Higley J D, Hopkins W D, Hirsch R M, Marra L M, Suomi S J
Dev Psychobiol. 1987 Jan;20(1):7-18. doi: 10.1002/dev.420200105.
While developmental researchers have long noted that infants of many mammalian species, including primates, have characteristic physical features, such as a distinctive coat or skin color, and some authors have further suggested that these features serve to elicit caretaking and solicitous behavior, few systematic investigations of the actual salience of such features for adult conspecifics have been carried out to date. The present series of 3 studies sought to determine whether natal coat and/or facial skin coloration might provide desirable visual stimulation for rhesus monkey adult females. In these studies the faces and/or fur of 6-month-old rhesus monkeys were dyed to simulate the normal coloration of rhesus monkey neonates. Adult females varying in parity and rearing history were then tested for their relative preference between these infantile-colored 6-month-olds and both normally colored 6-month-olds and other differentially colored control stimulus monkeys. Results indicated that regardless of parity or rearing history the adult female subjects exhibited consistent preferences for the stimulus animals with neonatal-like reddish-pink facial skin coloration.
虽然发育研究人员早就注意到，包括灵长类动物在内的许多哺乳动物的幼崽都有独特的身体特征，比如独特的皮毛或肤色，而且一些作者进一步提出，这些特征有助于引发照料和关切行为，但迄今为止，很少有人对这些特征对成年同种个体的实际显著性进行系统研究。本系列的3项研究旨在确定出生时的皮毛和/或面部肤色是否能为成年雌性恒河猴提供理想的视觉刺激。在这些研究中，对6个月大的恒河猴的面部和/或皮毛进行染色，以模拟恒河猴新生儿的正常颜色。然后，对不同生育次数和饲养经历的成年雌性进行测试，观察它们在这些具有婴儿般颜色的6个月大的猴子与正常颜色的6个月大的猴子以及其他不同颜色的对照刺激猴子之间的相对偏好。结果表明，无论生育次数或饲养经历如何，成年雌性受试者对具有类似新生儿的微红粉色面部肤色的刺激动物都表现出一致的偏好。
