Open AccessPerception of Object Unity in a Chimpanzee ( Pan troglodytes )[Note 1. The present study was a part of the Master's ...]
Author(s) -
Sato Akira,
Kanazawa So,
Fujita Kazuo
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
japanese psychological research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.392
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1468-5884
pISSN - 0021-5368
DOI - 10.1111/1468-5884.00053
Subject(s) - troglodytes , perception , rectangle , object (grammar) , psychology , task (project management) , matching (statistics) , communication , mathematics , artificial intelligence , geometry , computer science , biology , zoology , statistics , neuroscience , economics , management
Perception of object unity was studied in an 18‐year‐old female chimpanzee ( Pan troglodytes ) using a two‐choice delayed matching‐to‐sample task. The subject was trained with two rod‐shaped figures which were exactly identical except that one of them had a small gap at its center. After mastering this baseline task, she was shown the figure with its center occluded by a colored rectangle. We examined the perception of the subject's matching response on either the complete or the broken rod to investigate how she perceived these partly invisible figures. In four separate experiments, the alignment and the movement of the portions above and below the occluding rectangle were manipulated. She matched the partly occluded stimuli to the complete rod as long as the alignment was sufficient. The results suggest that like human adults, the chimpanzee can perceive unity of physically separated figures.