assessment-social-cognition-non-human-primates-using-network

Assessment of Social Cognition in Non-human Primates Using a Network of Computerized Automated Learning Device (ALDM) Test Systems

Fagot &#38; Paleressompoulle1 and Fagot &#38; Bonte2 have published an automated learning device (ALDM) for the study of cognitive abilities of monkeys ...

Aix-Marseille University

Fagot and Paleressompoulle [Fagot and Paleressompoulle (2009) Behav Res Methods 41: 396-404] described a new automated learning device for monkeys (ALDM) to test the cognitive functions of nonhuman primates within their social groups. However, the impact of the ALDM procedure on animal well-being needs to be investigated. The present study assessed the consequences of ALDM testing on the behavioral repertoire of Guinea baboons (Papio papio) and their stress levels as inferred from measurements of saliva cortisol. Accessibility to ALDM test computers reduced the number of resting periods as well as the number of stereotypies. Lower cortisol levels were also found during ALDM testing. These findings and others demonstrate that ALDM testing has a positive impact on animal well-being and can be considered as a means for behavioral enrichment in captive primates.

Effects of freely accessible computerized test systems on the spontaneous behaviors and stress level of Guinea baboons (Papio papio).

The affect-as-information hypothesis (e.g., Schwarz & Clore, 2003), predicts that the positive or negative valence of our mood differentially affects our processing of the details of the environment. However, this hypothesis has only been tested with mood induction procedures and fairly complex cognitive tasks in humans. Here, six baboons (Papio papio) living in a social group had free access to a computerized visual search task on which they were over-trained. Trials that immediately followed a spontaneously expressed emotional behavior were analyzed, ruling out possible biases due to induction procedures. RTs following negatively valenced behaviors are slower than those following neutral and positively valenced behaviors, respectively. Thus, moods affect the performance of nonhuman primates tested in highly automatized tasks, as it does in humans during tasks with much higher cognitive demands. These findings reveal a presumably universal and adaptive mechanism by which moods influence performance in various ecological contexts.

Julie Gullstrand

CNRS,
Federation 3C,
and Laboratory of Cognitive Psychology,
CNRS, Federation 3C, and Laboratory of Cognitive Psychology

Aix-Marseille University

Assessment of Social Cognition in Non-human Primates Using a Network of Computerized Automated Learning Device (ALDM) Test Systems

Julie Gullstrand

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Aix-Marseille University

Assessment of Social Cognition in Non-human Primates Using a Network of Computerized Automated Learning Device (ALDM) Test Systems

CNRS,
Federation 3C,
and Laboratory of Cognitive Psychology,
CNRS, Federation 3C, and Laboratory of Cognitive Psychology