Abstract
BackgroundAlthough gestural communication is widespread in primates, few studies focused on the cognitive processes underlying gestures produced by monkeys.Methodology/Principal FindingsThe present study asked whether red-capped mangabeys (Cercocebus torquatus) trained to produce visually based requesting gestures modify their gestural behavior in response to human’s attentional states. The experimenter held a food item and displayed five different attentional states that differed on the basis of body, head and gaze orientation; mangabeys had to request food by extending an arm toward the food item (begging gesture). Mangabeys were sensitive, at least to some extent, to the human’s attentional state. They reacted to some postural cues of a human recipient: they gestured more and faster when both the body and the head of the experimenter were oriented toward them than when they were oriented away. However, they did not seem to use gaze cues to recognize an attentive human: monkeys begged at similar levels regardless of the experimenter’s eyes state.Conclusions/SignificanceThese results indicate that mangabeys lowered their production of begging gestures when these could not be perceived by the human who had to respond to it. This finding provides important evidence that acquired begging gestures of monkeys might be used intentionally.
Highlights
Gestural communication involves manual and bodily gestures which can be clustered into visual, auditory or tactile signals, depending on the perceptual system used by the recipient to perceive them [1]
A gulf seems to divide monkeys from apes in their production of spontaneous requesting gestures directed toward humans since these gestures emerge frequently in apes [3] but rarely in monkeys [4,5]; monkeys, can be readily trained to perform begging or pointing gestures
Both begging and pointing gestures of nonhuman primates are visually-based imperative gestures produced toward a desired object
Summary
Gestural communication involves manual and bodily gestures which can be clustered into visual, auditory or tactile signals, depending on the perceptual system used by the recipient to perceive them [1]. A gulf seems to divide monkeys from apes in their production of spontaneous requesting gestures directed toward humans since these gestures emerge frequently in apes [3] but rarely in monkeys [4,5]; monkeys, can be readily trained to perform begging or pointing gestures (e.g. squirrel monkeys [6], rhesus monkeys [7] and capuchin monkeys [8]). Both begging and pointing gestures of nonhuman primates are visually-based imperative gestures produced toward a desired object (usually a food item). Gestural communication is widespread in primates, few studies focused on the cognitive processes underlying gestures produced by monkeys
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