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The Ability of Adolescent Hamadryas Baboons (Papio hamadryas) to Solve a Modified Piaget A-Not-B Error Test

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The ability of hamadryas baboons (Papio hamadryas) to inhibit a fixed conditioned reflex was studied. Experiments were performed using immature animals of two ages: 18 months (six males and five females) and three years (seven males and seven females), these two age groups belonging to different categories of adolescents. Abilities were assessed using a modified Piaget A-not-B error test. Only four monkeys were able to solve the test. This ability appeared in females, to similar extents in the two age groups. The results also demonstrated a significant spread in activity on solution of the task by animals of different gender and age. Animals demonstrating the ability to inhibit the fixed conditioned reflex are interpreted as demonstrating conscious selection.

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  1. Institute of Medical Primatology, Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Sochi-A, Russia

    A. E. Anikaev, V. G. Chalyan & N. V. Meishvili

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Correspondence to A. E. Anikaev.

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Translated from Rossiiskii Fiziologicheskii Zhurnal imeni I. M. Sechenova, Vol. 100, No. 4, pp. 394–405, April, 2014.

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Anikaev, A.E., Chalyan, V.G. & Meishvili, N.V. The Ability of Adolescent Hamadryas Baboons (Papio hamadryas) to Solve a Modified Piaget A-Not-B Error Test. Neurosci Behav Physi 45, 957–963 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11055-015-0170-0

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