2008 年 27 巻 1 号 p. 123-124
Two experiments were performed to investigate the effects of target connectivity in multiple object tracking (MOT) by chimpanzees. In the experiments, chimpanzees were required to track 2 or 4 targets among 8 discs moving around the display. Every 2 discs were connected by a line. In the first experiment, the tracking performances under the paired targets condition in which the targets were 1 or 2 pairs of discs, and the unpaired targets condition in which each target was selected from pairs different from that of each other were compared. The chimpanzees demonstrated better tracking performance under the paired targets condition. In the second experiment, an unconnected line condition where the line did not reach the paired discs was introduced. The tracking performances of the chimpanzees under connected and unconnected line conditions did not differ. These results were not consistent with the reports of previous studies performed on human participants. Perceptual characteristics of object merging and/or perceptual grouping in object-based attention would be different between chimpanzees and humans.