Japanese monkeys ( Macaca fuscata) discriminate between pictures of conspecific males and females without specific training

We investigated whether Japanese monkeys can discriminate pictures of conspecific males and females using a visual paired comparison (VPC) task. Whole-body pictures of adult and nonadult monkeys were used as stimuli. The monkeys were first familiarized with pairs of pictures of different monkeys fro...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Behavioural processes 2008-09, Vol.79 (1), p.70-73
Main Authors: Koba, Reiko, Izumi, Akihiro
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal ethology
Animals
Attention - physiology
Behavior, Animal - physiology
Biological and medical sciences
Conspecific picture
Discrimination (Psychology) - physiology
Discrimination Learning - physiology
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Japanese macaque
Macaca - physiology
Macaca - psychology
Macaca fuscata
Male
Mental Recall - physiology
Novelty preference
Pattern Recognition, Visual - physiology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Recognition (Psychology) - physiology
Sex categorization
Sex Factors
Visual paired comparison
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Summary:We investigated whether Japanese monkeys can discriminate pictures of conspecific males and females using a visual paired comparison (VPC) task. Whole-body pictures of adult and nonadult monkeys were used as stimuli. The monkeys were first familiarized with pairs of pictures of different monkeys from one sex category (the familiarized sex). Pairs of novel pictures of a member of the familiarized sex and the opposite sex (novel) were then presented in test. The monkeys showed a preference for novel-sex pictures of both adult and nonadult individuals, indicating that they perceive the differences between familiarized- and novel-sex pictures. These results suggest that monkeys discriminate between pictures of males and females without specific training.
ISSN:0376-6357
1872-8308
DOI:10.1016/j.beproc.2008.04.005