TY - JOUR
T1 - Simians in the Shape School
T2 - A comparative study of executive attention
AU - French, Kristin
AU - Beran, Michael J.
AU - Espy, Kimberly Andrews
AU - Washburn, David A.
N1 - Funding Information:
Author note This research was supported by grants from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (HD-060563 and HD-38051). Additional support was provided by Georgia State University and the Second Century Initiative. The authors thank Ted Evans for his assistance in collecting these data, as well as the Language Research Center animal care staff.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018, Psychonomic Society, Inc.
PY - 2018/9/1
Y1 - 2018/9/1
N2 - Executive functions (EF) have been studied extensively in children and adults. However, EF tasks for young children can be difficult to administer and interpret. Espy (1997, Developmental Neuropsychology, 13, 495–499) designed the Shape School task to measure inhibition and switching in preschool-aged children. Shape School presents cartoon-like characters that children must flexibly name by their color, their shape, or both, depending on cues that indicate the appropriate rule. Shape School has been found to be age sensitive as well as predictive of performance on other EF tasks. We presented a computerized analogue of Shape School to seven rhesus macaques. Monkeys were trained to categorize characters by color or shape, or to inhibit this response, depending on whether the characters had eyes open, eyes closed, or wore hats. Monkeys performed above chance on the inhibition and switching components of the task. Long runs of a single classification rule and long runs of noninhibition trials had no significant impact on performance when the rule changed or inhibition was required. This nonverbal adaptation of Shape School can measure EF in nonhuman animals and could be used in conjunction with other EF tasks to provide a clearer picture of both human and nonhuman executive functions.
AB - Executive functions (EF) have been studied extensively in children and adults. However, EF tasks for young children can be difficult to administer and interpret. Espy (1997, Developmental Neuropsychology, 13, 495–499) designed the Shape School task to measure inhibition and switching in preschool-aged children. Shape School presents cartoon-like characters that children must flexibly name by their color, their shape, or both, depending on cues that indicate the appropriate rule. Shape School has been found to be age sensitive as well as predictive of performance on other EF tasks. We presented a computerized analogue of Shape School to seven rhesus macaques. Monkeys were trained to categorize characters by color or shape, or to inhibit this response, depending on whether the characters had eyes open, eyes closed, or wore hats. Monkeys performed above chance on the inhibition and switching components of the task. Long runs of a single classification rule and long runs of noninhibition trials had no significant impact on performance when the rule changed or inhibition was required. This nonverbal adaptation of Shape School can measure EF in nonhuman animals and could be used in conjunction with other EF tasks to provide a clearer picture of both human and nonhuman executive functions.
KW - Comparative cognition
KW - Executive attention
KW - Rhesus monkeys
KW - Shape school
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U2 - 10.3758/s13420-017-0310-1
DO - 10.3758/s13420-017-0310-1
M3 - Article
C2 - 29313237
AN - SCOPUS:85051991364
SN - 1543-4494
VL - 46
SP - 281
EP - 293
JO - Learning and Behavior
JF - Learning and Behavior
IS - 3
ER -