These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.
Pubmed for Handhelds
PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS
Search MEDLINE/PubMed
Title: Physical intuitions about support relations in monkeys (Macaca fuscata) and apes (Pan troglodytes). Author: Murai C, Tanaka M, Sakagami M. Journal: J Comp Psychol; 2011 May; 125(2):216-26. PubMed ID: 21604855. Abstract: Nonhuman primates, like humans, have demonstrated various physical intuitions. Cacchione and Krist (2004) examined chimpanzees' intuitions about support relations with the violation-of-expectation task. They reported that the chimpanzees possessed intuitions about support, but their intuitions differed from those of humans in part; they were sensitive to "contact/no-contact" and "amount of contact" but not "type of contact" rule. To further explore intuitions about support in nonhuman primates, we conducted similar experiments on monkeys (Japanese monkeys) and apes (chimpanzees). In three experiments, we presented physically possible and impossible events of different support relations to the participants and measured their looking times. The results reveal that the chimpanzees and monkeys detect the violations of "contact/no-contact" and "amount of contact" but not "type of contact" variable. Therefore, the apes and monkeys possess similar intuitions; however, these intuitions differ in part from those of humans. The present study provides new and corroborative evidence of intuitions about support in nonhuman primates. However, this again leads to the question of distinctive understanding about support relations among primate species.[Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]