Julie J Neiworth, Scott P Gillespie, Ye In Christopher Kwon, Isabelle Rieth, Madeline Thall, Abigail Sharer, Elizabeth Groesbeck, Lydia Henderson, Chae Sarah Min, Ayumi Tachida, Xiao Ma, Ella Rogers, Megan Cablk, Anka Raicevic, Madeline LoRusso, Emerald Wang
{"title":"Cognitive tasks show age-related decline over a 10-year period in a natural aging monkey model, cotton-top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus).","authors":"Julie J Neiworth, Scott P Gillespie, Ye In Christopher Kwon, Isabelle Rieth, Madeline Thall, Abigail Sharer, Elizabeth Groesbeck, Lydia Henderson, Chae Sarah Min, Ayumi Tachida, Xiao Ma, Ella Rogers, Megan Cablk, Anka Raicevic, Madeline LoRusso, Emerald Wang","doi":"10.1037/com0000431","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1037/com0000431","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Cotton-top tamarins (<i>n</i> = 14, aged 7-24 years) were tested over a 10-year period on tasks conventionally differentiating aging from dementia in humans. Three tasks were developed on iPads to collect response accuracies in tests of attention (visual search [VS]), working memory (delayed matching-to-sample), and executive processing (rule-shifting). A fourth task utilized a spontaneous object recognition paradigm to test familiarity memory in the subjects' home cages. Linear regression analyses revealed cognitive decline with increasing age in particular components of these tasks. Specifically, accuracy to direct attention in a VS to targets with overlapping features decreased with age. All older monkeys showed accuracy to remember sample items through 1- and 10-s delays in a recognition test, but their ability to remember through these delays was compromised with more extreme aging. Rule-shifting involving attending to a dimension previously irrelevant to the game was particularly problematic with increased age. Cognitive maintenance with aging occurred with simpler VS targets, rule-shifting within the same dimension or feature, and familiarity memory. Tamarins' initiation of cognitive decline mapped closely to the age found in published work of the accumulation of Aβ (beta amyloid species and plaques) in tamarins. The failures in cognition in aging tamarins corresponded with common failures in elderly humans. Moreover, eight of the 14 tamarins showed more severe cognitive deterioration that might signal a kind of dementia. Further study is needed to measure cognitive maintenance and loss across a variety of species of primates with different lifespans and backgrounds. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).</p>","PeriodicalId":54861,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Comparative Psychology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2025-10-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145234209","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Horses (Equus caballus) successfully solve an object choice task using a human pointing gesture and a physical marker: A partial replication of Proops et al. (2010).","authors":"Ivana Dumičić, Ljerka Ostojić","doi":"10.1037/com0000429","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1037/com0000429","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Like other domesticated species, most notably dogs, horses have been reported to follow human gestures and successfully use them to gain rewards in an object choice task. Empirical support for the hypothesis that a domain-general mechanism may underlie this ability comes from studies in which horses have successfully solved the task by using not just a human pointing gesture but also an arbitrary physical cue, namely a wooden marker. Here, we replicated the two conditions in which these two cues were used by Proops et al. (2010) with two critical changes: first, we positioned the marker out of the horses' sight, and second, we positioned the marker such that it was in the same position where the gesture would be when the experimenter showed the pointing gesture. Horses successfully solved the task using both the pointing gesture and the marker, and their performance did not differ statistically significantly between these two conditions. The robustness of this result was corroborated by complementary model comparisons, which further showed that the horses' performance was not significantly influenced by their age or sex. Our findings thus support the consistency of previously reported findings in these specific testing conditions and suggest that at least part of the horses' ability to solve the object choice task with different types of cues is based on a domain-general mechanism. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).</p>","PeriodicalId":54861,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Comparative Psychology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2025-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145193972","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Group-level matching behavior in phototaxis of acoel flatworm Praesagittifera naikaiensis.","authors":"Hiroshi Matsui, Yumi Hata","doi":"10.1037/com0000430","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1037/com0000430","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The matching law, which posits that animals allocate their responses in proportion to the rate of reinforcement, has been supported across diverse animal taxa. Although originally formulated in the context of operant choice, matching also applies to time allocation in foraging and to Pavlovian responses, indicating its generality across behavioral domains. However, empirical