Species discrimination in infant pigtail macaques with pictorial stimuli.
Two experiments used a visual fixation habituation-dishabituation paradigm to study the ability of young, socially restricted pigtail macaques to discriminate among adults of 3 macaque species (pigtail, cynomolgus, and stumptail) with pictures as stimuli. The results of the 1st study demonstrated that 3-month-old pigtail infants could discriminate among faces of adult females of all 3 species. The 2nd study was methodologically similar to the 1st, which the exception that the face stimuli were presented upside-down. The results of Experiment II demonstrated no species discrimination, suggesting that the socially relevant discrimination demonstrated in Experiment I was a function of cues unique to the upright face and not a function of abstract cues available in both upright and upside-down facial stimuli.
D000818:Animals; D002755:Choice Behavior; D003463:Cues; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D005260:Female; D005403:Fixation, Ocular; D005556:Form Perception; D006185:Habituation, Psychophysiologic; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D008254:Macaca nemestrina; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D013045:Species Specificity