Article Summary 2 Outline

Name: Presentation Date

Find an article relating to biological anthropology from a scientific peer-reviewed journal and complete the first (Original source) and second (Reflection) parts of the outline. Find a second source related to your first and complete the third part of the outline (Related source). This may be a popular review of the original source. Limited responses will not receive full credit. More detailed instructions and links to resources are posted in Canvas. This outline should be completed and turned in on the day you present to the class and it will be used for grading the assignment. Additionally, submit the summary portions only in Canvas. No late work will be accepted.

Pts. 1. Original source: .5 ____ a. Title: Wild rhesus monkeys generate casual inferences about possible and impossible physical transformations in the absence of experience .5 ____ b. Author(s): Marc Hauser and Bailey Spaulding .5 ____ c. Authors credentials: Hauser-Harvard University professor, UCLA graduate Spaulding-Biological Anthropology degree from Harvard .5 ____ d. Source (complete reference): Hauser M, Spaulding B. 2006. Wild rhesus monkeys generate casual inferences about possible and impossible physical transformations in the absence of experience. PNAS 103:7181-7185. 5 ____ e. Summary (note that the summary length should be commensurate with the article length and should be in narrative (paragraph) format and that an in-text citation is required). This summary should identify the research topic, hypothesis, methods, results, and conclusion: This study focused on the fact that humans generate casual inferences about the physical world from observations of single, novel events, thereby violating Humes thesis. They asked the question, Is this capacity unique to human, or is it shared with other animal? Psychologist David Premack conducted a test that involved chimps that had prior training with a human created language. Throughout several tests the subjects had to choose the appropriate transforming agent or the most likely transformed state. They were able to do this after just a single observation. This leads to the next question. Does this carry over to species with no history of lab experience or language relevant training? This is where the wild rhesus monkeys come in. During the first experiment the experimenter placed a whole apple on the state, an occluder was placed in front so the monkeys couldnt see the stage. The first impossible test was conducted by lowering and raising a clear glass behind the occluder, the whole apple was then replaced with two halves. The first possible test was identical to the impossible except the glass was replaced with a knife. The monkey consistently spent more time looking at the impossible sequence when compared to the control and the possible sequence. A second experiment was conducted very similarly to the first. An apple was replaced with a towel. The possible test involved a glass of paint staining the towel blue while the impossible test involved a knife with a painted blue blade turning the towel blue. Like the first experiment the monkeys spent more time looking at the impossible. The results from these experiments along with Premacks discovery shows that in fact wild rhesus monkeys use their knowledge of the physical world to infer the casual agent of transformation in

the absence of frequent exposure of relevant events with no prior experience(Hauser, Spaulding, 2006). 1 ____ f. Critical evaluation (what makes this source credible? Why should this information be believed?): This was published in the National Academy of Science which is a non-profit organization that was founded in 1863. This is a very reliable source that has been around for a long time. This was conducted and written by a very prolific professor Harvard professor that to many is known for his work done in the area of human and primate behavioral cognition. 1 ____ g. Relevance to biological anthropology: It involves the behavioral variation of non-human primates. 1 ____ h. Other disciplines touched upon: Cultural is mentioned a little bit. It talks about the possibility of the monkeys having been exposed to knives. That is what lead to the second experiment. i. Synthesis 1 ____ i. In one sentence, summarize the main point of the article: the take-away message.: Humans along with Wild rhesus monkeys are able to generate casual inferences about the physical world from observations of a single event. 2 ____ 2. Reflection a. Which part of this assignment was most difficult and why? The most difficult part of this assignment was deciphering all of the information and deciding which parts to include in the summary. b. Identify at least one question you have after reading the original article and explain how you could go about finding an answer.: They did all of these experiments on Rhesus monkeys, I am curious if the results would be similar with other primates? In order to find an answer to this question I would have to either do some research(if experiments have already been done) or possibly email people that are involved in this field and see what they think. c. Reflect on how the critical evaluation process impacted your opinion on the article.: After I did some research on the National Academy of Science I was very confident in the information that I had read. It has been around for quite some time, and it is very well known. d. How might the information in the article be useful in the future? This might be answered very broadly such as how an understanding of larger biological principles might be useful.: This shines a lot of light on the cognition of nonhuman primates. I think that this kind of information will get people curious about what is going on inside the brains of other primates. People involved in this field will want to dig deeper and find out more. 3. Related source .5 ____ a. Title: Rhesus monkeys appear to have a form of self-awareness not previously attributed to them, research suggests. .5 ____ b. Author(s): Justin Couchman .5 ____ c. Authors credentials: Cognitive Psychology PhD, instructor at University of Buffalo d. Complete reference: Couchman J. 2011. Rhesus monkeys appear to have a form of self-awareness not previously attributed to them, research suggests. Biology letters 10:1098. 3 ____ e. Summary (note that the summary length should be commensurate with the article length and should be in narrative (paragraph) format and that an in-text citation is required): Rhesus monkeys do not pass the mirror test for selfawareness. This is the most widely used and referred to test when it comes to

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self-awareness. Couchman wanted to know if there were other forms of selfawareness that one can have. He conducted an experiment that involved rhesus monkeys manipulating a cursor on a screen using a controller. There was another cursor on the screen moving as well. The subjects were then asked to identify which cursor they had been manipulating. They were able to do this more times than pure chance would allow(Couchman, 2011). f. Critical evaluation (what makes this source credible? Why should this information be believed?): This article was placed in the Biology Letters. They post short, high quality, cutting edge material only. The criteria to get in is very lengthy and strict. I wouldnt question the legitimacy of anything in the Biology Letters. g. Relevance to chosen article: Like the first, this article deals with the cognitive abilities of Rhesus monkeys.