Custom touch screen application used to study navigation in chimps

Bob Yirka is a research scientist at Phys.org.

It is possible to test navigation skills in Chimpanzees using virtual reality technology. In a paper published in the journal Science Advances, the researchers describe how they created and tested a custom application for captive chimp in a zoo.

Scientists have been testing navigation skills in Chimpanzees for a long time. Attempting research in the jungle is one of the things that such studies usually involve. It has not yielded much new information. Efforts have not been made to follow captive Chimpanzees around in natural environments. The researchers have tried a new approach of teaching captive chimp to use touch screen applications and then allow them to move through jungle scenes to collect a reward.

Six Chimpanzees living at the Leipzig Zoo in Germany were enlisted by the researchers to help out. They were taught to use a touch screen computer as a way to get rewards. A video game was one of the things the Chimpanzees learned. The Chimpanzees were invited to play a video game that required them to navigate through a virtual environment to reach a tree. They were given fruit when they did it.

Each of the Chimpanzees were given the chance to play the game for ten minutes and then multiple times. They could refuse to play if they wanted to.

The researchers wanted to test their navigation skills. The Chimpanzees were encouraged to travel to the same tree every time they started from the same location. The Chimpanzees were expected to arrive at the same tree in one scenario. After several practice sessions, all of the Chimpanzees were able to make their way through the virtual jungle to their destination, and three of them improved on their path.

Virtual reality applications can be used to test navigation in Chimpanzees and other primate species, according to the researchers.

More information: Matthias Allritz et al, Chimpanzees ( Pan troglodytes ) navigate to find hidden fruit in a virtual environment, Science Advances (2022). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abm4754 Journal information: Science Advances

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