Meet the Scientist: Follow my ruffed lemur color vision study on #DukeLemurCenter Instagram. #SummerPrimate

I have been very fortunate to be granted access to post and talk about my research with the ruffed lemurs on Duke Lemur Center's Instagram page as part of their Meet the Scientist program. I will be posting pictures about my color vision research this whole week so head on to Duke Lemur Center's Instagram page to like, comment, and share my pictures. Have any questions about my research? Ask me on Instagram through Duke Lemur Center's page!

Please follow Duke Lemur Center on Facebook and Twitter as well. Keep the conversation going by following me on Twitter (@PrancingPapio). Let's talk lemur!

How do you tell a lemur to touch the red square? Similar to how you would train a dog, lemurs can be positively reinforced to exhibit the behavior you want by giving them a food reward when they did the correct behavior. Here I'm training AJ, one of the black-and-white ruffed lemurs (Varecia variegata), to touch the red square. We do something call chaining, where I chain a sequence of behaviors until the desired behavior is exhibited. Along the way, I give him dried cranberries as a food reward for a job well done! Are you wondering why I am training them to touch a red square? Stay tuned for more posts! Photo by @prancingpapio #dukelemurcenter #lemurs #lemur #lemuria #lemurian #animaltraining #positivereinforcement #primate #primateofinstagram #primates #ruffedlemur #blackandwhiteruffedlemur #varecia #variegata #colsci #color #colorvision #colorscience #psychophysics #psychophysiology #psychology #anthropology #primatology #SMARTA #prancingpapio

A photo posted by Duke Lemur Center (@dukelemurcenter) on Jun 30, 2015 at 8:16am PDT

Antlia, one of the red ruffed lemurs (Varecia rubra), is being trained to touch the red square. Enrichment activities are not only fun but mentally enriching for animals. Antlia is staring at the chute because she is expecting a dried cranberry to drop out of the chute! She knows she did the right behavior and is expecting a food reward. That is how we know the lemurs "understand" what you want them to do. Photo by @prancingpapio #dukelemurcenter #lemurs #lemur #lemuria #lemurian #animaltraining #positivereinforcement #primate #primateofinstagram #primates #ruffedlemur #redruffedlemur #varecia #variegata #rubra #colsci #color #colorvision #colorscience #psychophysics #psychophysiology #psychology #anthropology #primatology #SMARTA #prancingpapio

A photo posted by Duke Lemur Center (@dukelemurcenter) on Jun 30, 2015 at 10:05am PDT

Mine! Mine! Mine! MINE! Kizzy and her boys (AJ, Magellan, and Rees) can't seem to get enough of my apparatus. SMARTA or Subject-Mediated Automatic Remote Testing Apparatus is what I used to train and test these ruffed lemurs. I will post about why I am training these lemurs to touch the red square tomorrow. Stay tuned. Any questions in the meantime? Ask away. Photo by @prancingpapio #dukelemurcenter #lemurs #lemur #lemuria #lemurian #animaltraining #positivereinforcement #primate #primateofinstagram #primates #ruffedlemur #blackandwhiteruffedlemur #varecia #variegata #colsci #color #colorvision #colorscience #psychophysics #psychophysiology #psychology #anthropology #primatology #SMARTA #prancingpapio

A photo posted by Duke Lemur Center (@dukelemurcenter) on Jun 30, 2015 at 4:03pm PDT

Love Wins: SCOTUS Marriage decision; My husband came to visit!

My husband came to visit for the weekend and I got to show him Duke Lemur Center, as well as the ruffed lemurs I have been working with over the past month. I am excited he got to see how SMARTA worked and how the lemurs respond to the tasks I gave them. After all, he wrote and built the apparatus.

It was opportune that he was with me on Friday (June 26, 2015 for posterity!) when SCOTUS finally declared same sex marriage is legal in all 50 states. We have been together for 13 years and we've been married for 3 years. This is great news for us, but also overwhelmingly exciting news for those that can finally get married in states where same sex marriage was previously not legal.

