“CapuchinAI” integrates a compact, battery-powered computing system into a field-research platform. The system identifies an approaching monkey, presents a learning task tailored to that individual on a touchscreen, and automatically delivers a food reward if the monkey performs the task correctly.
Field tests of the prototype in the Taboga Forest Reserve of Costa Rica found that CapuchinAI identifies individual capuchins with 97% accuracy, following training on still images and videos. Wild capuchins rapidly habituated and learned touchscreen-reward associations, demonstrating that the system provides a scalable field method for cognitive testing, while also mapping individual differences across tasks.
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The team secured the CapuchinAI box to a platform, loaded its food dispenser with dried slices of forest banana, and waited nearby.
“For the first couple of days that we did this, no capuchins visited,” Sánchez Vargas says. “I was beginning to worry.”
The third day, however, a large male capuchin named Trompudo, which means “big snout,” could not resist the scent of banana.
“He climbs on the box and starts slapping the back of it,” Sánchez Vargas recalls. “Finally, he slaps the touchscreen and a banana slice pops out.”
Trompudo gobbled up the food then put his hand on the screen again. Another banana slice popped out.
“It was almost like you could see him realizing, ‘Ah, that’s what you have to do, touch the screen!’” Sánchez Vargas says. “It was amazing to watch an individual learn something so quickly.”
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The researchers are already noting individual differences within the 16 monkeys who engaged with the CapuchinAI prototype during the pilot phase.
Some capuchins are remarkably fast learners. Others take more time to figure out that they need to touch the screen to get a food reward. Individuals who investigated the box with their lips learned to kiss the screen to get a banana slice. Then there are the late adopters. They hang back and watch their friends interact with the box, seeing how the apparatus works before approaching it.
The box stood up to the occasional aggressive moves of capuchins trying to bust it open.
The facial-recognition software prevents the system from activating when other wildlife approach, but some animals still try to tinker with the box — including coatis. Members of the raccoon family, coatis are notorious for their ability to break into manmade containers and even houses.
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The research team is now updating its facial-recognition model, training it on the recorded videos of the 16 capuchins from the pilot phase.
They are developing cognitive experiments for four broad domains of cognition, including tests of individual capuchins’ ability to learn, their level of impulse control, their cognitive flexibility, and their skill at both short- and long-term memory.
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