The evolution of primate short-term memory

ManyPrimates, Géraud Aguenounon, Matthias Allritz, Sébastien Ballesta

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract / Description of output

Short-term memory is implicated in a range of cognitive abilities and is critical for understanding primatecognitive evolution. To investigate the effects of phylogeny, ecology and sociality on short-term memory, we testedthe largest and most diverse primate sample to date (421 non-human primates across 41 species) in an experimentaldelayed-response task. Our results confirm previous findings that longer delays decrease memory performance acrossspecies and taxa. Our analyses demonstrate a considerable contribution of phylogeny over ecological and social factorson the distribution of short-term memory performance in primates; closely related species had more similar short-termmemory abilities. Overall, individuals in the branch of Hominoidea performed better compared to Cercopithecoidea,who in turn performed above Platyrrhini and Strepsirrhini. Interdependencies between phylogeny and socioecologyof a given species presented an obstacle to disentangling the effects of each of these factors on the evolution of short-term memory capacity. However, this study offers an important step forward in understanding the interspecies andindividual variation in short-term memory ability by providing the first phylogenetic reconstruction of this trait’sevolutionary history. The dataset constitutes a unique resource for studying the evolution of primate cognition and therole of short-term memory in other cognitive abilities.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)428-516
JournalAnimal Behavior and Cognition
Volume9
Issue number4
Early online date1 Nov 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2022

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • cognitive evolution
  • short-term memory
  • primate cognition
  • phylogenetic analysis

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