Primates to be taught to use touch screen PCs.

Many individuals and companies around the globe use touch screen monitors. This handy technology can help to make controlling devices easier and more intuitive, as well as more enjoyable. However, one group of experts are taking the use of touch screens a step further by introducing special devices featuring the technology to primates.

A team from the University of Portsmouth are set to teach such animals to how utilise touch screens in a bid to better understand their memory, communications and emotions.

They have collaborated with Marwell Wildlife to open the world’s first cognitive study centre for the endangered Sulawesi crested macaques. The mammals, which come from Indonesia will learn to operate touch screen monitors, providing scientists with a greater insight into their thought processes.

Commenting on the initiative, study leader Dr Bridget Waller said: “The animals can make choices using the touch screens and this offers us a direct window into their understanding.

“It allows us to ask scientific questions that can’t be addressed by observational studies alone. The macaque studies will give us a better understanding of how the macaques communicate their perception of the world, their emotions and social relationships.”

She added that Sulawesi crested macaques are critically endangered and so far very little is known about their behaviour and psychology. Understanding more about their social interactions will enable researchers to better grasp how and why primates, including humans, have evolved such good social skills, she went on to note.

The centre has been constructed alongside Marwell Wildlife’s Sulawesi crested macaque island and scientists are to work in a glassed test area, which is on direct public view. This means that visitors will be able to see the studies as they take place.

Using touch screen technology in this way is just one of its innovative applications. If it proves to be a success, such methods may become a more common animal research tool.

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