evidence has thus far been largely limited to vertebrates and arthropods. Addressing the broader applicability of this principle requires extending investigations beyond these taxonomic groups, across a wider phylogenetic spectrum. Here, we examined phototactic behavior in the acoel flatworm <i>Praesagittifera naikaiensis</i>, a species that acquires nutrients through photosynthesis by symbiotic algae and exhibits positive phototaxis. Using a custom-built T-maze in which the number of illuminated LEDs varied across arms, we found that the animals distributed themselves in proportion to relative brightness, consistent with matching behavior. Moreover, prior exposure to light for 24 hr attenuated this pattern. This manipulation was intended to induce a state of nutritional sufficiency, and the resulting decline in phototactic responses suggests that internal physiological states can modulate even seemingly reflexive locomotor behaviors. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).</p>","PeriodicalId":54861,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Comparative Psychology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2025-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145193945","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Carmen Torres, Mauricio R Papini, Michael A Huffman
{"title":"Psychological self-medication in mammals: A dialogue between natural observations and laboratory research.","authors":"Carmen Torres, Mauricio R Papini, Michael A Huffman","doi":"10.1037/com0000428","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1037/com0000428","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The use of plants with medicinal properties by nonhuman animals has been extensively documented. However, little emphasis has been placed on evidence suggesting that animals also appear to use/consume substances with psychoactive properties. This psychological self-medication (PsycSM) hypothesis posits that the voluntary use of substances that alter emotional/mental states is guided by the substance's ability to reduce negative states or promote positive states. The objective of this narrative review is to provide a rigorous interpretation and critique of findings, point out contributions and limitations of available research, and provide a synthesis useful to design further studies aimed at testing the PsycSM hypothesis. Criteria derived from this hypothesis are used to establish behaviors as PsycSM examples. Areas for potentially useful interactions between field and laboratory research are specified. Anecdotal evidence from field observations suggests that animals voluntarily consume substances that affect their emotional state. Although laboratory research reviewed herein suggests that nonhuman animals intentionally consume substances that can affect their emotional/mental state, the underlying mechanisms are still poorly understood. One such mechanism is hypothesized to involve a reinforcement process produced by a change in the internal state contingent on substance consumption, whether to reduce negative emotions or to enhance positive emotions. The criteria for PsycSM developed in this review may guide further research into these effects. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).</p>","PeriodicalId":54861,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Comparative Psychology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2025-09-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145066652","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A test of inference by exclusion in grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus): Replication of a parrot-child comparative study using additional avian subjects.","authors":"Irene M Pepperberg, Leigh Ann Hartsfield","doi":"10.1037/com0000427","DOIUrl":"10.1037/com0000427","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Grey parrots have been shown to reason via inference by exclusion in various experiments, but so far only one bird has been shown to succeed on a four-cup task originally tested on young children, a purportedly stronger test of inference than experiments involving two cups. In the procedure with four cups (two pairs: AB, CD), a reward is hidden in one cup of each pair-for example, B, C; then one cup-for example, A-is shown to be empty. Successful subjects should conclude that the reward is 100% likely in B, only 50% likely in C or D, and accordingly choose B, thereby demonstrating modal and logical concepts in addition to epistemic ones. Here we replicate the task with three other Grey parrots to demonstrate that the ability is not restricted to one individual with extensive experimental experience. Thus, several subjects are now available for further testing necessary to examine the extent to which Grey parrots understand inference by exclusion. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).</p>","PeriodicalId":54861,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Comparative Psychology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144800971","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sandro Sehner, Erik P Willems, Adrian Baumeyer, Leyla Davis, Carel P van Schaik, Judith M Burkart
