image: In the experiment, monkeys engage with auditory stimuli—ranging from simple sounds to spoken words—by identifying and selecting the corresponding visual image on a touchscreen. During one trial, a monkey momentarily diverted its attention, turning to observe the researcher, while the test images, reflected on an adjacent side panel, lingered on the screen, awaiting the animal’s tactile response.
Credit: Cabrera-Ruiz et al., CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Macaque monkeys can learn to associate pictures with sounds and words, even when the words are then spoken by new individuals, showing impressive abilities to learn cross-modal associations
Article URL: https://plos.io/3CrJ9CB
Article title: Monkeys can identify pictures from words
Author countries: México, U.S.
Funding: LL received funding from the Consejo Nacional de Humanidades, Ciencias y Tecnologías (CONAHCYT; Grant Number: 256767; https://conahcyt.mx/) and the Programa de Apoyo a Proyectos de Investigación e Innovación Tecnológica (PAPIIT; Grant Number: IN229323; https://dgapa.unam.mx/index.php/impulso-a-la-investigacion/papiit). JV was supported by the Secretaría de Educación, Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación de la Ciudad de México (Grant Number: SECTEI/103/2022; https://www.sectei.cdmx.gob.mx/). Elizabeth Cabrera Ruiz conducted this study to fulfill the requirements of the Programa de Doctorado en Ciencias Biomédicas at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and received a doctoral scholarship from the Consejo Nacional de Humanidades, Ciencias y Tecnologías (Scholarship Number: 245771; https://conahcyt.mx/). The data presented in this work form part of her doctoral dissertation. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Journal
PLOS One
Article Title
Monkeys can identify pictures from words
Article Publication Date
12-Feb-2025
COI Statement
NO authors have competing interests.