An assessment of cognitive control in monkeys and orangutans Público
Brady, Ryan (Summer 2020)
Abstract
Cognitive control is a suite of cognitive mechanisms central to human intelligence, including
working memory and metacognition. While the study of cognitive control is central to human
psychology and neuroscience, our understanding of the evolutionary origins of cognitive control
is only beginning to develop. In this dissertation, I present three projects that assess
characteristics of cognitive control in nonhuman primates. In Chapter 2, I report a double
dissociation of cognitively controlled working memory and automatic familiarity in rhesus
monkeys. These results suggest that contributions of working memory are greatest for familiar
images, and when familiarity is not a reliable signal to support recognition memory. In Chapter
3, I report that orangutans rely more heavily on working memory in recognition memory
paradigms compared to rhesus monkeys, supporting the view that the relatively large prefrontal
cortex of great apes results in increased proficiency of working memory and cognitive control. I
found no evidence of familiarity in recognition memory tests in orangutans. In contrast, rhesus
monkeys rely greatly on familiarity in these tests. These results reveal a surprising lack of
familiarity in memory in orangutans that suggests that the relations between memory and frontal
lobe expansion may be complicated. Finally, in Chapter 4 I report that rhesus monkeys
continually monitor their decision making process in a categorization task, and engage cognitive
control to collect sufficient information to ensure accurate performance. These results suggest
that monkeys sometimes monitor evolving cognitive states in real time, resembling the dynamic
relationship between cognitive monitoring and cognitive control found in humans. Taken
together, the projects that form this dissertation advance our understanding of the characteristics
of cognitive control in nonhuman primates, and provide insights toward understanding the
evolutionary origins of cognitive control.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: General Introduction 8
Chapter 2: Paper 1: Nonverbal working memory for novel images in rhesus monkeys
Title & Abstract 16
Introduction 17
Experiment 1a 20
Experiment 1b 22
Experiment 2 24
Experiment 3 27
Experiment 4 29
Discussion 32
Methods 36
Chapter 3: Paper 2: Greater recruitment of working memory and extremely restricted familiarity in orangutans compared to rhesus monkeys
Title & Abstract 40
Introduction 41
Experiment 1 44
Experiment 2 49
Experiment 3 56
Experiment 4 61
Discussion 65
Chapter 4: Paper 3: Rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) monitor evolving decisions to control adaptive information seeking
Title & Abstract 71
Introduction 72
Experiment 1 76
Experiment 2 80
Experiment 3 84
Discussion 88
Chapter 5: General Conclusion 93
References 102
About this Dissertation
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