Preprint: A comparative study of causal perception in Guinea baboons (Papio papio) and human adults

In humans, simple 2D visual displays of launching events (“Michottean launches”) can evoke the impression of causality. Direct 8 launching events are regarded as causal, but similar events with a temporal and/or spatial gap between the movements of the 9 two objects, as non-causal. This ability to distinguish between causal and non-causal events is perceptual in nature and develops early and preverbally in infancy. In the present study we investigated the evolutionary origins of this phenomenon and tested whether Guinea baboons (Papio papio) perceive causality in launching events. We used a novel paradigm which was designed to distinguish between the use of causality and the use of spatiotemporal properties. Our results indicate that Guinea baboons successfully discriminate between different Michottean events, but we did not find a learning advantage for a categorisation based on causality as was the case for human adults. Our results imply that, contrary to humans, baboons focused on the spatial and temporal gaps to achieve accurate categorisation, but not on causality per se. Understanding how animals perceive causality is important to figure out whether non-human animals comprehend events similarly to humans. Our study hints at a different manner of processing physical causality for Guinea baboons and human adults

Causal perception in Papio papio

In this study, we ask whether causal perception is present in a nonhuman primate: the Guinea baboon (Papio papio). We will attempt to train Guinea baboons to discriminate ‘Michottean’ causal from non-causal events. Furthermore, we will test whether it is easier to base such a discrimination on the abstract concept of causality compared to using low-level spatiotemporal properties. Also, we will test if the baboons are sensitive to event roles, known as agent and patient, which are present in causal, but not non-causal, events