A comparative and developmental study on mental operation of internal representations

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The purpose of this project was to shed light to the evolution of abilities to mentally operate various internal representations by a comparative and developmental approach to this cognitive activity. Some of the results obtained include the following; we showed that: a)Tufted capuchin monkeys were able to recognize strength of their memory trace. However, such metamemory was not as refined as they recognized the detailed contents of the memory trace. b)Pigeons and human children planned their future behavior in solving a computerized maze problem. That is, they often made incorrect movements of the token toward the old goal location when it was suddenly moved. c)Dogs and squirrel monkeys recalled their caretakers' faces when they heard voices of the caretakers; that is, they spontaneously convert auditory information into corresponding visual images in their mental representation. d)Tufted capuchin monkeys adapted their problem solving behavior to their observation of partner monkey's incorrect acts. That is, they learn wisdom from the follies of others. e)Pigeons perceived several geometric illusions. However, in some cases, their perceptual distortion was in the direction opposite to humans'. f)Domestic dogs were able to infer existence of objects from the shape of the fabric that covered the objects. g)Tufted capuchin monkeys were able to infer causes of others' facial expression. h)Tufted capuchin monkeys were sensitive to others' welfare and shared food differentially depending upon social situations. i)Tufted capuchin monkeys were able to recognize human attention suggested by the states of eyes. All of these results suggest that many nonhuman animal species are capable of mentally operating various internal representations of social and physical information. This project ended one year earlier than planned because we succeeded to obtain a new superior grant(Scientific Research(S)).