Roots of primate cognition: the Primate Cognition Test Battery applied to three species of lemurs (Microcebus murinus, Varecia variegata and Lemur catta)
Final Report Abstract
In this study, we investigated cognitive abilities in three species of lemurs (ringtailed, ruffed and mouse lemurs), differing in brain size and socio-ecological traits by (1) applying the Primate Cognition Test battery and (2) conducting additional tests on prosocial and cooperative behavior. Firstly, lemur's average performance in the PCTB was not different from that of the haplorhines in many aspects. Specifically, lemurs' overall performance was slightly inferior in the physical domain, but matched that of haplorhines in the social domain. Moreover, neither absolute nor relative female brain size or other socio-ecological factors could systematically predict performance in the different scales of PCTB. Our results either indicate that these cognitive tests are not sensitive to existing interspecific variation in cognitive abilities or they question a clear-cut link between brain size and cognitive skills, suggesting a more domain-specific distribution of cognitive abilities in primates. Secondly, in an experimental setup ruffed and ringtailed lemurs exhibited prosocial and cooperative behavior. In comparison to other primate species they exhibited less prosocial behavior, whereas the evolution prosocial and most likely also cooperative behavior might be best predicted by the amount of allomaternal care.
Publications
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(2014) The evolutionary origin of human hyper-cooperation. Nature Communications 5:4747
Burkart, J. M.; Allon, O.; Amici, F.; Fichtel, C.; Finkenwirth, C.; Heschl, A.; Huber, J.; Isler, K.; Kosonen, Z. K.; Martins, E.; Meulman, E.J.; Richiger, R.; Rueth, K.; Spillmann, B.; Wiesendanger, S. & van Schaik, C. P.
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(2015) Cognition in ring-tailed lemurs. Folia Primatologica 86:106-116
Kittler, Klara; Schnoell, Anna Viktoria & Fichtel, Claudia
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(2016) Female infanticide and female-directed lethal targeted aggression in a group of ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta). Primate Biol 3:41-46
Kittler, Klara & Dietzel, Silvio
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(2018) Instrumental problem-solving abilities in three lemur species (Microcebus murinus, Varecia variegata, and Lemur catta). Journal of comparative psychology (Washington, D.C. : 1983) 132 (3) 306–314
Kittler, Klara; Kappeler, Peter M. & Fichtel, Claudia
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(2020) The lemur baseline: how lemurs compare to monkeys and apes in the Primate Cognition Test Battery. PeerJ 8 e10025
Fichtel, Claudia; Dinter, Klara & Kappeler, Peter M.