{"title":"Sensitivity to immature skill deficits. Food sharing experiments in squirrel monkeys (Saimiri boliviensis) and common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus).","authors":"Sandro Sehner, Erik P Willems, Adrian Baumeyer, Leyla Davis, Carel P van Schaik, Judith M Burkart","doi":"10.1037/com0000399","DOIUrl":"10.1037/com0000399","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Sharing food with immature individuals is costly and should therefore only occur when the benefits outweigh the costs. Accordingly, sharing typically decreases when immature individuals get older and become more proficient independent foragers. Providers would gain more if they could adjust food sharing not only to immature age but also to their skill level. Such sensitivity to others' skill deficits is expected to be rare, but may be found in species with high prosociality and other-regarding preferences, such as cooperative breeders. Here, we compared the food-sharing patterns of cooperatively breeding common marmosets (<i>Callithrix jacchus</i>) and closely related but independently breeding squirrel monkeys (<i>Saimiri boliviensis</i>) under two conditions. In the baseline condition, food was easily accessible whereas in the experimental condition, individuals had to solve a puzzle to access the food. We found that the cooperatively breeding marmosets, but not the independently breeding squirrel monkeys, shared more when immatures lacked the skill to obtain the food from the apparatuses. Skill sensitivity might be associated with the presence of other-regarding preferences and a strong proclivity to proactively share food during baseline conditions. This proclivity has evolved in marmosets, but not squirrel monkeys, in the context of cooperative breeding and may facilitate the emergence of skill recognition, information donation, and teaching. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).</p>","PeriodicalId":54861,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Comparative Psychology","volume":" ","pages":"178-191"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143416279","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Emilie Rapport Munro, Sarah E Koopman, Sean P Anderson, Kenneth Schweller, Henrik Röhr, Max Kleiman-Weiner, Richard Lewis, Brandon Klein, Matthias Allritz, Lauren M Robinson, Francine L Dolins, Josep Call
{"title":"Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and bonobos (Pan paniscus) chase prey around obstacles in virtual environments.","authors":"Emilie Rapport Munro, Sarah E Koopman, Sean P Anderson, Kenneth Schweller, Henrik Röhr, Max Kleiman-Weiner, Richard Lewis, Brandon Klein, Matthias Allritz, Lauren M Robinson, Francine L Dolins, Josep Call","doi":"10.1037/com0000402","DOIUrl":"10.1037/com0000402","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Apes require high volumes of energy-rich foods that tend to be patchily distributed, creating evolutionary pressures for flexible and complex cognition. Several species hunt mobile prey, placing demands on working memory and selecting for sociocognitive abilities such as predicting prey behavior. The mechanisms by which apes overcome foraging and hunting challenges are difficult to elucidate. Field investigations provide rich data sets but lack experimental control, limiting the gamut of questions they can answer, while experiments with captive subjects offer lower generalizability to real-world situations. Virtual environments (VEs) present a compromise, combining experimental specificity with proxies of realistic situations. In this study, chimpanzees and bonobos moved through a three-dimensional VE using a touchscreen. All subjects learned to chase and catch moving rabbits, some exhibiting high success rates even in the presence of large obstacles. Success in trials with a first-person (FP) viewpoint was much higher than in trials presented from overhead, suggesting that the immersive nature of FP trials helped subjects to understand their location in the environment better than when they took a top-down view. Data were analyzed using generative computational agent models, identifying that subjects occasionally employed anticipatory hunting strategies, but more often used a direct chasing strategy. This study validates the use of VEs as an experimental paradigm, demonstrating that apes can understand the behavior of moving agents in situations of varying complexity and that computational modeling can be utilized to delve into behavioral data at a fine-grained level and identify which of several cognitive strategies they fit best. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).</p>","PeriodicalId":54861,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Comparative Psychology","volume":" ","pages":"155-177"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143694152","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Laurent Avila-Chauvet, Juan Elenes-Rivera, Diana Mejía Cruz, Yancarlo L Ojeda Aguilar
{"title":"Effect of resource-associated signals on producer responses: Insights from golden fish (Carassius auratus) and an agent-based model.","authors":"Laurent Avila-Chauvet, Juan Elenes-Rivera, Diana Mejía Cruz, Yancarlo L Ojeda Aguilar","doi":"10.1037/com0000400","DOIUrl":"10.1037/com0000400","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In social foraging situations, some group members actively engage in behaviors associated with searching for patch zones (produce), while others join previously discovered patch zones (scrounge). Pavlovian conditioning enables individuals to anticipate a biologically significant event or unconditioned stimulus, such as resource availability, when paired with another event, such as a blue light, also known as a conditioned stimulus (CS). Considering that individuals' prior experiences with habitat features may influence their preference for producer or scrounger responses, this study aims to assess the impact of resource-associated signals on the group produce index. Specifically, the