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What do monkeys know about others' knowledge?
Cognition. 2018 01; 170:201-208.C

Abstract

Recently, comparative psychologists have suggested that primates represent others' knowledge states. Evidence for this claim comes from studies demonstrating that primates expect others to maintain representations of objects when those objects are not currently visible. However, little work has explored whether nonhuman primates expect others to share the more sophisticated kinds of object knowledge that they themselves possess. We therefore investigated whether primates attribute to others knowledge that is acquired through the mental transformation of a static object representation. Specifically, we tested whether rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) expected a human demonstrator to solve a difficult rotational displacement task. In Experiment 1, monkeys watched a demonstrator hide a piece of fruit in one of two boxes. The monkey and the demonstrator then watched the boxes rotate 180°. We found that monkeys looked longer when the demonstrator reached into the box that did not contain the fruit, indicating that they expected her to be able to track the fruit to its current location. In Experiment 2, we ruled out the possibility that monkeys simply expected the demonstrator to search for the food in its true location. When the demonstrator did not witness the rotation event, monkeys looked equally long at the two reaching outcomes. These results are consistent with the interpretation that rhesus macaques expect others to dynamically update their representations of unseen objects.

Authors+Show Affiliations

Yale University, USA. Electronic address: lindsey.drayton@yale.edu.Yale University, USA.

Pub Type(s)

Journal Article

Language

eng

PubMed ID

29040907

Citation

Drayton, Lindsey A., and Laurie R. Santos. "What Do Monkeys Know About Others' Knowledge?" Cognition, vol. 170, 2018, pp. 201-208.
Drayton LA, Santos LR. What do monkeys know about others' knowledge? Cognition. 2018;170:201-208.
Drayton, L. A., & Santos, L. R. (2018). What do monkeys know about others' knowledge? Cognition, 170, 201-208. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2017.10.004
Drayton LA, Santos LR. What Do Monkeys Know About Others' Knowledge. Cognition. 2018;170:201-208. PubMed PMID: 29040907.
* Article titles in AMA citation format should be in sentence-case
TY - JOUR T1 - What do monkeys know about others' knowledge? AU - Drayton,Lindsey A, AU - Santos,Laurie R, Y1 - 2017/10/15/ PY - 2016/09/29/received PY - 2017/10/03/revised PY - 2017/10/04/accepted PY - 2017/10/19/pubmed PY - 2018/8/8/medline PY - 2017/10/18/entrez KW - Comparative cognition KW - Knowledge representation KW - Object knowledge KW - Theory of mind SP - 201 EP - 208 JF - Cognition JO - Cognition VL - 170 N2 - Recently, comparative psychologists have suggested that primates represent others' knowledge states. Evidence for this claim comes from studies demonstrating that primates expect others to maintain representations of objects when those objects are not currently visible. However, little work has explored whether nonhuman primates expect others to share the more sophisticated kinds of object knowledge that they themselves possess. We therefore investigated whether primates attribute to others knowledge that is acquired through the mental transformation of a static object representation. Specifically, we tested whether rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) expected a human demonstrator to solve a difficult rotational displacement task. In Experiment 1, monkeys watched a demonstrator hide a piece of fruit in one of two boxes. The monkey and the demonstrator then watched the boxes rotate 180°. We found that monkeys looked longer when the demonstrator reached into the box that did not contain the fruit, indicating that they expected her to be able to track the fruit to its current location. In Experiment 2, we ruled out the possibility that monkeys simply expected the demonstrator to search for the food in its true location. When the demonstrator did not witness the rotation event, monkeys looked equally long at the two reaching outcomes. These results are consistent with the interpretation that rhesus macaques expect others to dynamically update their representations of unseen objects. SN - 1873-7838 UR - https://www.unboundmedicine.com/medline/citation/29040907/What_do_monkeys_know_about_others'_knowledge DB - PRIME DP - Unbound Medicine ER -