Observational learning in the rhesus monkey.

Abstract

Numerous attempts have been made to demonstrate that species of animals other than man are capable of learning by observation or imitation. An especially important study for our present purposes is that by Crawford and Spence (1939), who, using two opposing cages with a stimulus tray between them, trained a chimpanzee to observe another depress one of three stimulus objects. After several trials by the demonstrator, the observer was given a test trial to determine if the observer would depress the same object. Both demonstration and test trials continued alternately until the observer either learned the problem or evidenced inability to learn. Results were ambiguous, with only one of eight chimpanzees learning a "pure" imitation problem. The ambiguity of the results suggested that although the general procedure was correct, the stimulus-display conditions were not conducive to rapid discrimination learning.Data collected since have defined the conditions necessary for rapid discrimination learning by primates (Harlow, 1944;Jarvik, 1953;Jenkins, 1943; McCIeam & Harlow, 1954), and it was thought that by utilizing the results of these recent researches, unambiguous data might be collected on observational learning. Because of these considerations, we were motivated to try a demonstration of observational learning under more efficient conditions and to learn what we could about factors contributing to successful performance.Two studies were conducted. In the first, described in detail elsewhere, Darby (1956) placed two monkeys that could solve object-1 Supported in part by a grant (M-589) from the

Place learning in virtual space III: Investigation of spatial navigation training procedures and their application to fMRI and clinical neuropsychology

“…The data further suggest that, when later required to find that target, individuals who have received such training remember the location of the target and move more directly to it than do naive individuals. These data are consistent with similar investigations of rats in the Morris water maze (see, e.g., Keith & McVety, 1988;Sutherland & Linggard, 1982) and of animals in real-world space (see, e.g., Bednekoff & Balda, 1996;Darby & Riopelle, 1959;Heyes & Dawson, 1990;Heyes, Jaldow, & Dawson, 1994;Zentall, Sutton, & Sherburne, 1996). The data are also consistent with predictions made by cognitive mapping theory (O'Keefe & Nadel, 1978).…”

A Comparative Study of Culturally Transmitted Patterns of Feeding Habits in the Chacma Baboon Papio ursinus and the Vervet Monkey Cercopithecus aethiops

“…Observational learning has already been shown in birds [Klopfer, 1957;Sexton and Finch, 1967] cats [Adler, 1955;John et al, 1968] and also in primates [Darby and Riopelle, 1959;Feldman and Klopfer, 1972], but the problems presented to the animals varied considerably so that the results are not always comparable. It was nevertheless evident that the demonstra tion experience has been efficiently used by observers in all the studied species.…”

Imitation in Japanese quail: The role of reinforcement of demonstrator responding

“…This manipulation is referred to as vicarious reinforcement. Although there is evidence for the role of vicarious reinforcement in imitation, it is limited primarily to experiments with humans (Lewis & Duncan, 1958;McBrearty, Marston, & Kanfer, 1961) and rhesus monkeys (Darby & Riopelle, 1959;Warden, Fjeld, & Koch, 1940). For example, Groesbeck and Duerfeldt (1971) did not find a significant effect of the observation of reinforcement of demonstrator rats' behavior.…”