Cargando…

Hardly habitual: chimpanzees and gorillas show flexibility in their motor responses when presented with a causally-clear task

In contrast to reports of wild primates, studies of captive primates’ flexibility often reveal conservatism: individuals are unable to switch to new and more efficient strategies when task demands change. We propose that such conservatism might be a result of task design and hypothesize that conserv...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Jacobson, Sarah L., Hopper, Lydia M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PeerJ Inc. 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6329335/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30643700
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.6195
_version_ 1783386815360663552
author Jacobson, Sarah L.
Hopper, Lydia M.
author_facet Jacobson, Sarah L.
Hopper, Lydia M.
author_sort Jacobson, Sarah L.
collection PubMed
description In contrast to reports of wild primates, studies of captive primates’ flexibility often reveal conservatism: individuals are unable to switch to new and more efficient strategies when task demands change. We propose that such conservatism might be a result of task design and hypothesize that conservatism might be linked to primates’ lack of causal understanding in relation to experimental apparatuses. We investigated if chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) would show greater flexibility when presented with a causally-clear task. We presented six chimpanzees and seven gorillas with a clear tube from which they had to remove straws to release a reward. To first evaluate the apes’ causal understanding, we recorded the efficiency with which the apes solved the task (i.e., whether they only removed straws below the reward, ignoring redundant ones above it). To further explore how they solved the task, we also recorded the order in which they removed the straws, which allowed us to determine if habitual action sequences emerged. All apes spontaneously solved the task in their first trial and across repeated trials the majority of their solutions were efficient (median = 90.9%), demonstrating their understanding of the puzzle. There was individual variation in the consistency of straw removal patterns exhibited by the apes, but no ape developed an exclusive habit in the order with which they removed the straws, further indicating their causal understanding of the task. Next, we presented the apes with a new configuration of the same task that required the apes to remove fewer straws to obtain the reward. All apes switched to a more efficient straw removal sequence even though their previously-successful, but now less-efficient, solution remained available. We theorize that because the apes understood the causality of the task, they did not form habits and were not conservative.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-6329335
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2019
publisher PeerJ Inc.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-63293352019-01-14 Hardly habitual: chimpanzees and gorillas show flexibility in their motor responses when presented with a causally-clear task Jacobson, Sarah L. Hopper, Lydia M. PeerJ Animal Behaviour In contrast to reports of wild primates, studies of captive primates’ flexibility often reveal conservatism: individuals are unable to switch to new and more efficient strategies when task demands change. We propose that such conservatism might be a result of task design and hypothesize that conservatism might be linked to primates’ lack of causal understanding in relation to experimental apparatuses. We investigated if chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) would show greater flexibility when presented with a causally-clear task. We presented six chimpanzees and seven gorillas with a clear tube from which they had to remove straws to release a reward. To first evaluate the apes’ causal understanding, we recorded the efficiency with which the apes solved the task (i.e., whether they only removed straws below the reward, ignoring redundant ones above it). To further explore how they solved the task, we also recorded the order in which they removed the straws, which allowed us to determine if habitual action sequences emerged. All apes spontaneously solved the task in their first trial and across repeated trials the majority of their solutions were efficient (median = 90.9%), demonstrating their understanding of the puzzle. There was individual variation in the consistency of straw removal patterns exhibited by the apes, but no ape developed an exclusive habit in the order with which they removed the straws, further indicating their causal understanding of the task. Next, we presented the apes with a new configuration of the same task that required the apes to remove fewer straws to obtain the reward. All apes switched to a more efficient straw removal sequence even though their previously-successful, but now less-efficient, solution remained available. We theorize that because the apes understood the causality of the task, they did not form habits and were not conservative. PeerJ Inc. 2019-01-08 /pmc/articles/PMC6329335/ /pubmed/30643700 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.6195 Text en ©2019 Jacobson and Hopper http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
spellingShingle Animal Behaviour
Jacobson, Sarah L.
Hopper, Lydia M.
Hardly habitual: chimpanzees and gorillas show flexibility in their motor responses when presented with a causally-clear task
title Hardly habitual: chimpanzees and gorillas show flexibility in their motor responses when presented with a causally-clear task
title_full Hardly habitual: chimpanzees and gorillas show flexibility in their motor responses when presented with a causally-clear task
title_fullStr Hardly habitual: chimpanzees and gorillas show flexibility in their motor responses when presented with a causally-clear task
title_full_unstemmed Hardly habitual: chimpanzees and gorillas show flexibility in their motor responses when presented with a causally-clear task
title_short Hardly habitual: chimpanzees and gorillas show flexibility in their motor responses when presented with a causally-clear task
title_sort hardly habitual: chimpanzees and gorillas show flexibility in their motor responses when presented with a causally-clear task
topic Animal Behaviour
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6329335/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30643700
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.6195
work_keys_str_mv AT jacobsonsarahl hardlyhabitualchimpanzeesandgorillasshowflexibilityintheirmotorresponseswhenpresentedwithacausallycleartask
AT hopperlydiam hardlyhabitualchimpanzeesandgorillasshowflexibilityintheirmotorresponseswhenpresentedwithacausallycleartask