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Concurrent disjoint and reciprocal classification by Cebus apella in seriation tasks: evidence for hierarchical organization

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Abstract

We report the results of a 4-year-long study of capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella ) on concurrent three-way classification and linear size seriation tasks using explicit ordering procedures, requiring subjects to select icons displayed on touch screens rather than manipulate and sort actual objects into groups. The results indicate that C. apella is competent to classify nine items concurrently, first into three disjoint classes where class exemplars are identical to one another, then into three reciprocal classes which share common exemplar (size) features. In the final phase we compare the relative efficiency of executive control under conditions where both hierarchical and/or linear organization can be utilized. Whilst this shows a superiority of categorical based size seriation for a nine item test set suggesting an adaptive advantage for hierarchical over linear organization, Cebus nevertheless achieved high levels of principled linear size seriation with sequence lengths not normally achieved by children below the age of six years.

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Acknowledgements

The authors record their gratitude to Laboratory staff and researchers for their support: to Steve Brady, Rodella Purves and Mark Skeldon, technical staff, for their extensive support of this project in maintaining and breeding Cebus apella, and in running the automated experiments on a daily basis; to Dr. Ben St. Johnston, for writing the control software; and to Dr. Lawrence Warnett and John Ravenscroft, for their help in data archiving and the analysis of some of the results reported here.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory for Cognitive Neuroscience, Centre for Neuroscience, University of Edinburgh, Appleton Tower, George Square, Edinburgh , EH 8 9QJ, UK

    Brendan McGonigle

  2. School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, University of Edinburgh, 7 George Square, Edinburgh , EH8 9 QT, UK

    Margaret Chalmers

  3. Department of Anatomy, Medical School, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, USA

    Anthony Dickinson

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  1. Brendan McGonigle
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  2. Margaret Chalmers
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  3. Anthony Dickinson
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Correspondence to Brendan McGonigle.

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McGonigle, B., Chalmers, M. & Dickinson, A. Concurrent disjoint and reciprocal classification by Cebus apella in seriation tasks: evidence for hierarchical organization. Anim Cogn 6, 185–197 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-003-0174-y

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