Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Rhesus Monkeys (Macaca Mulatta) Maintain Learning Set Despite Second-Order Stimulus-Response Spatial Discontiguity, Michael J. Beran, David A. Washburn, Duane M. Rumbaugh

Language Research Center

In many discrimination-learning tests, spatial separation between stimuli and response loci disrupts performance in rhesus macaques. However, monkeys are unaffected by such stimulusresponse spatial discontiguity when responses occur through joystick-based computerized movement of a cursor. To examine this discrepancy, five monkeys were tested on a learning-set task that required them to touch computer-graphic "levers" {which differed in location across experimental phases) with a cursor in order to select an associated test stimulus. The task produced both first-order (joystick and lever) and second-order (lever and stimuli) spatial discontiguity between the stimuli to be discriminated and the discriminative response. Performance was significantly …