Effectiveness of video of conspecifics as a reward for socially housed bonnet macaques (Macaca radiata)

Abstract

Two experiments were conducted to examine the effectiveness of presenting brief video of conspecifics to socially housed bonnet macaques as a reward for performing a joystick task. Using a joystick, subjects tracked a moving target with the cursor on a computer monitor. In Exp. 1, subjects completed significantly more joystick trials for food reward than for video reward or no reward. Subjects also preferred viewing video of another group (Other Group Video) to receiving no reward or to viewing video of their own group (Own Group Video). In Exp. 2, subjects were given two reward conditions, video of a familiar social group or video of a new social group. Two monkeys contributed the vast majority of trials, and both responded more frequently when the reward was video of the new social group. Results of these two experiments suggest that viewing video of conspecifics may serve as an effective reward for at least some socially housed primates and suggests that novelty of the individuals depicted in the video is an important factor contributing to the reward value of video.