Studies of chimpanzee spatial cognition and foraging

黑猩猩空间认知和觅食的研究

• 批准号: 7490991
• 负责人: CHARLES R MENZEL
• 金额: $ 18.06万
• 依托单位: GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-09-01 至 2011-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7490991
• 关键词: Animal Model; Animals; Area; Child; Cognition; Communication; Data; Dimensions; Distant; Environment; Episodic memory; Event; Goals; Health Benefit; Human; Knowledge; Language; Lead; Learning; Location; Memory; Methods; Pan Genus; Pan troglodytes; Primates; Public Health; Reporting; Research; Resources; Solutions; Space Perception; System; Technology; Thinking; Time; Visit; base; food resource; improved; memory recall; meter; skills

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): For humans, the ability to recall environmental features and past events underlies thinking, planning, and communication, but there are almost no data on recall capabilities in nonverbal animals. Data on the upper limits of recall capabilities in chimpanzees, and on the factors that limit recall, will lead to a more detailed understanding of the similarities and differences between human and nonhuman memory systems to improved animal models of recall memory. The long-term objective of this project is to characterize recall memory capabilities of chimpanzees that underlie communication about the environment and that contribute to the solution of foraging problems. Specific Aim 1 is to assess chimpanzees' recall memory of multiple features of an event. Hypothesis 1: Chimpanzees are capable of episodic memory, as evidenced by their ability to recall and communicate what they saw, where they saw it, who was involved, and features of any objects employed. Specific Aim 2 is to determine which of these different types of information a chimpanzee can recall and convey about a past event at a single reporting session. Hypothesis 2: Chimpanzees can convey multiple features (dimensions) of a past event in a fairly detailed report during a single trial. Specific Aim 3 is to characterize chimpanzees' recall and representational memory of large-scale space. Hypothesis 3: Chimpanzees are capable of recalling and communicating the types and locations of objects in large-scale space, as indicated by: a) their ability to use an artificial language (lexigrams) to learn where distant goal objects are located, and b) their ability to use lexigrams to report the locations of goal objects that are in areas that are completely out of view. Specific Aim 4 is to characterize chimpanzees' ability to recall, rank order, and sequentially visit multiple food resources over a wide spatial area. Hypothesis 4: Chimpanzees rank-order the expected value of multiple distant resources based on quality, quantity, proximity, visibility, and time of occurrence, and then visit the resources sequentially according to their ranking. The research will increase scientific knowledge of basic memory and planning capabilities in primates. Public health benefits of the research are expected to include improved technologies and methods for studying and enhancing memory, planning, communication, and spatial orientation skills in normal and developmentally delayed children.

描述（由申请人提供）：对于人类来说，回忆环境特征和过去事件的能力是思考、计划和沟通的基础，但几乎没有关于非语言动物的回忆能力的数据。关于黑猩猩回忆能力上限以及限制回忆的因素的数据将有助于更详细地了解人类和非人类记忆系统之间的异同，从而改进回忆记忆的动物模型。该项目的长期目标是表征黑猩猩的回忆能力，这种能力是有关环境的交流的基础，并有助于解决觅食问题。具体目标 1 是评估黑猩猩对事件多个特征的回忆能力。假设 1：黑猩猩具有情景记忆能力，它们能够回忆和交流所看到的内容、在哪里看到的、涉及的人员以及所使用的任何物体的特征。具体目标 2 是确定黑猩猩可以在一次报告会议中回忆并传达有关过去事件的这些不同类型的信息中的哪一种。假设 2：黑猩猩可以在一次试验中以相当详细的报告传达过去事件的多个特征（维度）。具体目标 3 是表征黑猩猩对大尺度空间的回忆和表征记忆。假设 3：黑猩猩能够回忆和交流大尺度空间中物体的类型和位置，如下所示：a）它们使用人工语言（词汇）来学习远处目标物体所在位置的能力，b）他们能够使用词汇来报告完全不在视野范围内的目标物体的位置。具体目标 4 是表征黑猩猩回忆、排序和顺序访问广阔空间区域内多种食物资源的能力。假设4：黑猩猩根据质量、数量、邻近性、可见性和发生时间对多个遥远资源的期望值进行排序，然后根据排序顺序访问资源。该研究将增加灵长类动物基本记忆和规划能力的科学知识。该研究的公共健康效益预计将包括改进研究和增强正常和发育迟缓儿童的记忆、计划、沟通和空间定向技能的技术和方法。