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Papers by Megan Bulloch

Primates are predominantly distributed across tropical regions, many of which are threatened by d... more Primates are predominantly distributed across tropical regions, many of which are threatened by deforestation. Removal of mature trees can harm primate populations by reducing avail- able food resources. Understanding the dietary requirements of primates at local levels can help identify key habitats to conserve, and protect plant species on which primates rely. Little is known about local diets of Alouatta palliata (mantled howler monkey), Ateles geoffroyi (black-handed spider monkey), and Cebus capucinus (white-faced capuchin) in Costa Rica's lowland tropical wet forests. Because diet and activity levels are closely connected, studies examining one provide insight into the other. We used group scan sample methods to record activity and diet, identifying all plant species on which the primates fed. We identified nine families of plants eaten by Ateles geoffroyi, four families eaten by Alouatta palliata , and two families eaten by Cebus capucinus . Activity budgets demonstrated ...

Development of reasoning is often depicted as involving increasing use of relational similarities... more Development of reasoning is often depicted as involving increasing use of relational similarities and decreasing use of perceptual similarities ("the perceptual-to-relational shift"). I argue that this shift is a special case of a broader developmental trend: increasing sensitivity to the predictive accuracy of different similarity types. To test this hypothesis, young children were asked to label, to infer novel properties, and to project future appearances of a novel animal that varied in two opposite respects: (1) how much it looked like another animal whose name and properties were known, and (2) how much its parents looked like parents of another animal whose name and properties were known. When exemplar origins were known, children generalized to exemplars with similar origins rather than with similar appearances; when origins were unknown, children generalized to exemplars with similar appearances. Results support claims that young children can ignore salient perceptual information to generalize on the basis of non-obvious causal relations. In a further study, I asked participants (3-, 4-, 5-year-olds and adults) to generalize novel information on two types of problems-offspring problems, where, again, relational matches yield accurate generalizations, and prey problems, where perceptual matches yield accurate generalizations. On offspring problems, I replicated the previous findings of increasing relational matches with age. However, I observed decreasing iii relational matches on prey problems. Provided feedback on their responses, three-year-olds showed the same trend. In a final study, I looked at costs of task switching between the offspring and prey problems in young children and adults. Contrary to findings supporting the perceptual-to-relational shift, adults failed to inhibit incorrect perceptual matches but were well able to inhibit incorrect relational matches. Young children had difficulties inhibiting both incorrect perceptual matches and incorrect relational matches. It appears then that adults, and not children, are perceptually bound. Findings suggest that the relational shift commonly observed in categorization and analogical reasoning may reflect a general increase in children's sensitivity to cue validity rather than an overall preference to generalize over perceptual similarity. iv DEDICATION To Ithaka, with gratitude for getting me out the door.

Whether finding a classroom, meeting a new teacher, learning to add, or reading a story, children... more Whether finding a classroom, meeting a new teacher, learning to add, or reading a story, children understand the world through their concepts. Concepts are crucial for understanding the world because they represent current experiences as belonging to a category of similar experiences. By having a concept chair, a student who sees a new chairat his desk need not re-discover whether it is alive, whether he should write with it or sit on it, or what the teacher means by “take your seat” when pointing at the new chair. In this ...

Primates are predominantly distributed across tropical regions, many of which are threatened by d... more Primates are predominantly distributed across tropical regions, many of which are threatened by deforestation. Removal of mature trees can harm primate populations by reducing available food resources. Understanding the dietary requirements of primates at local levels can help identify key habitats to conserve, and protect plant species on which primates rely. Little is known about local diets of Alouatta palliata (mantled howler monkey), Ateles geoffroyi (black-handed spider monkey), and Cebus capucinus (white-faced capuchin) in Costa Rica's lowland tropical wet forests. Because diet and activity levels are closely connected, studies examining one provide insight into the other. We used group scan sample methods to record activity and diet, identifying all plant species on which the primates fed. We identified nine families of plants eaten by Ateles geoffroyi, four families eaten by Alouatta palliata, and two families eaten by Cebus capucinus. Activity budgets demonstrated that Alouatta palliata was the least active species and Cebus capucinus the most active. We also found differences in the type of plant parts consumed by the three primate species; Alouatta palliata and Ateles geoffroyi fed mostly on fruit and new leaves, whereas Cebus capucinus fed on fruit and insects. The nine families of plants identified in this study are potentially important for all three primate species locally, and warrant conservation.

A number of recent models and experiments have suggested that evidence of early category-based in... more A number of recent models and experiments have suggested that evidence of early category-based induction is an artifact of perceptual cues provided by experimenters. We tested these accounts against the prediction that diVerent relations (causal versus non-causal) determine the types of perceptual similarity by which children generalize. Young children were asked to label, to infer novel properties, and to project future appearances of a novel animal that varied in two opposite respects: (1) how much it looked like another animal whose name and properties were known, and (2) how much its parents looked like parents of another animal whose name and properties were known. When exemplar origins were known, children generalized to exemplars with similar origins rather than with similar appearances; when origins were unknown, children generalized to exemplars with similar appearances. Results indicate even young children possess the cognitive control to choose the similarities that best predict accurate generalizations.

Primates rely on visual attention to gather knowledge about their environment. The ability to rec... more Primates rely on visual attention to gather knowledge about their environment. The ability to recognize such knowledge-acquisition activity in another may demonstrate one aspect of Theory of Mind. Using a series of experiments in which chimpanzees were presented with a choice between an experimenter whose visual attention was available and another whose vision was occluded, we asked whether chimpanzees understood the relationship between visual attention and knowledge states. The animals showed sophisticated understanding of attention from the first presentation of each task. Under more complex experimental conditions, the subjects had more difficulty with species-typical processing of attentional cues and those likely to be learned during human contact. We discuss the results with respect to the comparative impact of enculturation on chimpanzees.

Conference Presentations by Megan Bulloch

Primates are predominantly distributed across tropical regions, many of which are threatened by d... more Primates are predominantly distributed across tropical regions, many of which are threatened by deforestation. Removal of mature trees can harm primate populations by reducing available food resources. Understanding the dietary requirements of primates at local levels can help identify key habitats to conserve, and protect plant species on which primates rely. Little is known about local diets of Alouatta palliata (mantled howler monkey), Ateles geoffroyi (black-handed spider monkey), and Cebus capucinus (white-faced capuchin) in Costa Rica's lowland tropical wet forests. Because diet and activity levels are closely connected, studies examining one provide insight into the other. We used group scan sample methods to record activity and diet, identifying all plant species on which the primates fed. We identified nine families of plants eaten by Ateles geoffroyi, four families eaten by Alouatta palliata, and two families eaten by Cebus capucinus. Activity budgets demonstrated that Alouatta palliata was the least active species and Cebus capucinus the most active. We also found differences in the type of plant parts consumed by the three primate species; Alouatta palliata and Ateles geoffroyi fed mostly on fruit and new leaves, whereas Cebus capucinus fed on fruit and insects. The nine families of plants identified in this study are potentially important for all three primate species locally, and warrant conservation.