Research · 2 min read
Behavioral Tests and Social Observations in Adult Capuchin Monkeys
Comprehensive study examining personality differences in capuchin monkeys through behavioral tests and social observations, using systematic behavioral measurements and experimental situations
Uher Jana )1, Elsa Addessi )2, Elisabetta Visalberghi )2
1) Comparative Differential and Personality Psychology, Department of Educational Science and Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany
2) Unit of Cognitive Primatology and Primate Centre, Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, National Research Council of Italy (ISTC-CNR), Rome, Italy
Highlights
- Personality differences studied with a new philosophy-of-science paradigm featuring a behavioral research framework.
- A non-lexical taxonomic approach applied for comprehensive emic/bottom-up construct generation.
- In 15 test and 2 group situations, 146 contextualised behaviors measured repeatedly.
- This is the first comprehensive study on personality differences in capuchin monkeys.
- Overall no age and sex differences found, but long-term effects of early life experiences.
Abstract
We applied a new framework for behavioral research on personality differences in 26 adult tufted capuchin monkeys. Using the Behavioral Repertoire x Environmental Situations approach, we generated systematically 20 non-lexical emic personality constructs that have high ecological validity for this species.
For construct operationalisation, we obtained 146 contextualised behavioral measures repeatedly in 15 experimental situations and 2 group situations using computerised and video-assisted methods.
A complete repetition after a 2-3-week break within a 60-day period yielded significant test-retest reliability from individualoriente and variable-oriented viewpoints at different levels of aggregation. In accordance with well-established findings on cross-situational consistency, internal consistency was only moderate. This new and important finding highlights fundamental differences between behavioral approaches and judgment-based approaches to personality differences.
Publication
More information on the project: www.primate-personality.net
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