Abstract
Golden lion tamarins (Leontopithecus rosalia) and Wied’s marmosets (Callithrix kuhli) exhibited adaptive differences in performance on several distinct memory tasks. On both an open-field analogue of a radial arm maze and a spatial delayed matching-to-sample task, the marmosets performed better than the tamarins after short (5-min) retention intervals, but only the tamarins continued to perform above chance after long (24- or 48-h) retention intervals. The marmosets also required less training than the tamarins did to learn a color memory task, but again only the tamarins performed above chance when the retention interval was increased to 24 h. The results of these experiments are consistent with predictions based on knowledge of the feeding ecology of these species in the wild and raise the possibility that they possess different visuospatial memory abilities specialized for tracking the spatial and temporal distribution of their principal foods.
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These experiments were undertaken by M.L.P. in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the PhD in physical anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. This research was supported by National Science Foundation Dissertation Improvement Grant DBS 92-23912 to M.L.P., NSF grant IBN 92-09528 to J.A.F., and the generosity of E. J. and R. C. L. Brannon. We thank A. C. Kamil for advice on experimental design and D. L. Cheney, P.W. Glimcher, R. S. O. Harding, and R. M. Seyfarth for their valuable comments on the manuscript. D. M. Hightower provided excellent care for the monkeys.
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Platt, M.L., Brannon, E.M., Briese, T.L. et al. Differences in feeding ecology predict differences in performance between golden lion tamarins (Leontopithecus rosalia) and Wied’s marmosets (Callithrix kuhli) on spatial and visual memory tasks. Animal Learning & Behavior 24, 384–393 (1996). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03199010
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03199010