Do tufted capuchin monkeys play the odds? Flexible risk preferences in Sapajus spp.

Petrillo, Francesca De; Ventricelli, Marialba; Ponsi, Giorgia; Addessi, Elsa

doi:10.1007/s10071-014-0783-7

Cited by 55 publications

(56 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…In natural foraging contexts, individuals are required to take into account various different aspects simultaneously when making profitable decisions, such as whether to travel further afield for higher quality foods and how they can access extractable foods, for instance, through the use of tools. Such decisions may therefore be influenced by work-effort sensitivity, the level of perceived risk, attention to the functionality of available tools, and the quality of food available [4,5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Decision-making flexibility in New Caledonian crows, young children and adult humans in a multi-dimensional tool-use task

et al. 2020

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The ability to make profitable decisions in natural foraging contexts may be influenced by an additional requirement of tool-use, due to increased levels of relational complexity and additional work-effort imposed by tool-use, compared with simply choosing between an immediate and delayed food item. We examined the flexibility for making the most profitable decisions in a multi-dimensional tool-use task, involving different apparatuses, tools and rewards of varying quality, in 3-5-year-old children, adult humans and tool-making New Caledonian crows (Corvus moneduloides). We also compared our results to previous studies on habitually tool-making orangutans (Pongo abelii) and non-tool-making Goffin's cockatoos (Cacatua goffiniana). Adult humans, cockatoos and crows, but not children and orangutans, did not select a tool when it was not necessary, which was the more profitable choice in this situation. Adult humans, orangutans and cockatoos, but not crows and children, were able to refrain from selecting non-functional tools. By contrast, the birds, but not the primates tested, struggled to attend to multiple variables-where two apparatuses, two tools and two reward qualities were presented simultaneously-without extended experience. These findings indicate: (1) in a similar manner to humans and orangutans, New Caledonian crows and Goffin's cockatoos can flexibly make profitable decisions in some decision-making tooluse tasks, though the birds may struggle when tasks become more complex; (2) children and orangutans may have a bias to use tools in situations where adults and other tool-making species do not.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Decision-making flexibility in New Caledonian crows, young children and adult humans in a multi-dimensional tool-use task

et al. 2020

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“…Thus, the monkeys generally displayed risk-prone choices, but this preference could be overcome if the risky option delivered a relatively poor payoff. Similarly, capuchin monkeys also demonstrated a bias towards a risky option over a safe option and demonstrated near indifference between a suboptimal risky option and a safe option in one condition (De Petrillo, Ventricelli, Ponsi, & Addessi, 2015). …”

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confidence: 99%

Gambling in rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta): The effect of cues signaling risky choice outcomes

2017

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Preference for a larger-variable “risky” option over a smaller-reliable “safe” option often depends upon the likelihood that the risky option will deliver a sufficiently sized reward to have an equivalent or superior expected value. However, preference for the risky option has been shown to increase under conditions where informative stimuli signaling the outcome of a risky choice is included between the choice and the outcome (e.g., Zentall & Stagner, 2011) and this risk-prone preference persists even when the risky option has a lower expected value than the alternative safe option. In the present study, rhesus macaques chose between a risky option and a safe option across two experimental phases to determine whether the outcome signal affected the degree of preference for the risky option. Overall, six out of seven macaques showed a greater preference for the risky option in the signaled condition than in the unsignaled condition. The macaques’ risky choices were sensitive to the expected value of the risky option and the signaled condition produced a general increase in risky choices independently of the expected value of the risky outcome. Overall, these results are consistent with those obtained with other animals, and this may relate to a process where animals show a biased preference for “good news”. This process may model some of the relevant factors that explain the psychology of gambling in humans.

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“…We therefore wondered whether the same gap would be observed in nonhuman animals. Prior studies have found that, while general risk preferences may vary considerably across species (Bateson & Kacelnik, 1996;De Petrillo, Ventricelli, Ponsi, & Addessi, 2015;Heilbronner, Hayden, & Platt, 2009;Heilbronner, Rosati, Stevens, Hare, & Hauser, 2008), many of the fundamental decision-making biases found in humans can be replicated in nonhuman animals. For example, nonhuman primates, like humans, are ambiguity-averse (Hayden, Heilbronner, & Platt, 2010;Rosati & Hare, 2011) and are susceptible to loss versus gain framing effects (Chen, Lakshminarayanan, & Santos, 2006;Krupenye et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The description-experience gap in risky choice in nonhuman primates

Heilbronner

Hayden

2015

Psychon Bull Rev

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Risk attitudes in humans depend on the format used to present the gamble: we are more risk-averse for common gambles in the gains domain whose properties are described to us verbally than for those whose properties we learned about solely through experience. This difference, which constitutes part of the description-experience gap, is important, because it highlights the role of knowledge acquisition in decision-making. The reasons for the gap remain obscure, but could depend upon uniquely human cognitive abilities, such as those associated with language. Thus, the gap may or may not extend to nonhuman animals. For this study, rhesus monkeys performed a novel task in which the properties of some gambles were explicitly cued (described), whereas others were learned through previous choices (experienced). Our monkeys displayed a description-experience gap. Overall, monkeys were more risk-seeking for experienced than for described gambles. This difference was observed for a range of gamble probabilities (from 20% to 80% likelihood of payoff), indicating that it is not limited to low probability events. These results suggest that the descriptionexperience gap does not depend on uniquely human cognitive abilities, such as those associated with language, and support the idea that epistemic influences on risk attitudes are evolutionarily ancient.

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Do tufted capuchin monkeys play the odds? Flexible risk preferences in Sapajus spp.

Cited by 55 publications

References 51 publications

Decision-making flexibility in New Caledonian crows, young children and adult humans in a multi-dimensional tool-use task

Decision-making flexibility in New Caledonian crows, young children and adult humans in a multi-dimensional tool-use task

Gambling in rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta): The effect of cues signaling risky choice outcomes

The description-experience gap in risky choice in nonhuman primates

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