Department of Psychology, University of Michigan.
School of Psychology, Newcastle University.
Psychol Sci. 2022 Sep;33(9):1408-1422. doi: 10.1177/09567976221082938. Epub 2022 Jul 25.
Cognitive control, or executive function, is a key feature of human cognition, allowing individuals to plan, acquire new information, or adopt new strategies when the circumstances change. Yet it is unclear which factors promote the evolution of more sophisticated executive-function abilities such as those possessed by humans. Examining cognitive control in nonhuman primates, our closest relatives, can help to identify these evolutionary processes. Here, we developed a novel battery to experimentally measure multiple aspects of cognitive control in primates: temporal discounting, motor inhibition, short-term memory, reversal learning, novelty responses, and persistence. We tested lemur species with targeted, independent variation in both ecological and social features (ruffed lemurs, Coquerel's sifakas, ring-tailed lemurs, and mongoose lemurs; = 39) and found that ecological rather than social characteristics best predicted patterns of cognitive control across these species. This highlights the importance of integrating cognitive data with species' natural history to understand the origins of complex cognition.
认知控制，又称执行功能，是人类认知的关键特征，使个体能够在环境变化时计划、获取新信息或采用新策略。然而，目前尚不清楚哪些因素促进了更复杂的执行功能能力的进化，例如人类所拥有的这些能力。通过研究我们最亲近的灵长类动物——非人类灵长类动物的认知控制，可以帮助我们识别这些进化过程。在这里，我们开发了一种新的电池来实验性地测量灵长类动物的多个认知控制方面：时间折扣、运动抑制、短期记忆、反转学习、新奇反应和坚持。我们测试了具有生态和社会特征（卷尾狐猴、科奎尔的狐猴、环尾狐猴和猫鼬狐猴； = 39）靶向和独立变化的狐猴物种，发现这些物种的认知控制模式与生态特征而非社会特征最相关。这凸显了将认知数据与物种的自然历史相结合，以理解复杂认知起源的重要性。
