Presentation Information
[O8-04]Implicit timing in a group of freely behaving Guinea baboons
*Jennifer T Coull1, Nicolas Claidière1,2, Adrien Meguerditchian1,2, Siham Bouziane1 (1. Centre for Research in Psychology & Neurosciences, CNRS & Aix-Marseille University (France), 2. Station de Primatologie-Celphedia, UAR846, CNRS, Rousset (France))
Keywords:
temporal prediction,temporal expectation,foreperiod,statistical learning,non-human primates,ethology
We gradually develop our sense of time through experience. It helps us predict when events will occur, allowing us to direct attention and adapt behavior accordingly. Yet even though all living beings need to make temporal predictions to survive, our understanding of the evolutionary origins of such a capacity is relatively unknown. Here we used free-access operant conditioning devices to investigate temporal predictions in 15 freely behaving captive Guinea baboons. In two separate experiments, individuals were trained to optimize their response timing by touching a target that appeared after a fixed foreperiod (FP) of either 600ms or 300ms. During the testing phase, the FP was either the trained (“standard”) FP (60% of trials) or was randomly selected from one of six equiprobable shorter or longer intervals (30% of trials). In the remaining 10%, the target was absent (catch trials). Results revealed a U-shaped profile of performance with RTs being fastest for the most probable FP, getting gradually slower for increasingly shorter or longer FPs. Crucially, this pattern was observed even though all non-standard FPs were equiprobable, indicating that the metrical properties of FP duration had been implicitly integrated into baboons’ performance. In addition, during the longer FP trials, baboons often responded before the target even appeared. Since most of these anticipatory responses occurred around the time of the standard FP and were produced in the absence of an external stimulus, these data suggest FP probabilities had been internalized into a temporal expectation for the standard FP. Our results demonstrate, for the first time in such a large group of non-human primates, that baboons use statistical learning of temporal probabilities to implicitly form expectations about event timing, which helps them optimize behavior. These findings contribute to the growing body of evidence suggesting that predictive timing abilities may be widespread across the primate lineage and beyond.