Effects of brief time delays on matching-to-sample abilities in capuchin monkeys (Sapajus spp.)

Traditionally, studies of delayed matching-to-sample (DMTS) tasks in nonhuman species have focused on the assessment of the limits of the retrieval of information stored in short- and long-term memory systems. However, it is still unclear if visual recognition in these tasks is affected by very brief delay intervals, which are typically used to study rapidly decaying types of visual memory. This study aimed at evaluating if tufted capuchin monkeys' ability to recognise visual stimuli in a DMTS task is affected by (i) the disappearance of the sample stimulus and (ii) the introduction of delay intervals (0.5, 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 s) between the disappearance of the sample and the presentation of the comparison stimuli. The results demonstrated that the simple disappearance of the sample and the introduction of a delay of 0.5 s did not affect capuchins' performance either in terms of accuracy or response time. A delay interval of 1.0 s produced a significant increase in response time but still did not affect recognition accuracy. By contrast, delays of 2.0 and 3.0 s determined a significant increase in response time and a reduction in recognition accuracy. These findings indicate the existence in capuchin monkeys of processes enabling a very accurate retention of stimulus features within time frames comparable to those reported for humans' sensory memory (0.5-1.0 s). The extent to which such processes can be considered analogous to the sensory memory processes observed in human visual cognition is discussed. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Publication type: 
Articolo
Author or Creator: 
Truppa, Valentina
De Simone, Diego Antonio
Piano Mortari, Eva
De Lillo, Carlo
Publisher: 
Elsevier, Tokyo , Paesi Bassi
Source: 
Behavioural brain research 271 (2014): 240–248. doi:10.1016/j.bbr.2014.05.023
info:cnr-pdr/source/autori:Truppa, Valentina; De Simone, Diego Antonio; Piano Mortari, Eva; De Lillo, Carlo/titolo:Effects of brief time delays on matching-to-sample abilities in capuchin monkeys (Sapajus spp.)/doi:10.1016/j.bbr.2014.05.023/rivista:Behavi
Date: 
2014
Resource Identifier: 
http://www.cnr.it/prodotto/i/310364
https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2014.05.023
info:doi:10.1016/j.bbr.2014.05.023
Language: 
Eng
ISTC Author: 
Valentina Truppa's picture
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