Spot the odd one out: do snake pictures capture macaques’ attention more than other predators?

IF 1.9 2区 生物学 Q3 BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES Animal Cognition Pub Date : 2023-10-19 DOI:10.1007/s10071-023-01831-9
Karl Zeller, Sébastien Ballesta, Hélène Meunier, Julie Duboscq, Luca Morino, Adam Rimele, Xavier Bonnet, Audrey Maille, Guillaume Dezecache, Cécile Garcia
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Abstract

Detecting and identifying predators quickly is key to survival. According to the Snake Detection Theory (SDT), snakes have been a substantive threat to primates for millions of years, so that dedicated visual skills were tuned to detect snakes in early primates. Past experiments confronted the SDT by measuring how fast primate subjects detected snake pictures among non-dangerous distractors (e.g., flowers), but did not include pictures of primates’ other predators, such as carnivorans, raptors, and crocodilians. Here, we examined the detection abilities of N = 19 Tonkean macaques (Macaca tonkeana) and N = 6 rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) to spot different predators. By implementing an oddity task protocol, we recorded success rates and reaction times to locate a deviant picture among four pictures over more than 400,000 test trials. Pictures depicted a predator, a non-predator animal, or a simple geometric shape. The first task consisted of detecting a deviant picture among identical distractor pictures (discrimination) and the second task was designed to evaluate detection abilities of a deviant picture among different distractor pictures (categorization). The macaques detected pictures of geometric shapes better and faster than pictures of animals, and were better and faster at discriminating than categorizing. The macaques did not detect snakes better or faster than other animal categories. Overall, these results suggest that pictures of snakes do not capture visual attention more than other predators, questioning previous findings in favor of the SDT.

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找出一个奇怪的问题:蛇的照片比其他捕食者更能吸引猕猴的注意力吗?
快速发现和识别捕食者是生存的关键。根据蛇探测理论(SDT),数百万年来,蛇一直是灵长类动物的实质性威胁,因此专门的视觉技能被调整为在早期灵长类动物中探测蛇。过去的实验通过测量灵长类动物受试者在非危险干扰物(如花朵)中检测到蛇图片的速度来对抗SDT,但不包括灵长类动物其他捕食者的图片,如食肉动物、猛禽和鳄鱼。在这里,我们检验了N = 19 Tonkean猕猴(Macaca tonkeana)和N = 6只恒河猴(猕猴)来发现不同的捕食者。通过实施一个奇怪的任务协议,我们记录了成功率和反应时间,在超过400000次的测试试验中,在四张图片中找到了一张异常图片。图片描绘了捕食者、非捕食者或简单的几何形状。第一个任务包括在相同的干扰物图片中检测异常图片(辨别),第二个任务旨在评估不同干扰物照片中异常图片的检测能力(分类)。猕猴比动物图片更好、更快地检测到几何形状的图片,并且在辨别方面比分类更好、更快。猕猴并没有比其他动物更好或更快地发现蛇。总的来说,这些结果表明,蛇的照片并没有比其他捕食者更能吸引视觉注意力,这对之前支持SDT的发现提出了质疑。
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来源期刊
Animal Cognition
Animal Cognition 生物-动物学
CiteScore
4.50
自引率
18.50%
发文量
125
审稿时长
4-8 weeks
期刊介绍: Animal Cognition is an interdisciplinary journal offering current research from many disciplines (ethology, behavioral ecology, animal behavior and learning, cognitive sciences, comparative psychology and evolutionary psychology) on all aspects of animal (and human) cognition in an evolutionary framework. Animal Cognition publishes original empirical and theoretical work, reviews, methods papers, short communications and correspondence on the mechanisms and evolution of biologically rooted cognitive-intellectual structures. The journal explores animal time perception and use; causality detection; innate reaction patterns and innate bases of learning; numerical competence and frequency expectancies; symbol use; communication; problem solving, animal thinking and use of tools, and the modularity of the mind.
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