Contribution of working memory processes to relational matching-to-sample performance in baboons (Papio papio).

Maugard, Anaïs; Marzouki, Yousri; Fagot, Joël

doi:10.1037/a0032336

Cited by 12 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 51 publications

(75 reference statements)

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“…We stress that we do not believe that animals, especially Old-World primates, are qualitatively lacking in their capacity to process relations or even to match relations. They continue to reveal intriguing glimmers of relational cognition Flemming, Thompson, & Fagot, 2013;Martinho & Kacelnik, 2016;Maugard, Marzouki, & Fagot, 2013;Pepperberg, 2013;Vonk, 2003). These findings make the problem of relational cognition's evolutionary emergence far more interesting.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Breaking the perceptual-conceptual barrier: Relational matching and working memory

2019

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Cognitive, comparative, and developmental psychologists have long been interested in humans' and animals' ability to respond to abstract relations, as this ability may underlie important capacities like analogical reasoning. Cross-species research has used relational matching-to-sample (RMTS) tasks in which participants try to find stimulus pairs that Bmatch^because they both express the same abstract relation (same or different). Researchers seek to understand the cognitive processes that underlie successful matching performance. In the present RMTS paradigm, the abstract-relational cue was made redundant with a firstorder perceptual cue. Then the perceptual cue faded, requiring participants to transition from a perceptual to a conceptual approach by realizing the task's abstract-relational affordance. We studied participants' ability to make this transition with and without a working-memory load. The concurrent load caused participants to fail to break the perceptual-conceptual barrier unless the load was abandoned. We conclude that finding the conceptual solution depends on reconstruing the task using cognitive processes that are especially reliant on working memory. Our data provide the closest existing look at this cognitive reorganization. They raise important theoretical issues for cross-species comparisons of relational cognition, especially regarding animals' limitations in this domain. Keywords Same-different. Relational judgments. Analogies. Explicit cognition. Comparative cognition Cognitive scientists have long focused on humans' ability to respond to abstract relations like sameness and difference (Wasserman & Young, 2010). James (1890/1950) described relational concepts as the backbone of thinking. Relational concepts underlie humans' analogical reasoning (Hummel & Holyoak, 2003). They mark cognitive-developmental change

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Breaking the perceptual-conceptual barrier: Relational matching and working memory

2019

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“…We also note that, although the majority of studies identified in our review, unsurprisingly, tested aspects of primate social cognition (e.g., social learning, cooperation, competition, and communication), this was not exclusively so. Highlighting that a social test setting does not prohibit the testing of non-social cognition, our review revealed tests of, for example, analogical reasoning ( Fagot & Maugard, 2013 ), memory ( Fagot & de Lillo, 2011 ; Maugard, Marzouki & Fagot, 2013 ), visual perception ( Cheries et al, 2006 ), numerical understanding ( Hauser, Carey & Hauser, 2000 ), and personality ( Carter et al, 2012 ; Neumann et al, 2013 ), although we note the inherent complexity of teasing apart “social” from “non-social” cognition (c.f. Seyfarth & Cheney, 2017 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Studying primate cognition in a social setting to improve validity and welfare: a literature review highlighting successful approaches

Cronin

Jacobson

Bonnie

et al. 2017

PeerJ

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BackgroundStudying animal cognition in a social setting is associated with practical and statistical challenges. However, conducting cognitive research without disturbing species-typical social groups can increase ecological validity, minimize distress, and improve animal welfare. Here, we review the existing literature on cognitive research run with primates in a social setting in order to determine how widespread such testing is and highlight approaches that may guide future research planning.Survey MethodologyUsing Google Scholar to search the terms “primate” “cognition” “experiment” and “social group,” we conducted a systematic literature search covering 16 years (2000–2015 inclusive). We then conducted two supplemental searches within each journal that contained a publication meeting our criteria in the original search, using the terms “primate” and “playback” in one search and the terms “primate” “cognition” and “social group” in the second. The results were used to assess how frequently nonhuman primate cognition has been studied in a social setting (>3 individuals), to gain perspective on the species and topics that have been studied, and to extract successful approaches for social testing.ResultsOur search revealed 248 unique publications in 43 journals encompassing 71 species. The absolute number of publications has increased over years, suggesting viable strategies for studying cognition in social settings. While a wide range of species were studied they were not equally represented, with 19% of the publications reporting data for chimpanzees. Field sites were the most common environment for experiments run in social groups of primates, accounting for more than half of the results. Approaches to mitigating the practical and statistical challenges were identified.DiscussionThis analysis has revealed that the study of primate cognition in a social setting is increasing and taking place across a range of environments. This literature review calls attention to examples that may provide valuable models for researchers wishing to overcome potential practical and statistical challenges to studying cognition in a social setting, ultimately increasing validity and improving the welfare of the primates we study.

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“…Maugard, Marzouki, and Fagot, (2013) used dual-task procedures to test baboons familiar with the RMTS task (Fagot & Thompson, 2011) under three conditions of memory load that permitted Maugard et al (2013) to predict the specific strategy employed by their animals (i.e., flat memorization of the percept, recoding of the percept, or relational processing). Their results were consistent with the prediction that the baboons processed both the items and the abstract (same and different) relations in this task.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Their results were consistent with the prediction that the baboons processed both the items and the abstract (same and different) relations in this task. Whether or not Maugard et al (2013) results can be demonstrated by either rhesus or capuchin monkeys currently remains unanswered.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can old-world and new-world monkeys judge spatial above/below relations to be the same or different? Some of them, but not all of them

Thompson

Flemming

Hagmann

2016

Behavioural Processes

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Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) with the aid of token training can achieve analogical reasoning, or the ability to understand relations-between-relations (e.g., Premack, 1976; Thompson, & Boysen, 1997). However, extraordinarily few numbers of old- and new-world monkeys have demonstrated this ability in variants of Relational Matching to Sample tasks. Moreover, the rarity of replications leaves open the question of whether the results are normative for other captive colonies of the same species. In experiment one we attempted to replicate whether Old World rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) might demonstrate the same level of proficiency on a Spatial Above/Below Relational Matching task as reported for Old World baboons (Papio papio). None of the Rhesus monkeys attained above chance performances over 10,000 training trials. In experiment two we attempted to replicate results demonstrating that New-World Capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) match Above/Below relations. The Capuchin monkeys performed above chance only in the absence of ‘Clever Hans’ controls for cuing of the correct choice by the experimenters. These failures to replicate previously reported results demonstrate that some, but definitely not all monkeys can judge the equivalence of abstract ‘relations between relations’ and warrant further investigations into the behavioral and cognitive characteristics that underlie these similarities and differences within population and between individuals of different primate species.

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Contribution of working memory processes to relational matching-to-sample performance in baboons (Papio papio).

Cited by 12 publications

References 51 publications

Breaking the perceptual-conceptual barrier: Relational matching and working memory

Breaking the perceptual-conceptual barrier: Relational matching and working memory

Studying primate cognition in a social setting to improve validity and welfare: a literature review highlighting successful approaches

Can old-world and new-world monkeys judge spatial above/below relations to be the same or different? Some of them, but not all of them

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