Establishing an infrastructure for collaboration in primate cognition research.

Many Primates ,Alicia P Melis ,Stefanie Keupp ,Manon K Schweinfurth ,Alejandro Sánchez-Amaro ,Crystal L Egelkamp ,Fumihiro Kano ,Daniel B M Haun ,Eva Herrmann ,R Adriana Hernández‐Aguilar ,Lydia M Hopper ,Sarah E Detroy ,Michael J Beran ,Manuel Bohn ,Molly Flessert ,Daniel Hanuš ,Christoph J Völter ,Amanda M Seed ,Derry Taylor ,Marine Joly ,Alba Motes‐Rodrigo ,Lou M Haux ,Drew Altschul ,Shona Duguid ,Elizabeth Warren ,Julia Fischer ,Josep Call ,Vanessa Schmitt ,Stephen R Ross ,Yutaro Sato ,Claudia Fichtel ,Sarah F Brosnan

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0223675

Abstract

Inferring the evolutionary history of cognitive abilities requires large and diverse samples. However, such samples are often beyond the reach of individual researchers or institutions, and studies are often limited to small numbers of species. Consequently, methodological and site-specific-differences across studies can limit comparisons between species. Here we introduce the ManyPrimates project, which addresses these challenges by providing a large-scale collaborative framework for comparative studies in primate cognition. To demonstrate the viability of the project we conducted a case study of short-term memory. In this initial study, we were able to include 176 individuals from 12 primate species housed at 11 sites across Africa, Asia, North America and Europe. All subjects were tested in a delayed-response task using consistent methodology across sites. Individuals could access food rewards by remembering the position of the hidden reward after a 0, 15, or 30-second delay. Overall, individuals performed better with shorter delays, as predicted by previous studies. Phylogenetic analysis revealed a strong phylogenetic signal for short-term memory. Although, with only 12 species, the validity of this analysis is limited, our initial results demonstrate the feasibility of a large, collaborative open-science project. We present the ManyPrimates project as an exciting opportunity to address open questions in primate cognition and behaviour with large, diverse datasets.

Highlights

Evolutionary history is a pattern of complex, non-replicable past changes that have led to life as we know it
The ManyPrimates project a truly comparative approach suited for tackling the key outstanding questions about how cognition evolves, we propose that researchers work together to develop appropriate methods for wide application across species and settings, potentially via large multi-site collaborations
We present the ManyPrimates project, a large-scale collaboration project, initiated to address an important problem in comparative psychology: the difficulty of collecting data necessary to adequately reconstruct the evolutionary history of primate behaviour and cognition

Summary

Introduction

Evolutionary history is a pattern of complex, non-replicable past changes that have led to life as we know it. Comparative psychology has famously been criticised for failing to embrace a sufficient variety of species [2] and to make comparisons between them that adequately reflect their shared ancestry [3]. These limitations undermine confidence in the evolutionary claims made in comparative psychology [4]. The same is true at individual field sites Increasing both the number and diversity of subjects included in studies requires a new approach: one that is collaborative across researchers and institutions

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