Squirrel monkey responses to information from social demonstration and individual exploration using touchscreen and object choice tasks.

ABSTRACT: We aimed to study whether a non-human primate species responded differently to information acquired socially compared with that acquired individually. To do so, we attempted to train squirrel monkeys to perform binary discriminations. These involved exposure to either social information (human or puppet demonstrator performs an initial 'information trial') or individual exploration (monkey performs information trial as well as subsequent test trials). In Experiment 1, we presented the task on a touchscreen tablet. Only one monkey appeared to learn the significance of the information trial, and across the group there was no improvement in performance over sessions. The proficient individual showed little evidence of successful transfer to three-way discrimination problems, suggesting limite

SUBMITTER: Renner E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6836757 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature