Captive cotton-top tamarins' (Saguinus oedipus oedipus) use of landmarks to localize hidden food items

Abstract

Seventeen captive cotton-top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus oedipus) were individually tested on their use of spatial relationships between landmarks to locate multiple hidden food items. In two experiments, the tamarins were presented with a spatial-foraging task in which positions of hidden food rewards were fixed in relation to an array of visual cues. In Experiment 1, the cues + hidden food configuration was rotated 90° and the tamarins were successful in locating the food items significantly above chance levels (P<0.01). In Experiment 2 the cues + hidden food configuration was translated (up, down or sideways) from the previously learned configuration, and the monkeys successfully localized the hidden food items (P<0.001). Results indicate that the tamarins relied on the spatial relationship between the multiple landmarks to locate hidden food items rather than on an associative or beacon strategy. The results of these experiments support the contention that when contextually appropriate these captive New World monkeys have the capacity to rely on the spatial relationship or positions of several cues as an array to localize points in their environment. Am. J. Primatol. 71:316-323, 2009. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc.