Spatial strategies of oriented travel in Callicebus moloch and Saimiri sciureus

Abstract

The behavior of 9 titi monkeys (Callicebus moloch) and 12 squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sciureus) was examined with respect to three categorical strategies of spatial orientation: direction, turn, and place strategies. Individual animals were initially trained to travel to a fixed location from a constant release point. Following the initial training, each animal was tested by releasing it a number of times from three other release points and analyzing its travel paths. During testing, most individual subjects tended to be highly consistent in their spatial behavior, typically following travel paths consistent with one of the three spatial strategies. No one spatial strategy, however, characterized the behavior of either species. © 1988 Psychonomic Society, Inc.