AJP August 2018

'''de Andrade, A. C., & de Sousa, A. B. (2018). Hand preferences and differences in extractive foraging in seven capuchin monkey species. American Journal of Primatology, 80, e22901.'''

In an analysis of the relation between hand preference and foraging type in capuchin monkeys, de Andrade and de Sousa (2018) predicted that capuchins who occupy drier regions would tend toward right-handedness and that right-handedness would be correlated with extractive foraging (i.e. foraging that requires extensive use of hands and motor skills). The authors argue that previous research employed tasks that did not engage the cognitive faculties necessary to evoke observation of hand preference. Using a tube task that involved smearing peanut butter inside a PVC pipe that the monkey had to access and seven species of capuchin monkey, it was found that species not prone to extractive foraging showed a left-hand bias. However, one species of capuchin that regularly engages in tool use showed a left-hand preference, suggesting that the widespread evidence for relations between right-handedness and tool use may not be accounting for a multitude of factors.