This Is Not The Sausage Fest I'm Hoping For ...

Much disappoint

I am approaching week 6 with my lemur training. So far, I have worked with 14 individuals; 8 black-and-white ruffed lemurs and 6 red ruffed lemurs. There are still a few more individuals that I haven't been able to work with but I should have access to them soon.

Of the 14 individuals, 4 of them were excluded from training because they are currently in outdoor enclosures. The glare from sunlight made it hard for both the lemurs and I to look at the screen (picture yourself trying to use a tablet or your phone on a bright summer day). This makes it hard for me to train them to touch the screen. 2 of the red ruffed were hard to work with because they are not really paying attention to training, although, it seems like their performance spike when I train them only once a week instead of daily. Unfortunately, these 2 had just been placed in an outdoor enclosure. I did, however, found a shady spot where I could potentially train them without being hindered by the glare. There's also 2 red ruffed that exhibited some behavioral problems that I had to exclude from the study as well. This brings me to only 6 individuals, and they are all black-and-white ruffed lemurs. Out of the 6 individuals, 2 are females and 4 are males.

If you remember what my study is, you'll know that I really need to work with more females. With the current sample size, I really hope at least one of the female is a trichromat. This is not the sausage fest I'm hoping for ...

SMARTA: Subject-Mediated Automatic Remote Testing Apparatus For Color Vision Discrimination Tasks [Poster PDF] #ASP15OR

SMARTA: Subject-Mediated Automatic Remote Testing Apparatus For Color Vision Discrimination Tasks
Raymond Vagell¹, Vance J. Vagell² and Andrea L. Baden<sup>3,4

1</sup>Animal Behavior & Conservation Program, Dept. of Psychology, Hunter College of City University of New York, New York , NY, 10065, USA.
²Queens, New York.
³Dept. Anthropology, Hunter College of City University of New York, New York, NY 10065.
⁴New York Consortium in Evolutionary Primatology, The Graduate Center of City University of New York, New York, NY 10065.

ABSTRACT

Primate behavioral studies often rely on human observation for data collection. This is especially true in captive and laboratory settings. However, human error and imperfect inter-rater reliability can contribute to erroneous data collection and entry. Furthermore, the physical presence of a researcher can influence research outcomes. The subject-mediated automatic remote testing apparatus (SMARTA) was developed in an effort to avoid human error, inter-rater disagreement, the observer effect, to control for visual stimuli, and to automatically log all observational data to the cloud. SMARTA is an innovative novel apparatus that integrates motorized food delivery (food reinforcement), remote control, and cloud-based data logging. SMARTA is a color-calibrated tablet-based testing platform, controlled remotely via smartphone app, which automatically dispenses food rewards and logs data online. With SMARTA, a researcher can remotely control an experiment without influencing subjects under test using Android apps for smartphone and tablet that interconnect using Bluetooth. Further, it automatically records data and uploads it to a Google spreadsheet for later analysis. Recent color vision studies have used naturalistic settings to assess and determine whether primates are either dichromats or trichromats. SMARTA can be used for touch screen discrimination tasks, especially color vision studies where hues and brightness are carefully controlled. Since it utilizes a consumer Android tablet and smartphone rather than specialized hardware, SMARTA can be built inexpensively.

You can download a copy of my poster from Academia.edu or Researchgate.net.

ASP 2015: Bend, Oregon

Whoever came up with the ribbon idea. You are the ASP 2015 MVP

I'm having a lot of fun in Bend, Oregon for ASP 2015. I will be presenting my poster tonight and will have a PDF of the poster up online later. My poster is about SMARTA, the apparatus I use to study color vision in ruffed lemurs (Varecia sp.).

Yup. That's me over there

I am also very excited to be the proud owner of a red ruffed lemur painting by Van Hoang Dao, a Vietnamese artist who paints in such exquisite detail. I hope he has a black-and-white ruffed lemur next time!

Red ruffed lemur painting by Van Hoang Dao