REACTIONS TO (IN) EQUALITY IN CAPUCHIN MONKEYS

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. For social animals to react appropriately to each other they need to know about each others' gender, social status, and the state they are in (such as whether they are hungry, distressed, fearful, or aggressive). This project examines what brown capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) know about their group mates. It asks them to indicate, on the basis of portraits projected on a computer screen, which belongs to their group. It asks them to rate calls as either aversive or attractive, dependent on the identity of the caller (for example, does a female find the distress calls of her own offspring more aversive than such calls by unrelated juveniles?), and assessed whether monkeys share food with others based on what they know about their hunger state to see if they take the needs of others into account. Available are 30 capuchin monkeys, kept in indoor/outdoor enclosures, trained for temporary separation for experiments. The proposed study illuminates basic social cognition that is often taken for granted.