached foods. L-stones were almost always chosen for larger unattached foods (greater than 3 cm length), while for smaller unattached foods (less than or equal to 3 cm length) selection was less skewed to L-stones and more evenly distributed between the M- and L-stone categories. In the non-experimental study, we found that mass varied significantly across five food categories (range: 16–5166 g). We reveal more detail on macaque stone tool mass than previous studies, showing that macaques select differing stone masses across a variety of tool-processed foods. Our study is the first step in investigating the behavioural and cognitive mechanisms that macaques are using during tool selection.

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“…In previous studies (Cummins-Sebree and Fragaszy 2005;Fujita et al 2003), capuchins selected tools on the basis of functional characteristic (e.g. affordances and/or spatial arrangement of tool and food), disregarding nonfunctional features (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding the functional properties of tools: chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) attend to tool features differently

et al. 2012

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We examined whether eight capuchins and eight chimpanzees were able to retrieve a reward placed inside a tube, of varying length, by selecting the correct stick from different sets of three sticks differing in length (functional feature) and handle (non-functional feature). Moreover, to investigate whether seeing the stick inside the tube (visual feedback) improves performance, half of the subjects were tested with a transparent apparatus and the other half with an opaque apparatus. Phase 1 included (a) Training 1 in which each stick had a different handle and (b) Transfer 1 in which the handles were switched among sticks, so that the functional tool had the same length but a different handle than before. The seven chimpanzees and one capuchin that passed Transfer 1 received Transfer 2. The other subjects received (a) Training 2, which used the same sticks from Phase 1 with handles switched in every trial, and (b) Transfer 2 in which the tube was longer, all sticks had the same new handle, and the formerly longest tool became intermediate in length. Eight chimpanzees and three capuchins passed Transfer 2. Results showed that (1) chimpanzees applied relational structures in tool using tasks more quickly than capuchins and (2) capuchins required more varied experience to attend to the functional feature of the tool. Interestingly, visual feedback did not improve performance in either species.

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Choosing and Using Tools: Capuchins (Cebus apella) Use a Different Metric Than Tamarins (Saguinus oedipus).

Cited by 46 publications

References 30 publications

Building Tool Use From Object Manipulation: A Perception–Action Perspective

Building Tool Use From Object Manipulation: A Perception–Action Perspective

Long-tailed macaques select mass of stone tools according to food type

Understanding the functional properties of tools: chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) attend to tool features differently

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