Abstract
Behavioral flexibility that requires behavioral inhibition has important fitness consequences. One task commonly used to assess behavioral inhibition is the reverse-reward task in which the subject is rewarded by the non selected items. Lemurs were tested for their ability to solve the qualitative version of the reverse-reward task with the choice between identical quantities of different food items instead of different quantities of the same food. Two of four subjects mastered the task without a correction procedure and were able to generalize the acquired rule to novel combinations of food. One of the two subjects competent on the quality version of the task could transfer this ability to different quantities of the same food. Our results are compared to lemurs’ performances when tested under the quantitative version in a previous study and those of capuchin monkeys tested under a similar paradigm. The whole results suggest that the qualitative version of the reverse-reward task may be easier to master than its quantitative counterpart and that lemurs perform better than capuchin monkeys as they were able to later transfer the learning rule to the quantitative version of the task.
Highlights
Self-control has been defined as the ability to delay or suppress a prepotent response in order to maximize benefits
Many primate species have been tested under this paradigm: prosimians (brown (Eulemur fulvus) and black (E. macaco) lemurs, [11,12,13], New World monkeys (squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sciureus) [14,15], cotton-top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus) [16,17], Old World monkeys (Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) [18], rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) [19], white-crowned mangabeys (Cercocebus torquatus lunulatus) [20], apes (Gorillas (Gorilla gorilla) [21,22], orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) [21,22,23], bonobos (Pan paniscus) [21,22], chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) [10,21,22,24,25,26]
Only two subjects out of four succeeded, our results demonstrate that lemurs can master the qualitative version of the reverse- reward contingency
Summary
Self-control has been defined as the ability to delay or suppress a prepotent response in order to maximize benefits. This ability has been studied in a wide range of species including: cleaner fishes (Labroides dimidiatus [1]), pigeons (Columba livia [2,3]), rats (Rattus norvegicus [4]), sea lions (Zalophus californianus [5]) and primates (see below) including humans (Homo sapiens): adults [6] and children [7,8,9]. Overtraining (increased number of trials) may lead to mastery of the reverse-reward contingency as observed in mangabeys (Cercocebus torquatus lunulatus) [20], rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) [19] and lemurs [13]
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