Development of Combinatorial Manipulation in Infant Baboons (Papio cynocephalus anubis )

Infant baboons ( Papio cynocephalus anubis ) housed in individual cages combined objects and used tools in play and food acquisition. The baboons first combined objects at age 2 months, placed objects inside a container at age 4 months, and repeatedly used paper towels as sponges at age 6 months. Th...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of comparative psychology (1983) 1993-03, Vol.107 (1), p.34-38
Main Author: Westergaard, Gregory Charles
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age Differences
Animal
Animal behavior
Animal Development
Animal ethology
Animals
Baboons
Behavior, Animal
Biological and medical sciences
Cognition
Exploratory Behavior
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humans
Infant, Newborn
Infants (Animal)
Male
Mammalia
Monkeys & apes
Motor Skills
Papio
Play and Playthings
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Social Isolation
Tool Use
Vertebrata
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Infant baboons ( Papio cynocephalus anubis ) housed in individual cages combined objects and used tools in play and food acquisition. The baboons first combined objects at age 2 months, placed objects inside a container at age 4 months, and repeatedly used paper towels as sponges at age 6 months. The results of this investigation demonstrate that infant baboons develop extensive manipulative propensities during the first postnatal semester. These data are consistent with hypotheses that (a) creative recombination facilitates the acquisition of novel behavior patterns and (b) the development of combinatorial manipulation in baboons parallels the development of analogous abilities in human infants.
ISSN:0735-7036
1939-2087
DOI:10.1037/0735-7036.107.1.34