Capuchins (Sapajus apella) and squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sciureus) fail to attend to the functional spatial relationship between a tool and a reward.

Capuchins (Sapajus apella) and squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sciureus) participated in 3 experiments in which they were presented with 2 objects, one appropriately oriented and the other inappropriately oriented to retrieve a food reward by pulling, replicating prior experiments with nonhuman primates described as evaluating "tool choice." Choice patterns were analyzed to assess whether monkeys learned that tools needed to be oriented with part of the tool on the far side of the reward to pull in the food. Both species learned to choose appropriately oriented tools after a similar number of sessions with a cane-shaped tool in the first task.