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Eye tracking nonhuman primates
Eye tracking in nonhuman primates provides insights about decision making, emotion recognition, attention, and social behavior.
Gain deeper insights in nonhuman primates behavior
Eye tracking offers a non-invasive, data-rich approach to uncover attention patterns, cognitive processes, and naturalistic responses — bringing clarity and objectivity to complex research questions.
- 66%
of primate behavior studies
rely on manual coding, which can
be time-consuming and subjective.
- 59%
of researchers face challenges
interpreting cognitive processes
in non-verbal subjects. - 54%
of lab-based primate
studies struggle to
replicate naturalistic behavior.
Studying cognitive processes with eye tracking
The eye tracking solution and a dedicated application, like our software Tobii Pro Lab, can further process the data to draw valuable conclusions on a wide variety of cognitive processes in NHPs, including:
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Attention
Determine what stimuli capture the primate’s attention, how long attention is sustained on objects or locations, and how attention shifts in response to changing stimuli.
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Cognitive reasoning
Study how nonhuman primates gather and process information to make decisions, solve problems, or make choices.
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Face processing
Explore how primates’ gaze patterns vary when viewing familiar versus unfamiliar faces and how they respond to different emotional expressions.
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Social preference
Track where a primate directs its gaze during social interactions and learns about preferences for specific individuals, group dynamics, and social hierarchies.
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Motivation
Monitor gaze patterns in tasks involving rewards or incentives and identify the most salient and motivating stimuli for primates.
Reliability in a range of settings
When conducting eye tracking research on nonhuman primates, it is important that your solutions ensure reliability across a variety of locations and scenarios. Whether you are conducting research in a controlled laboratory setting or in an animal enclosure like a zoo or sanctuary, Tobii has built a range of eye tracking solutions that deliver robust data without compromising freedom of movement or ease of use.
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Research setups for nonhuman primate studies
Screen-based for the lab
The visual stimuli are displayed on a screen, in a laboratory environment, using the screen-based eye trackers Tobii Pro Spectrum and Tobii Pro Lab.
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Screen-based for the field
The visual stimuli are displayed on a screen in a zoo or a primate sanctuary using Tobii Pro Spectrum and Tobii Pro Lab.
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Standalone for the lab
The subjects observe or interact with objects or stationary physical scenes in a laboratory environment, using Tobii Pro Spectrum and Tobii Pro Lab.
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Fields of research
Eye tracking enables the assessment of both human and nonhuman primates
under similar conditions, bridging basic and clinical research. Our
noninvasive, restraint-free technology supports primate welfare while
collecting data in various settings.
Eye tracking opens research possibilities in:
Cognitive neuroscience
System neuroscience
Clinical and translational neuroscience
Ethology
Behavioral psychology
Cognitive psychology
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Learn more about great ape studies
Eye tracking as a window into great ape emotions
Eye tracking allows to non-invasively study mechanisms underlying
socio-emotional cognition in great apes that are otherwise unattainable.
More information
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Scientific publications
Did you know that over 15,000 scientific publications feature
Tobii eye tracking technology?
Discover the latest trends in eye tracking for Nonhuman primates
by exploring our scientific publication library.
Everything you need to get started
Free training, open-source tools, and direct support, designed to get you from unboxing to publishable results as fast as possible.
Tobii Academy
Free online learning platform with structured courses covering every stage of eye tracking research, from fundamental concepts to advanced analysis techniques.
→ Eye tracking fundamentals and methodology
→ Experiment design best practices
→ Tobii Pro Lab software training
→ Data analysis and interpretation
→ Certification tracks
Open-source research tools
50+ community-curated tools, experiment scripts, and integration libraries across the full eye tracking workflow. PsychoPy, MATLAB, Python, LSL, and more.
Tobii Connect support portal
Knowledge base, firmware updates, troubleshooting guides, and direct support from Tobii's technical team. Your first stop for any hardware or software question.
→ Product setup and troubleshooting guides
→ Firmware and software downloads
→ Data quality methodology documentation
→ Direct ticket support for registered products
→ Sample projects and demo recordings