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ON THE LIMITS OF THE MATCHING CONCEPT IN MONKEYS (CEBUS APELLA)
Author(s) -
D'Amato M. R.,
Colombo Michael
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
journal of the experimental analysis of behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.75
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1938-3711
pISSN - 0022-5002
DOI - 10.1901/jeab.1989.52-225
Subject(s) - matching (statistics) , lever , psychology , visual perception , discrimination learning , task (project management) , transfer (computing) , transfer of learning , similarity (geometry) , cognitive psychology , communication , computer science , artificial intelligence , neuroscience , perception , developmental psychology , mathematics , statistics , physics , management , quantum mechanics , parallel computing , economics , image (mathematics)
Two cebus monkeys, with many years of experience matching a variety of static visual stimuli (forms and colors) within a standard matching‐to‐sample paradigm, were trained to press a left lever when a pair of displayed static stimuli were the same and to press a right lever when they were different. After learning the same/different task, the monkeys were tested for transfer to dynamic visual stimuli (flashing versus steady green disks), with which they had no previous experience. Both failed to transfer to the dynamic stimuli. A third monkey, also with massive past experience matching static visual stimuli, was tested for transfer to the dynamic stimuli within our standard matching paradigm, and it, too, failed. All 3 subjects were unable to reach a moderate acquisition criterion despite as many as 52 sessions of training with the dynamic stimuli. These results provide further evidence that, in monkeys, the matching (or identity) concept has a very limited reach; they consequently do not support the view held by some theorists that an abstract matching concept based on physical similarity is a general endowment of animals.