Laboratory of Cognitive Psychology, CNRS, Aix-Marseille University, and Primatology Station of the CNRS-Celphedia, France.
Laboratory of Cognitive Psychology, CNRS, Aix-Marseille University, and Primatology Station of the CNRS-Celphedia, France.
Behav Brain Res. 2022 Sep 26;434:114043. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2022.114043. Epub 2022 Aug 3.
Cognitive flexibility in non-human primates is traditionally measured with the conceptual set shifting task (CSST). In our laboratory, Guinea baboons (N = 24) were continuously tested with a CSST task during approximately 10 years. Our task involved the presentation of three stimuli on a touch screen all made from 3 possible colours and 3 shapes. The subjects had to touch the stimulus containing the stimulus dimension (e.g., green) that was constantly rewarded until the stimulus dimension changed. Analysis of perseveration responses, scores and response times collected during the last two years of testing (approximately 1.6 million trials) indicate (1) that the baboons have developed an "expert" form of cognitive flexibility and (2) that their performance was age-dependent, it was at a developing stage in juveniles, optimal in adults, declining in middle-aged, and strongly impaired in the oldest age group. A direct comparison with the data collected by Bonté , Flemming & Fagot (2011) on some of the same baboons and same task as in the current study indicates that (3) the performance of all age groups has improved after 10 years of training, even for the now old individuals. All these data validate the use of non-human primates as models of human cognitive flexibility and suggest that cognitive flexibility in humans has a long evolutionary history.
非人类灵长类动物的认知灵活性传统上是通过概念集转移任务（CSST）来衡量的。在我们的实验室中，几内亚狒狒（N=24）在大约 10 年的时间里一直在接受 CSST 任务的连续测试。我们的任务涉及在触摸屏上呈现三个由三种可能的颜色和三种形状组成的刺激。被试必须触摸包含不断奖励的刺激维度（例如，绿色）的刺激。在测试的最后两年（大约 160 万次试验）中收集的坚持反应、分数和反应时间的分析表明：（1）狒狒已经发展出一种“专家”形式的认知灵活性；（2）它们的表现与年龄有关，在青少年时期处于发展阶段，在成年期最佳，在中年期下降，在最老年组受到严重损害。与 Bonté、Flemming 和 Fagot（2011）在当前研究中相同的一些狒狒和相同任务上收集的数据进行的直接比较表明：（3）经过 10 年的训练，所有年龄段的表现都有所提高，即使是现在的老年个体也是如此。所有这些数据都验证了非人类灵长类动物作为人类认知灵活性模型的使用，并表明人类的认知灵活性具有悠久的进化历史。
