Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2025

Culture Can vervet monkeys learn from a robot?

Résumé

Social learning – learning from others – is an important feature of primate cognition. Vervet monkeys socially learn from conspecifics, but can they learn from a robot? To explore this, we conducted a novel food choice experiment in South Africa using a remotely controlled sheep-sized quadruped ANYmal robot. We hypothesized that, if monkeys socially learn from the robot, they should (1) eat the food faster and/or longer in the test group than in control group and (2) follow the robot's food choice. To test our hypothesis, a robot equipped with a food vacuum system and a speaker emitting robotic food calls was introduced to one group of monkeys after a short habituation period. This last was compared to two control groups: one presented with novel food and robotic food calls emitted via a speaker, and the other presented with novel food only. Also, we tested whether monkeys observing the robot swallowing one of two novel foods (orange vs. purple-colored raisins) ate the same food as the robot than monkeys in control groups. Our results showed (1) that the monkeys in the robot group did not consume the new food faster or longer than the two control groups, and (2) that the monkeys did not follow the robot's food choice. This study oPers exciting perspectives on comprehension of the social acceptance of machines in mammal societies and discusses the use of such technologies to collect field data.

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Dates et versions

hal-05356846 , version 1 (12-11-2025)

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  • HAL Id : hal-05356846 , version 1

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Théo Lemeux, Mohammed Khouni, Michelle Moujahed, Robin Schmid, Giulia de Filippis, et al.. Culture Can vervet monkeys learn from a robot?. Culture conference, Feb 2025, Utrecht (Netherland), Netherlands. ⟨hal-05356846⟩
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