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Chimpanzees flexibly update working memory contents and show susceptibility to distraction in the self-ordered search task
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dc.contributor.author | Voelter, Christoph J. | |
dc.contributor.author | Mundry, Roger | |
dc.contributor.author | Call, Josep | |
dc.contributor.author | Seed, Amanda M. | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2019-07-24T09:30:01Z | |
dc.date.available | 2019-07-24T09:30:01Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2019-07-24 | |
dc.identifier | 259435004 | |
dc.identifier | d613ad8b-cc28-4526-8e29-d27594255568 | |
dc.identifier | 000477953500005 | |
dc.identifier | 85069940074 | |
dc.identifier.citation | Voelter , C J , Mundry , R , Call , J & Seed , A M 2019 , ' Chimpanzees flexibly update working memory contents and show susceptibility to distraction in the self-ordered search task ' , Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences , vol. 286 , no. 1907 . https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2019.0715 | en |
dc.identifier.issn | 0962-8452 | |
dc.identifier.other | ORCID: /0000-0002-8597-8336/work/59953716 | |
dc.identifier.other | ORCID: /0000-0002-3867-3003/work/60426865 | |
dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/10023/18154 | |
dc.description | This project has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement No. 639072). | en |
dc.description.abstract | Working memory (WM) is a core executive function that allows individuals to hold, process, and manipulate information. WM capacity has been repeatedly nominated as a key factor in human cognitive evolution; nevertheless, little is known about the WM abilities of our closest primate relatives. In this study, we examined signatures of WM ability in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Standard WM tasks for humans (Homo sapiens) often require participants to continuously update their WM. In Experiment 1, we implemented this updating requirement in a foraging situation:zoo-housed chimpanzees (N=13) searched for food in an array of containers. To avoid redundant searches, they needed to continuously update which containers they had already visited (similar to WM paradigms for human children) with 15-sretention intervals in between each choice. We examined chimpanzees’ WM capacity and to what extent they used spatial cues and object features to memorize their previous choices. In Experiment 2, we investigated how susceptible their WM was to attentional interference, an important signature, setting WM in humans apart from long-term memory. We found large individual differences with some individuals remembering at least their last four choices. Chimpanzees used a combination of spatial cues and object features to remember which boxes they had chosen already. Moreover, their performance decreased specifically when competing memory information was introduced. Finally, we found that individual differences in task performance were highly reliable over time. Together, these findings show remarkable similarities between human and chimpanzee WM abilities despite evolutionary and life history differences. | |
dc.format.extent | 9 | |
dc.format.extent | 620608 | |
dc.format.extent | 1119264 | |
dc.language.iso | eng | |
dc.relation.ispartof | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences | en |
dc.subject | Short-term memory | en |
dc.subject | Working memory | en |
dc.subject | Chimpanzees | en |
dc.subject | Executive functions | en |
dc.subject | Primate cognition | en |
dc.subject | Cognitive control | en |
dc.subject | BF Psychology | en |
dc.subject | DAS | en |
dc.subject.lcc | BF | en |
dc.title | Chimpanzees flexibly update working memory contents and show susceptibility to distraction in the self-ordered search task | en |
dc.type | Journal article | en |
dc.contributor.sponsor | European Research Council | en |
dc.contributor.institution | University of St Andrews. School of Psychology and Neuroscience | en |
dc.contributor.institution | University of St Andrews. Centre for Social Learning & Cognitive Evolution | en |
dc.contributor.institution | University of St Andrews. ‘Living Links to Human Evolution’ Research Centre | en |
dc.contributor.institution | University of St Andrews. Institute of Behavioural and Neural Sciences | en |
dc.identifier.doi | https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2019.0715 | |
dc.description.status | Peer reviewed | en |
dc.identifier.grantnumber | 639072 | en |
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