St Andrews Research Repository

St Andrews University Home
View Item 
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • View Item
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • View Item
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • View Item
  • Register / Login
JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

Non-human primates use combined rules when deciding under ambiguity

Thumbnail
View/Open
Romain_2020_Non_human_primates_use_PTRSB_AAM.pdf (2.078Mb)
Romain_2021_PTB_non_human_CC.pdf (2.991Mb)
Date
01/03/2021
Author
Romain, A.
Broihanne, M.-H.
De Marco, A.
Ngoubangoye, B.
Call, Josep
Rebout, N.
Dufour, V.
Keywords
Gambling risk
Conditional probability
Decision-making
Monkeys
Apes
QH301 Biology
RC0321 Neuroscience. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry
DAS
Metadata
Show full item record
Abstract
Decision outcomes in unpredictable environments may not have exact known probabilities. Yet the predictability level of outcomes matters in decisions, and animals, including humans, generally avoid ambiguous options. Managing ambiguity may be more challenging and requires stronger cognitive skills than decision-making under risk, where decisions involve known probabilities. Here we compare decision-making in capuchins, macaques, orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos in risky and ambiguous contexts. Subjects were shown lotteries (a tray of potential rewards, some large, some small) and could gamble a medium-sized food item to obtain one of the displayed rewards. The odds of winning and losing varied and were accessible in the risky context (all rewards were visible) or partially available in the ambiguous context (some rewards were covered). In the latter case, the level of information varied from fully ambiguous (individuals could not guess what was under the covers) to predictable (individuals could guess). None of the species avoided gambling in ambiguous lotteries and gambling rates were high if at least 2 large rewards were visible. Capuchins and bonobos ignored the covered items and gorillas and macaques took the presence of potential rewards into account, but only chimpanzees and orangutans could consistently build correct expectations about the size of the covered rewards. Chimpanzees and orangutans combined decision rules according to the number of large visible rewards and the level of predictability, a process resembling conditional probabilities assessment in humans. Despite a low sample size, this is the first evidence in non-human primates that a combination of several rules can underlie choices made in an unpredictable environment. Our finding that non-human primates can deal with the uncertainty of an outcome when exchanging one food item for another is a key element to the understanding of the evolutionary origins of economic behavior.
Citation
Romain , A , Broihanne , M-H , De Marco , A , Ngoubangoye , B , Call , J , Rebout , N & Dufour , V 2021 , ' Non-human primates use combined rules when deciding under ambiguity ' , Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. B, Biological Sciences , vol. 376 , no. 1819 . https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2019.0672
Publication
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. B, Biological Sciences
Status
Peer reviewed
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2019.0672
ISSN
0962-8436
Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © 2020 the Author(s). Published by the Royal Society. This work has been made available online in accordance with publisher policies or with permission. Permission for further reuse of this content should be sought from the publisher or the rights holder. This is the author created accepted manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at https://royalsocietypublishing.org/journal/rstb
 
Copyright © 2021 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.
Description
Funding: This work was supported by grants from the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR-08-412 BLAN-0042-01), and the European Science Foundation (Compcog Exchange Grant n°3648).
Collections
  • University of St Andrews Research
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/20688

Items in the St Andrews Research Repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.

Advanced Search

Browse

All of RepositoryCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateNamesTitlesSubjectsClassificationTypeFunderThis CollectionBy Issue DateNamesTitlesSubjectsClassificationTypeFunder

My Account

Login

Open Access

To find out how you can benefit from open access to research, see our library web pages and Open Access blog. For open access help contact: openaccess@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Accessibility

Read our Accessibility statement.

How to submit research papers

The full text of research papers can be submitted to the repository via Pure, the University's research information system. For help see our guide: How to deposit in Pure.

Electronic thesis deposit

Help with deposit.

Repository help

For repository help contact: Digital-Repository@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Give Feedback

Cookie policy

This site may use cookies. Please see Terms and Conditions.

Usage statistics

COUNTER-compliant statistics on downloads from the repository are available from the IRUS-UK Service. Contact us for information.

© University of St Andrews Library

University of St Andrews is a charity registered in Scotland, No SC013532.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter