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Article

Gaze alternation during ¡°pointing¡± by squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sciureus)?

Details

Citation

Anderson J, Kuwahata H & Fujita K (2007) Gaze alternation during ¡°pointing¡± by squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sciureus)?. Animal Cognition, 10 (2), pp. 267-271. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-006-0065-0

Abstract
Gaze alternation (GA) is considered a hallmark of pointing in human infants, a sign of intentionality underlying the gesture. GA has occasionally been observed in great apes, and reported only anecdotally in a few monkeys. Three squirrel monkeys that had previously learned to reach toward out-of-reach food in the presence of a human partner were videotaped while the latter visually attended to the food, a distractor object, or the ceiling. Frame-by-frame video analysis revealed that, especially when reaching toward the food, the monkeys rapidly and repeatedly switched between looking at the partner¡¯s face and the food. This type of GA suggests that the monkeys were communicating with the partner. However, the monkeys¡¯ behavior was not influenced by changes in the partner¡¯s focus of attention.

Keywords
animal behaviour; animal cognition; gaze; monkeys; Gaze (Psychology); Squirrel monkeys; Cognition in animals; Monkeys Behavior

Journal
Animal Cognition: Volume 10, Issue 2

StatusPublished
Publication date30/04/2007
Date accepted by journal20/11/2006
URL
PublisherSpringer
ISSN1435-9448
eISSN1435-9456