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. 2022 Nov:228:105225.
doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2022.105225. Epub 2022 Jul 14.

Rhesus monkeys manipulate mental images

Thomas C Hassett  1 , Victoria K Lord  2 , Robert R Hampton  3
Affiliations

Rhesus monkeys manipulate mental images

Thomas C Hassett et al. Cognition. 2022 Nov.

Abstract

Humans form mental images and manipulate them in ways that mirror physical transformations of objects. Studies of nonhuman animals will inform our understanding of the evolution and distribution among species of mental imagery. Across three experiments, we found mostly converging evidence that rhesus monkeys formed and rotated mental images. In Experiment 1, monkeys discriminated rotations of sample images from mirror images, and showed longer response latencies with greater rotation as is characteristic of human mental rotation. In Experiment 2 monkeys used a rotation cue that indicated how far to mentally rotate sample images before tests, indicating a precision of better than 30° in discriminating rotations. Experiment 3 yielded mixed evidence on whether the rotation cue shortened decision times as has been found in humans. These results show that rhesus monkeys manipulate mental images.

Keywords: Mental imagery; Mental rotation; Nonhuman primate.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Procedures used to test mental imagery in monkeys. (A) Mirror image discrimination (Experiment 1): Monkeys started trials by touching the green square twice. After touching the sample shape, the screen was blank for 500 ms, followed by a mirror image discrimination test. (B) Cued angle discrimination (Experiment 2): The sample shape was touched, it disappeared, and the cue rotated. Monkeys were rewarded for selecting the image that was rotated to the extent indicated by the cue. (C) Cued mirror image and orientation discrimination (Experiment 3 Cued Phase): Following cue rotation, monkeys made mirror image and orientation discriminations in pseudorandom order. In final testing, monkeys repeated Experiment 1 for comparison.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
Monkeys took longer to respond and were less accurate with more rotation. (Top) Median response latency(s) on correct trials; (Bottom) proportion correct.
Fig. 3.
Fig. 3.
Left: Response times increased less with rotation on cued (gold) than uncued (blue) trials (Experiment 3 Cued vs Experiment 1). Right: Response times increased equally with rotation on cued (gold) and uncued (blue) trials (Experiment 3). The difference in latency for each rotation from latency at 0°.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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