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Title: The Evolution of Cognitive Control in Lemurs
Cognitive control, or executive function, is a key feature of human cognition, allowing individuals to plan, acquire new information, or adopt new strategies when the circumstances change. Yet it is unclear which factors promote the evolution of more sophisticated executive-function abilities such as those possessed by humans. Examining cognitive control in nonhuman primates, our closest relatives, can help to identify these evolutionary processes. Here, we developed a novel battery to experimentally measure multiple aspects of cognitive control in primates: temporal discounting, motor inhibition, short-term memory, reversal learning, novelty responses, and persistence. We tested lemur species with targeted, independent variation in both ecological and social features (ruffed lemurs, Coquerel’s sifakas, ring-tailed lemurs, and mongoose lemurs; N = 39) and found that ecological rather than social characteristics best predicted patterns of cognitive control across these species. This highlights the importance of integrating cognitive data with species’ natural history to understand the origins of complex cognition.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1944881
PAR ID:
10392952
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Psychological Science
Volume:
33
Issue:
9
ISSN:
0956-7976
Page Range / eLocation ID:
1408 to 1422
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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