Age effects on transfer index performance and executive control in baboons (Papio papio).

Reversal performance in the transfer index (TI) task is known to improve from prosimians to apes, suggesting that this task is a marker of cognitive evolution within the primate taxa (Rumbaugh, 1970). However, the cognitive processes recruited by this task remain unclear. In the present study, 19 socially-housed baboons (Papio papio) from 1.

Age-dependent behavioral strategies in a visual search task in baboons (Papio papio) and their relation to inhibitory control.

A computerized visual search task was presented to 18 guinea baboons (Papio papio) ranging from 2.7 to 14.3 years of age.

Executive control of perceptual features and abstract relations by baboons (Papio papio).

Studies of executive control often reveal significant limitations in nonhuman primate performance relative to that of humans. In the present study, 24 socially housed baboons were tested on a computerized version of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Task (WCST) to assess individual differences in executive control. In a second experiment, the same baboons completed a version of the WCST with paired-relational stimuli rather than those that varied on a single dimension to evaluate their set-shifting abilities with abstract relations (same/different).

Automated testing of cognitive performance in monkeys: use of a battery of computerized test systems by a troop of semi-free-ranging baboons (Papio papio).

Fagot and Paleressompoulle (2009) published an automated learning device for monkeys (ALDM) to test the cognitive functions of nonhuman primates within their social groups, but the efficiency of the ALDM procedure with large groups remains unknown. In the present study, 10 ALDM systems were provided ad lib to a troop of 26 semi-free-ranging baboons that were initially naive with computerized testing. The test program taught baboons to solve two-alternative forced choice (2AFC) and matching-to-sample (MTS) tasks.

Concept of uprightness in baboons: assessment with pictures of realistic scenes.

How nonhuman primates process pictures of natural scenes or objects remains a matter of debates. This issue was addressed in the current research by questioning the processing of the canonical orientation of pictures in baboons. Two adult guinea baboons were trained to use an interactive key (IK) on a touch-screen to change the orientation of target pictures showing humans or quadruped mammals until upright.