Capuchins Monkeys

When we talk about monkeys, we know that there are various kinds of them. Scientifically speaking, they all fall under the order known as Primates. Primates are further divided into two suborders known as Prosimians and Anthropoids. Capuchins are monkeys that belong to a superfamily called Ceboidea (New world monkeys), which falls under the suborder Anthropoids (Downing). Capuchins are usually brown or black in color, some of them with a white face, depending upon the species. Their weight can range between six to twelve pounds and their lifespan can go up to a bit more than fifty years (Downing). Their geographic distribution is mainly the Neotropics of Central and South America, but they can also be found in other kinds of forest habitats …show more content…
These Capuchins are given tasks in order to assess their problem solving skills. In a study conducted on some captive Capuchins, they were observed to trade chips like food (Bower 2008). In this study, laboratory trained Capuchins trade tokens as symbols for different foods. According to the journal, “the animals choose certain tokens over others in ways that match how they choose certain foods over others” (Bower 2008). A group of captive born Capuchins were given three different tokens for three different foods that they preferred and were trained to exchange the tokens for food. Each time, the Capuchins were smart enough to translate their preference of food into tokens, which shows that they are able to use symbolic reasoning. This study proposes that the Capuchins show a limited amount of symbolic reasoning, but it is still not very close to the symbolic reasoning that we human beings display (Bower …show more content…
The Capuchins were given the same apparatus three times, each time with a new condition. The object given each time had to be modified to get the food out of the tube. The object was too big to fit into the tube the first time. The second time, object had pieces inserted transversely inserted on it. The monkeys had to remove the pieces in order to use it. The object given in the third condition, which was a stick, was too small to use. The monkeys had to connect a couple of them in order to use it. Even though they initially tried to manipulate the tube itself to get the food out, which was not possible, the Capuchins were successful in all three conditions in a few minutes (Visalberghi and Fragaszy 2006). There were ten trials and in each trial the error percentage has only gone down by a little bit. When the same task was posed 5 years later the Capuchins made the same errors. This study shows that the Capuchins didn’t learn fast about the properties of the given tool, but were willing to use trial and error method each time (Visalberghi and Fragaszy