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{
    "pk": 49326,
    "title": "Wild Possibilities: Evidence of Modal Cognition in Free-Ranging Rhesus Macaques (Macaca mulatta)",
    "subtitle": null,
    "abstract": "Modal cognition is foundational to human reasoning, enabling\nus to construct and narrow a rich space of hypotheses about the\nworld. While this faculty has often been considered uniquely\nhuman, its evolutionary roots remained uncertain. Nonhuman\nprimates, lacking a natural language modal lexicon, provide\na crucial test case for whether modal reasoning depends\non linguistic expression. Prior research has cast doubt on\nprimates' ability to contrast mutually exclusive possibilities,\nwith subjects failing tasks that require reasoning about\nuncertain outcomes. Across four experiments, we show\nthat rhesus macaques can reliably distinguish between certain\nand possible rewards, exhibiting unprecedented success on\na 3-cup task. Primates' previous failures may stem not\nfrom an inability to reason modally but from the burden of\nrepresenting absence as a possible alternative. By alleviating\nthis burden, we uncover an early evolutionary footprint of\nmodal reasoning that extends beyond humans and reveals an\nancient, language-independent logical framework.",
    "language": "eng",
    "license": {
        "name": "",
        "short_name": "",
        "text": null,
        "url": ""
    },
    "keywords": [
        {
            "word": "Animal cognition; Cognitive development; Evolution; Comparative Studies; Logic"
        }
    ],
    "section": "Abstracts with Oral Presentation",
    "is_remote": true,
    "remote_url": "https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2n33k1ks",
    "frozenauthors": [
        {
            "first_name": "Nathaniel",
            "middle_name": "",
            "last_name": "Braswell",
            "name_suffix": "",
            "institution": "Yale University",
            "department": ""
        },
        {
            "first_name": "Madeline",
            "middle_name": "G",
            "last_name": "Meade",
            "name_suffix": "",
            "institution": "UC San Diego",
            "department": ""
        },
        {
            "first_name": "Nicolo",
            "middle_name": "",
            "last_name": "Cesana-Arlotti",
            "name_suffix": "",
            "institution": "Yale University",
            "department": ""
        },
        {
            "first_name": "Laurie",
            "middle_name": "",
            "last_name": "Santos",
            "name_suffix": "",
            "institution": "Yale University",
            "department": ""
        }
    ],
    "date_submitted": null,
    "date_accepted": null,
    "date_published": "2025-01-01T18:00:00Z",
    "render_galley": null,
    "galleys": [
        {
            "label": "PDF",
            "type": "pdf",
            "path": "https://journalpub.escholarship.org/cognitivesciencesociety/article/49326/galley/37287/download/"
        }
    ]
}