Cognitive evolution in humans has likely been influenced by selection for adept social behavior. Determining the ways in which social and nonsocial cognition share common representational and brain systems is therefore critical for understanding cognition. Transitive inference (TI) is the ability to infer the relation between two items based on relations with a third (e.g. Dave is taller than Sue, Sue is taller than Jake, therefore Dave is taller than Jake). Transitive inference, while useful in many domains, may have been selected specifically for learning social dominance relationships. The researchers have created infrastructure for remote computerized cognitive testing of monkeys in large social groups as well as in laboratory housed subjects. This infrastructure allows them to study naturally acquired social knowledge and compare it with social and non-social knowledge acquired in the laboratory. They anticipate that this research will determine the ways in which social and nonsocial transitive inference depend on the same cognitive systems, will document mechanisms of logical inference in TI, and will identify the contribution of a part of the primate brain, the hippocampus, to TI. This research is important because it will advance our understanding of the brain mechanisms critical for social behavior and those critical for more abstract reasoning. The researchers? unique remotely accessible cognitive testing system is being used to provide Emory University undergraduate students with hands on experience designing and conducting primate cognition experiments. In the future it may allow members of groups underrepresented in science, such as physically disabled persons and students at institutions with few scientific resources, to participate in the scientific process, thus promoting diversity in the professional scientific community. The investigators also share findings with the public through their active website and activities a Zoo Atlanta.
