Roberts, Samuel G B, McComb, Karen and Ruffman, Ted (2008) An experimental investigation of referential looking in free-ranging barbary macaques (Macaca Sylvanus). Journal of Comparative Psychology, 122 (1). pp. 94-99. ISSN 0735-7036

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Abstract

The authors examined looking behavior between 15 Barbary macaque (Macaca sylvanus) infants and their mothers in the presence of a rubber snake (experimental period) and in the absence of the snake (control period). Two of the 15 infants looked referentially at their mother in the experimental period. Including both referential and nonreferential looks, the six older infants (aged 5 to 12 months) displayed a higher frequency of looks to mother than nine younger infants (aged 3 to 4.5 months) in the experimental period, but not in the control period. Older infants looked more to the mother in the experimental condition, whereas the younger infants looked more to the mother in the control condition, or looked equally in the two conditions. These results suggest that age is an important factor in determining looking behavior to mother in situations of uncertainty. Compared to hand-reared chimpanzees or human infants tested in standard social referencing paradigms, the infant macaques displayed a low rate of referential looking. Possible explanations for this are discussed.

Item Type:	Article
Schools and Departments:	School of Psychology > Psychology
Depositing User:	Karen McComb
Date Deposited:	06 Feb 2012 15:49
Last Modified:	06 Jun 2019 09:08
URI:	http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/14581

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