Manipulative tendencies of captive Cebus albifrons

We conducted two experiments to examine the manipulative tendencies of capt ive Cebus albifrons. In Experiment I we examined hand preference for reachi ng by providing subjects with food either on the cage floor (to facilitate quadrupedal reaching) or at the height of an upright subject's shoulder (to facilitate bipedal reaching). In Experiment 2 we examined combinatorial ma nipulation by providing subjects with nesting containers and other portable manipulanda. Results indicate that C. albifrons exhibits greater use of th e right hand for bipedal versus quadrupedal reaching (exhibiting a group-le vel lack of bias for bipedal reaching and a left-hand bias for quadrupedal reaching), combines objects using a simple pairing strategy, and uses and p roduces simple tools. Aspects of these findings parallel those for Cebus ap ella.