Rhesus Monkeys Attribute Perceptions to Others (original) (raw)

Abstract

and cannot see. Our work builds on the recent insight Yale University that primates will most likely exhibit sophisticated ToM New Haven, CT 06520 abilities in experimental scenarios that mimic the natural situations for which these abilities have evolvednamely, competitive foraging situations [16, 17]. Despite robust failures in previous ToM tasks [1-2, 18], chimpan-Summary zees have succeeded in reasoning about another individual's potential visual knowledge when vying for food Paramount among human cognitive abilities is the cain competitive interactions [6, 19]. Results like these pacity to reason about what others think, want, and raise the possibility that macaques (as well as other see-a capacity referred to as a theory of mind (ToM). monkey species [20]) may possess a similar ability and, Despite its importance in human cognition, the extent therefore, that gaze-sensitive neurons in macaque corto which other primates share human ToM capacities tex may support sophisticated ToM reasoning. has for decades remained a mystery. To date, primates In the present six experiments, we ask whether free-[1, 2] have performed poorly in behavioral tasks that ranging rhesus monkeys from the Cayo Santiago popurequire ToM abilities, despite the fact that some malation reason about what a human competitor can and caques are known to encode social stimuli at the level cannot see. The monkeys in this population are naturally of single neurons [3-5]. Here, we presented rhesus curious about the foods that human experimenters bring macaques with a more ecologically relevant ToM task to the island [21]