| Popis: |
Gibbons (family Hylobatidae) have rarely been studied in terms of object manipulation and tool use. We assessed whether hoolock gibbons can learn to pull on a rake-like object to gain a food reward, in a zero-order manipulation task, without specific training. Their learning style was assessed along with their understanding of the tertiary relationships between the rake, a goal object and an environmental feature. Hoolocks used a rake to pull in an out-of-reach food item in less than 90 s on first presentation. The gibbons' behaviour suggests that perceptually restructuring the environment may be within this species' abilities. Their causal understanding of three factors, the rake, the reward and a trap into which the reward could fall and be lost, was moderately better than that of chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes, and capuchins, Cebus spp., on a similar task. Learning of simple associative rules, rather than understanding the physical properties of the trap, might explain the gibbons' performance. |
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