Rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta) complex learning skills reassessed

Abstract

Results from three experiments on basic learning and transfer in rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) are reported in which fully automated testing paradigms, afforded by the Language Research Center's Computerized Test System (LRC-CTS), were employed. Performance levels for discrimination learning set, transfer index, and mediational-learning testing were uniformly higher than was predicted from the literature, in contrast to previous reports of compromised learning under similar conditions (automated apparatus, planimetric stimuli, spatial discontiguity between stimuli and response loci). Analyses reveal relatively advanced learning set performance, transfer-index ratios, and positive transfer of learning even at stringent criterion levels. Moreover, the data suggest that rhesus monkeys tested in these experiments exhibit mediational instead of associative learning strategies, as do great apes and in contrast to previous reports of rhesus learning. We argue that the LRC-CTS enhances learning by nonhuman primate subjects, obviating those factors, reported in the literature from experiments in which manual or other automated systems were employed, that compromise learning.