study seeks to (a) outline a setup for goldfish (<i>Carassius auratus</i>) incorporating renewable patch zones, (b) evaluate the CS's effect on the proportion of producers, and (c) develop an agent-based model capturing the CS's effect on the proportion of producers. Eight goldfish were used, with half undergoing a delayed Pavlovian acquisition protocol. Pavlovian-trained and control fish were assessed under signal and nonsignal conditions. The findings reveal that the producer index in the signal condition was higher for the Pavlovian group than the control group. To simulate conditions to those observed in fish, we developed an agent-based model where Pavlovian agents oriented themselves toward the nearest patch zone when the CS was present. The results mirrored those observed in fish, indicating an advantage derived from preexposure to the CS. This study contributes to the investigation of individual disparities and the impact of learning within the framework of the producer-scrounger game. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).</p>","PeriodicalId":54861,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Comparative Psychology","volume":" ","pages":"230-238"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142787777","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Monkeys (Macaca mulatta) rank lists using multiple cognitive mechanisms simultaneously.","authors":"Rael Sammeroff, Robert R Hampton","doi":"10.1037/com0000405","DOIUrl":"10.1037/com0000405","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Memorizing the relations between items and learning relational rules are two ways in which sets of items can be ranked. We investigated the interaction of these types of learning in a series of five experiments with six adult male rhesus monkeys. We presented monkeys with three types of image sets. Scene sets were random images of natural scenes or cityscapes with no perceptually evident pattern by which to rank them. Relations among these images had to be learned through trial and error. Patterned sets were shapes that varied systematically along a physical dimension such as size such that a single rule for ranking them could be applied across images. Disordered sets were the same as Patterned sets, but monkeys were trained to rank them in an arbitrary order that was not consistent with differences along a physical dimension. Monkeys learned Scene sets more quickly than Patterned sets and Disordered sets, suggesting that monkeys memorize the relations between images relatively easily. In follow-up experiments, we found that monkeys also learned rules for the Patterned sets, indicated by the fact that they generalized performance to novel images and reversed ranks across the whole set after training with a single reversed pair. In Experiments 4 and 5, we investigated the interaction of memorization and relational rule learning with compound image sets that included both systematic physical variation and arbitrary visual content. We found further evidence that monkeys ordered images by both memorization and rules. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).</p>","PeriodicalId":54861,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Comparative Psychology","volume":" ","pages":"209-223"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143625818","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Selenophobia (moonlight avoidance) in nocturnal rodents: A primer.","authors":"Raffaele d'Isa","doi":"10.1037/com0000406","DOIUrl":"10.1037/com0000406","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Photophobia, aversion for brightly lit environments, is commonly observed in laboratory nocturnal rodents such as mice and rats, as indicated, for example, by the light-dark box test. The universality of photophobia in laboratory nocturnal rodents rises questions on its corresponding behavior in nature and on what adaptive value may have led to the selection of this behavior during biological evolution. Nocturnality alone is insufficient to explain photophobic behavior, as nocturnal rodents show reduced roaming in the day just because they are sleeping and not because they are choosing to avoid a possibly aversive daylight. On the other hand, a natural behavior more directly related to the photophobia observed in the laboratory is selenophobia (moonlight avoidance), which in free-ranging rodents can be operatively defined as the reduction of exploratory and foraging activities in moonlit nights compared with dark nights. In the case of selenophobia, factors related to nocturnality are ruled out, and light-related factors can be easily isolated. Selenophobia has been found in a wide variety of nocturnal rodents, for which it may represent an antipredatory adaptation. A technology-aided study of selenophobia may strongly contribute to a better understanding of its nature, of the relative contributions of instinct and learning to this behavior, and of its neural underpinnings. In particular, new behavioral and neurophysiological technologies, for example, miniaturized radiocollars, freely accessible testing chambers equipped with infrared video cameras, animal-borne miniaturized video cameras, and noninvasive electrophysiological recordings, may be of particular usefulness to shed light on selenophobia. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).</p>","PeriodicalId":54861,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Comparative Psychology","volume":" ","pages":"224-229"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143416275","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}