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Author(s)

Beatriz Franco Felicio dos Santos

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Instituto de Psicologia (IP/SBD)
• Defense date: 2023-11-29

Examining board members

Patricia Izar Mauro; Juliana Maria Ferreira de Lucena; Rosana Suemi Tokumaru

• Advisor: Patricia Izar Mauro

Abstract

Touch has a significant impact on the development of infant primates, but it is still understudied. Little is said, for example, about the influence of infants\' touch on their environment and social development. In this work, I sought to fill this gap in two studies, the first with capuchin monkeys and the second with chimpanzees and humans. In the first study, I investigated the touch of Sapajus libidinosus infants on the faces of other individuals in the group during the first three years of life and assessed whether this behavior is part of the social repertoire and whether it serves to facilitate facial recognition. In the second study, I examined the same behavior, but in one-year-old infants belonging to three groups of chimpanzees and three groups of humans, each in different developmental contexts. To do this, I examined the frequency and context of face-touch occurrences in 8 capuchin monkey infants, 19 chimpanzee infants, and 32 human infants through previously collected videos. For the capuchin monkeys, I coded all social events from the LEDIS video collection and detailed the motor pattern of face-touching. I found that this behavior, in all three species, was mostly associated with affiliative contexts. In capuchin monkeys, infant face-touching of other group members was associated with lipsmacking and contexts involving visual contact. In this species, touch also occurred in response to initiated engagement by the touched individual and involved exploration of the face, potentially signaling reciprocity in affiliative interaction and serving as a pleasurable gesture. There was no preference for the individuals touched, which allowed me to partially support the facial recognition hypothesis. In the second study, I found that infants preferred to touch adult females and that there were significant intraspecific differences. Thus, I conclude that this behavior is part of the infant\'s affiliative social repertoire and is adaptive, as it is present in three distinct species of the primate order. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 21/12799-0 - Touching the face by Sapajus libidinosus infants: recognition or strengthening of social ties?
• Grantee: Beatriz Franco Felício dos Santos
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master