Doctoral Dissertation Improvement: Spatial Mapping and Foraging Strategies of White-faced Capuchin Monkeys (Cebus capucinus): Insights from Natural and Experimental Field Studies

本研究的目的是研究一组行为和进化问题，涉及人类和非人类灵长类动物的认知，空间记忆，以及猴子形成重要的觅食，休息和避难场所的位置和分布的心理地图的能力。 灵长类动物的活动范围从不到1公顷到数千公顷不等，在数周和数月的时间里，它们会造访数百个觅食地。 在人类进化的例子中，选择性压力与远距离狩猎、寻找工具原材料来源以及找到足以喂养群体成员的觅食地点的能力相关，这可能在增强认知能力方面发挥了关键作用。 然而，很少有人知道非人灵长类动物内部存储空间信息的程度，个人采取直接和有计划的路线顺序喂养网站。 灵长类动物的空间记忆有两种主要形式。 有人认为，灵长类动物可能在内部以几何地图的形式表示空间记忆，其中景观中的点被存储为真实坐标。 这种地图被描述为“从上面看”，其中个人计算目标或目标之间的精确角度和距离。 使用几何地图的人应该能够计算出遥远的觅食地点之间的新的、直接的捷径。 或者，灵长类动物可能在内部将空间信息表示为基于路线的地图，其中个体单独或组合使用和重复使用一组共同路径和选定数量的地标，以达到大量的目标或目的。 在这项研究中，PI通过研究哥斯达黎加野生白面卷尾猴（Cebus capucinus）的空间记忆来研究灵长类动物认知生态学的问题。 卷尾猴在新世界灵长类动物中是不寻常的，据报道它们表现出一系列让人想起早期人类祖先的行为，包括协调狩猎哺乳动物和使用工具（包括使用石器）。 卷尾猴的特点是大脑扩大，操纵能力增强。 因此，它们代表了一个相关的灵长类动物模型，用于解决有关生态学，解决问题，大脑大小增加和认知复杂性之间关系的重要进化问题。 PI计划使用两种研究技术来检查卷尾猴的认知能力。 首先，他们将使用行为生态学方法，研究卷尾猴在森林中自然的决策，旅行和运动模式。 其次，他们将使用一种实验性的方法，在森林中的特定位置放置喂食点，以确定卷尾猴学习这些新喂食点的空间位置的速度，到达这些喂食点的树木路径，以及这些路线与基于坐标的心理地图或基于路线的心理地图最一致的程度。 这项研究的科学价值在于，它将增加对灵长类动物在定位资源时自然面临的挑战的理解，这些资源在时间，空间和数量上各不相同，以确定可能在复杂决策的进化中发挥关键作用的一组选择压力，并增强人类的认知和空间能力。 这项研究更广泛的影响是，所获得的知识将有助于扩大野生灵长类动物社会学习和认知的数据库。 大多数关于灵长类动物学习能力的研究都是在实验室环境中对单个或少量孤立个体进行的。 然而，几乎所有的野生灵长类动物都是社会觅食者，因此可以获得社会信息（跟随谁，避开谁，加入谁）和生态信息（空间，时间，数量信息）。 不同的物种如何使用这些信息是知之甚少。本研究为进一步研究野生灵长类动物的决策和学习提供了重要的模型。

The goal of this research is to examine a set of behavioral and evolutionary questions concerning human and nonhuman primate cognition, spatial memory, and the ability of monkeys to form mental maps of the location and distribution of important feeding, resting, and refuge sites across a forested landscape. Primates exploit home ranges that vary on spatial scales of from less than 1 ha to several thousand hectares, and over the course of weeks and months visit and revisit hundreds of feeding sites. In the case of human evolution, selective pressures associated with the ability to navigate large distances to hunt, locate sources of raw materials for tools, and find feeding sites sufficient to feed group members is likely to have played a critical role in enhanced cognitive abilities. However, little is known concerning how nonhuman primates internally store spatial information and the degree to which individuals take direct and planned routes to sequential feeding sites. Two primary forms of spatial memory have been hypothesized for primates. It has been suggested that primates might internally represent spatial memory in the form of a geometric map in which points in the landscape are stored as true coordinates. Such a map has been described as a "view from above" in which individuals calculate precise angles and distances between targets or goals. Individuals using a geometric map should be able to calculate novel, direct short-cut routes between distant feeding sites. Alternatively, primates may internally represent spatial information as a route-based map in which individuals use and reuse a set of common pathways and a select number of landmarks, either singly or in combination, to reach a large number of targets or goals. In this study th PIs examine questions of primate cognitive ecology by studying spatial memory in wild white-faced capuchins (Cebus capucinus) in Costa Rica. Capuchins are unusual among New World primates in that they are reported to exhibit a set of behaviors reminiscent of early human ancestors including the coordinated hunting of mammals and tool use (including stone tool use). Capuchins also are characterized by an enlarged brain and enhanced manipulative abilities. Therefore, they represent a relevant primate model for addressing important evolutionary questions concerning relationships between ecology, problem-solving, increased brain size, and cognitive complexity. The PIs plan to examine capuchin cognition using two research techniques. First, they will use a behavioral-ecological approach and study decision-making, travel, and movement patterns of capuchins naturally in the forest. Secondly, they will use an experimental field approach by placing feeding sites in particular locations in the forest to determine how quickly the capuchins learn the spatial location of these new feeding sites, arboreal pathways taken to reach these feeding sites, and the degree to which these routes are most consistent with a coordinate- based mental map or a route-based mental map. The scientific merit of this study is that it will add to an understanding of the challenges primates naturally face in locating resources that vary in time, space, and quantity in order to identify the set of selective pressures that may have played a critical role in the evolution of complex decision-making and enhanced cognitive and spatial abilities in humans. The broader impact of this research is that the knowledge gained will contribute to an expanding data base on social learning and cognition in wild primates. The majority of studies of learning in primates is conducted on single or small numbers of isolated individuals in a laboratory setting. However, virtually all wild primates are social foragers, and therefore have access to both social (who to follow, who to avoid, who to join) and ecological information (spatial, temporal, quantity information). How difference species use this information is poorly understood. This study will provide an important model for future studies on decision-making and learning in wild primates.