Assignment Instructions:
The following new article is related to biological anthropology. Read the article and answer the following questions.
Wild capuchin monkeys found able to remember where and when their food was hidden by Bob Yirka , Phys
October 5, 2016
Charles Janson, a professor of biological anthropology, zoology and evolutionary biology at the University of Montana, has found that capuchin monkeys have memory abilities that are far more complex than has been realized. In his paper published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, he describes experiments he designed and carried out with monkeys in the wild, what he observed, and why he now believes that the monkeys have integrated memories regarding food sites including where they are located, how much food is likely to be at a particular site and an awareness of how much time has passed since they last visited each site.
Janson notes that prior research showed that capuchin monkeysLinks to an external site. were able to remember the location and amount of food at patches they had previously visited-in this new effort, he sought to discover if they remembered other things about the places where they get their food. To learn more, he set up eight feeding sites in Iguazu´ Falls National Park in northeastern Argentina, which allowed him to vary the amount of food the monkeys would find at a given site. He simulated the maturing process that fruit goes through naturally by putting more food at sites that had been there longer and observed the behavior of the monkeys visiting the sites and eating what they found there.
He found that over a period of 68 days, which corresponded to two fruit maturation cycles, a group of monkeys that visited his test patches had to make 212 choices regarding where to eat. He then compared their choice-making with simulated movements and against statistical models to provide a means for judging whether the choices were random or were made intentionally by the monkeys. He reports that the choices made by the monkeys indicated they were using dynamic memory to keep track of elapsed time specific to each of the feeding sites. What this meant was that the monkeys were able to keep track of not only where the food would be, but how much to expect at each patch based on how much time had passed. And this means that they possess memory skills that up till now, only humans were believed to have.
Question:
1. Your instructor has provided you with a news article related to biological anthropology. Read the article and answer the following questions.
What is the overall topic of your article?
2. How does your article relate to human evolution? In other words, what can we learn about human evolution from the article?
3. Who do you think is the target audience for the article?
4. Is the author an expert biological anthropologist? Did the author interview or quote an expert biological anthropologist?
5. Is there some information that might be missing from the article? If so, what might have been left out?
6. Based on what you have discussed about this article, what biases and other factors should you consider when following popular media coverage of biological anthropology topics?