Westergaard G C, Suomi S J
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, USA.
J Comp Psychol. 1996 Dec;110(4):406-11. doi: 10.1037/0735-7036.110.4.406.
This research examined hand preference for a bimanual task in 45 tufted capuchin (Cebus apella) and 55 rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta) monkeys. Investigators presented subjects with plastic tubes lined with food and noted which hand the animals used to hold the tubes and which hand the animals used to remove the food. Several significant findings emerged from this investigation. First, rhesus macaques, but not tufted capuchins, exhibited a population-level bias toward use of the right hand (although the difference in direction of hand preference between species was not significant). Second, capuchins exhibited greater hand preference strength than did macaques. Third, among capuchins, but not among macaques, hand preference strength was greater for adults than for immatures. Finally, both species used their index digit to remove food most frequently when compared with other digits. Findings of hand preference direction and strength in this study were compared with other findings noted for chimpanzees which performed a bimanual tube task in a previous study. The authors conclude that using the same procedure to compare hand preference across species represents a powerful research tool that can lead to a more complete understanding of the evolution and ontogenesis of primate handedness.
本研究调查了45只簇绒卷尾猴（僧帽猴属）和55只恒河猴（猕猴属）在一项双手任务中的用手偏好。研究人员向受试动物展示了内衬食物的塑料管，并记录动物用哪只手握管子以及用哪只手取食物。这项调查得出了几个重要发现。首先，恒河猴表现出群体水平上对右手使用的偏好，而簇绒卷尾猴则没有（尽管两个物种在用手偏好方向上的差异并不显著）。其次，卷尾猴比猕猴表现出更强的用手偏好。第三，在卷尾猴中，成年个体比未成年个体表现出更强的用手偏好，而猕猴中则没有这种情况。最后，与其他手指相比，两个物种都最常使用食指取食物。本研究中用手偏好方向和强度的发现与之前一项关于黑猩猩双手操作管子任务的研究结果进行了比较。作者得出结论，使用相同的程序来比较不同物种的用手偏好是一种强大的研究工具，能够更全面地理解灵长类动物用手习惯的进化和个体发育。
