Using Non-Invasive Eye Tracking to Advance Comparative Social Cognition Research
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2022
Visual information is important for many aspects of primate social life, including social learning, social relationships, and mate choice. Analyzing the attentional patterns of primates can provide key insights into the mechanisms underlying social interactions. Historically, primate visual attention was studied using live or videotaped looking-time paradigms, potentially prone to human error and providing only rough measures of attentional preferences. However, the application of advanced non-invasive eye-tracking methods is now gaining traction in nonhuman primates. This technology opens doors for conducting novel comparative social cognition research with greater precision than ever before, and allows us to better explore social cognition within and across species. In this chapter, we provide a brief review of previous studies of visual attention both in the field and the laboratory. We then examine ways that eye tracking has elucidated social cognitive processes in primates, with a focus on a comparative social memory paradigm used in human infants, gorillas, chimpanzees, and capuchins. We conclude by highlighting several fruitful directions for future comparative research.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.