Picture recognition of food by macaques (Macaca silenus)

Abstract

Pictorial representations of three-dimensional objects are often used to investigate animal cognitive abilities; however, investigators rarely evaluate whether the animals conceptualize the two-dimensional image as the object it is intended to represent. We tested for picture recognition in lion-tailed macaques by presenting five monkeys with digitized images of familiar foods on a touch screen. Monkeys viewed images of two different foods and learned that they would receive a piece of the one they touched first. After demonstrating that they would reliably select images of their preferred foods on one set of foods, animals were transferred to images of a second set of familiar foods. We assumed that if the monkeys recognized the images, they would spontaneously select images of their preferred foods on the second set of foods. Three monkeys selected images of their preferred foods significantly more often than chance on their first transfer session. In an additional test of the monkeys' picture recognition abilities, animals were presented with pairs of food images containing a medium-preference food paired with either a high-preference food or a low-preference food. The same three monkeys selected the medium-preference foods significantly more often when they were paired with low-preference foods and significantly less often when those same foods were paired with high-preference foods. Our novel design provided convincing evidence that macaques recognized the content of two-dimensional images on a touch screen. Results also suggested that the animals understood the connection between the two-dimensional images and the three-dimensional objects they represented.

Enhanced visual exploration for real objects compared to pictures during free viewing in the macaque monkey

“…Our experimental design does not allow us to address the notion of equivalence, but taken together, we conclude that there certainly appears to be a correspondence in how crab-eating macaques perceive objects and their pictorial representations. This conclusion is in line with previous results in capuchin monkeys (Truppa et al, 2009) and lion-tailed macaques (Judge et al, 2012).…”

“…Other studies have shown that transfer can often be more limited. Thus, macaque monkeys require considerable training to learn that selecting the picture of a preferred food item results in the delivery of that food as a reward (Judge et al, 2012). This study has highlighted large inter-individual differences between participant macaques, with the fastest learner requiring only about 15% of the training needed by the slowest learner to achieve criterion behavioral performance.…”

“…Other studies have relied on spontaneous behaviors elicited by certain objects, such as approach behaviors for preferred fruits or fearful behavior for snakes, and tested how these behaviors transfer to picture stimuli (Emile and Barros, 2009;Judge et al, 2012;Parron et al, 2008). In both cases, animals are required to transfer acquired or innate knowledge about objects to pictures.…”

Picturing Objects in Infancy

“…Important theoretical and practical questions undoubtedly remain. To what extent do infants confuse a picture with its referent rather than conceptualize the image as the object it represents (e.g., Judge et al, 2012)? Why do manipulative features such as pop-ups appear to undermine young children's learning from picture books (e.g., Tare, Chiong, Ganea, & DeLoache, 2010)?…”

Picture object recognition in an American black bear (Ursus americanus)

“…Picture-object matching has been shown with rhesus monkeys (Bovet and Vauclair 2000). Lion-tailed macaques will choose photographs of preferred foods to receive that food (Judge et al 2012). Dogs can follow human commands presented through video projection (Pongrácz et al 2003), and many animals, including fish, reptiles, birds, sheep and non-human primates, show appropriate behaviors in response to pictures (Bovet and Vauclair 2000).…”