Sabbatini Gloria, Visalberghi Elisabetta
Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, National Research Council, Italy.
J Comp Psychol. 2008 May;122(2):156-66. doi: 10.1037/0735-7036.122.2.156.
The authors tested the ability of capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) to make inferences about hidden food. In Experiment 1, we showed the content of 2 boxes, 1 of which was baited (visual condition, VC) or we shook both boxes producing noise from the baited box (auditory condition, AC). Seven subjects (out of 8) were above chance in the VC, whereas only 1 was above chance in AC. During treatment, by manipulating empty and filled objects subjects experienced the relation between noise and content. When tested again, 7 capuchins were above chance in the VC and 3 in AC. In Experiment 2, we gave visual or auditory information only about the empty box and, consequently, successful choice implied inferential reasoning. All subjects (out of 4) were above chance in the VC, and 2 in the AC. Control tests ruled out the possibility that success resulted from simply avoiding the shaken noiseless box, or from the use of arbitrary auditory information. Similar to apes (Call, 2004), capuchins were capable of inferential reasoning.
作者测试了卷尾猴（僧帽猴）对隐藏食物进行推理的能力。在实验1中，我们展示了两个盒子的内容，其中一个装有诱饵（视觉条件，VC），或者我们摇晃两个盒子，从装有诱饵的盒子中发出噪音（听觉条件，AC）。在视觉条件下，8只猴子中有7只的表现高于随机水平，而在听觉条件下只有1只高于随机水平。在训练过程中，通过操作空的和装满东西的物体，猴子们体验到了噪音和内容之间的关系。再次测试时，7只卷尾猴在视觉条件下表现高于随机水平，3只在听觉条件下表现高于随机水平。在实验2中，我们只给出了关于空盒子的视觉或听觉信息，因此，成功的选择意味着推理。所有4只猴子在视觉条件下的表现都高于随机水平，2只在听觉条件下高于随机水平。对照测试排除了成功是由于简单地避开摇晃时没有声音的盒子，或者是由于使用任意听觉信息的可能性。与猿类（卡尔，2004年）相似，卷尾猴具备推理能力。
