ERIC Number: EJ929755
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2011-Jul
Pages: 10
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1363-755X
EISSN: N/A
Evidence for Motor Planning in Monkeys: Rhesus Macaques Select Efficient Grips when Transporting Spoons
Nelson, Eliza L.; Berthier, Neil E.; Metevier, Christina M.; Novak, Melinda A.
Developmental Science, v14 n4 p822-831 Jul 2011
McCarty and colleagues (1999) developed the elevated spoon task to measure motor planning in human infants. In this task, a spoon containing food was placed on an elevated apparatus that supported both ends of the spoon. The handle was oriented to the left or right on different trials. We presented naive adult rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) with the elevated spoon problem, and observed how monkeys learned the affordances of spoons over sessions. Strikingly, monkeys developed two different strategies for efficient spoon transport in just 12 to 36 trials. In subsequent testing with a novel double bowl spoon approximately 1 year later, monkeys demonstrated that they were attending to the baited spoon bowl and continued to select efficient grips for transporting the spoon. Monkey data were contrasted with previous studies in human infants using a perception-action perspective in an effort to understand the fundamentals of tool use and motor planning that may be common in the development of these abilities across species and their origins in human behavior.
Descriptors: Infants, Psychomotor Skills, Planning, Animals, Novelty (Stimulus Dimension), Perceptual Development, Perceptual Motor Coordination
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
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