Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, 12a Priory Road, Bristol BS8 1TU, United Kingdom.
Anim Cogn. 2010 May;13(3):419-30. doi: 10.1007/s10071-009-0291-3. Epub 2009 Nov 13.
Animals commonly use feature and spatial strategies when remembering places of interest such as food sources or hiding places. We conducted three experiments with great apes to investigate strategy preferences and factors that may shape them. In the first experiment, we trained 17 apes to remember 12 different food locations on the floor of their sleeping room. The 12 food locations were associated with one feature cue, so that feature and spatial cues were confounded. In a single test session, we brought the cues into conflict and found that apes, irrespective of species, showed a preference for a feature strategy. In the second experiment, we used a similar procedure and trained 25 apes to remember one food location on a platform in front of them. On average, apes preferred to use a feature strategy but some individuals relied on a spatial strategy. In the final experiment, we investigated whether training might influence strategy preferences. We tested 21 apes in the platform set-up and found that apes used both, feature and spatial strategies irrespective of training. We conclude that apes can use feature and spatial strategies to remember the location of hidden food items, but that task demands (e.g. different numbers of search locations) can influence strategy preferences. We found no evidence, however, for the role of training in shaping these preferences.
动物在记忆感兴趣的地方（如食物来源或藏身之处）时，通常会使用特征和空间策略。我们通过三个实验来研究大型猿类的策略偏好以及可能影响这些偏好的因素。在第一个实验中，我们训练了 17 只猿类记住它们睡觉房间地板上的 12 个不同的食物位置。这 12 个食物位置与一个特征线索相关联，因此特征和空间线索是混淆的。在一次单独的测试中，我们引入了冲突线索，发现无论物种如何，猿类都表现出对特征策略的偏好。在第二个实验中，我们使用了类似的程序，训练 25 只猿类记住它们面前平台上的一个食物位置。平均而言，猿类更喜欢使用特征策略，但有些个体依赖于空间策略。在最后一个实验中，我们研究了训练是否会影响策略偏好。我们在平台设置中测试了 21 只猿类，发现无论训练如何，它们都使用特征和空间策略。我们得出的结论是，猿类可以使用特征和空间策略来记忆隐藏食物的位置，但任务需求（例如不同数量的搜索位置）会影响策略偏好。然而，我们没有证据表明训练在塑造这些偏好方面的作用。
