The aim of this research is verify whether there is an aesthetic sense in non-human primates that can be expressed using graphic productions, which characteristics are, more or less, similar to those of human productions. To do this, we used paintings made by eight chimpanzees during art therapy sessions at Fundació Mona Sanctuary (Girona, Spain). A selection of 30 paintings was evaluated by 60 volunteers. We designed an Aesthetics Primate Paint Questionnaire (APPQ), composed of 32 trait-descriptive items (with a rating scale from 1 to 7) regarding features such as colours, figures, direction of the brush strokes and the use of space in each painting. In the instructions for filling out the questionnaire, we recommended avoiding consultations with other analysts. We used a Principal Component Analysis to identify the factor structure of the questionnaire. We calculated the ICC (Intraclass Correlation Coefficient) to assess the reliability of the evaluators. From a first analysis, the results indicated a high level of reliability among raters and, secondly, a clear factor structure composed of eight factors. The factors identified were related to ‘colours’, ‘use of space’, ‘symmetry’, or ‘aesthetic’, among others. So, we highlight that these results are the first quantitative evidence of aesthetic sense in chimpanzees, but we also emphasize that this is a preliminary work, that concerns only a small sample of chimpanzees housed in a sanctuary. We consider that in future this type of study should be replicated and extended to other primates housed in recovery centres with large sample sizes. In this way, the model could be very important in order to increase the ecological validity of further studies to obtain information on the aesthetic sense of primates and the implications this entails for the management and welfare of these animals rehabilitated in sanctuaries. This research complied with the European Directive 2010/63/EU and the IPS Guidelines for the Use of Nonhuman Primates in Research.
Aesthetics in Primate Paints.
A. Minelli;
2015-01-01
Abstract
The aim of this research is verify whether there is an aesthetic sense in non-human primates that can be expressed using graphic productions, which characteristics are, more or less, similar to those of human productions. To do this, we used paintings made by eight chimpanzees during art therapy sessions at Fundació Mona Sanctuary (Girona, Spain). A selection of 30 paintings was evaluated by 60 volunteers. We designed an Aesthetics Primate Paint Questionnaire (APPQ), composed of 32 trait-descriptive items (with a rating scale from 1 to 7) regarding features such as colours, figures, direction of the brush strokes and the use of space in each painting. In the instructions for filling out the questionnaire, we recommended avoiding consultations with other analysts. We used a Principal Component Analysis to identify the factor structure of the questionnaire. We calculated the ICC (Intraclass Correlation Coefficient) to assess the reliability of the evaluators. From a first analysis, the results indicated a high level of reliability among raters and, secondly, a clear factor structure composed of eight factors. The factors identified were related to ‘colours’, ‘use of space’, ‘symmetry’, or ‘aesthetic’, among others. So, we highlight that these results are the first quantitative evidence of aesthetic sense in chimpanzees, but we also emphasize that this is a preliminary work, that concerns only a small sample of chimpanzees housed in a sanctuary. We consider that in future this type of study should be replicated and extended to other primates housed in recovery centres with large sample sizes. In this way, the model could be very important in order to increase the ecological validity of further studies to obtain information on the aesthetic sense of primates and the implications this entails for the management and welfare of these animals rehabilitated in sanctuaries. This research complied with the European Directive 2010/63/EU and the IPS Guidelines for the Use of Nonhuman Primates in Research.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
