Development of the visual preference of chimpanzees (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Pan troglodytes</Emphasis>) for photographs of primates: effect of social experience |
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Authors: | Masayuki Tanaka |
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Institution: | (1) Language and Intelligence Section, Department of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, 41-2 Inuyama, Aichi 484-8506, Japan |
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Abstract: | In a study by Tanaka (2003) five captive chimpanzees preferred photographs of humans to those of chimpanzees. All the subjects were raised by humans
and lived in captivity for many years. This suggests their preference might have developed through social experience. In this
study examined this hypothesis by using three young chimpanzees raised by their mothers in a captive chimpanzee community.
The young chimpanzees were tested four times before six years of age. I also tested eight adult chimpanzees that had been
in captivity for more than 20 years. Each subject was presented with digitized color photographs of different species of primates
on a touch-sensitive screen. The subjects received a food reward when they touched a photograph, irrespective of which photograph
they touched. All the adult chimpanzees touched photographs of humans more frequently than those of any other species of primate.
Two of the young chimpanzees showed no species preference before reaching 5 years of age, when they started to show preference
for humans. The remaining young chimpanzee consistently preferred chimpanzees. These results suggest that development of visual
preference of chimpanzees is affected by social experience during infancy. |
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Keywords: | Visual preference Chimpanzee Free-choice task Social influence |
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