Abstract

In humans, simple 2D visual displays of launching events (“Michottean launches”) can

evoke the impression of causality. Direct launching events are regarded as causal, but simi-

lar events with a temporal and/or spatial gap between the movements of the two objects, as

non-causal. This ability to distinguish between causal and non-causal events is perceptual

in nature and develops early and preverbally in infancy. In the present study we investigated

the evolutionary origins of this phenomenon and tested whether Guinea baboons (Papio

papio) perceive causality in launching events. We used a novel paradigm which was

designed to distinguish between the use of causality and the use of spatiotemporal proper-

ties. Our results indicate that Guinea baboons successfully discriminate between different

Michottean events, but we did not find a learning advantage for a categorisation based on

causality as was the case for human adults. Our results imply that, contrary to humans,

baboons focused on the spatial and temporal gaps to achieve accurate categorisation, but

not on causality per se. Understanding how animals perceive causality is important to figure

out whether non-human animals comprehend events similarly to humans. Our study hints at

a different manner of processing physical causality for Guinea baboons and human adults.