Does Joystick Training Facilitate Relational Learning?

Will Whitham,Jennifer M Johnson,Michael J Beran,David A Washburn,Kristin French

doi:10.46867/ijcp.2018.31.03.07

Abstract

Thirteen naïve capuchin monkeys (Cebus [Sapajus] apella) were manually tested with the Transfer Index procedure, a species-fair paradigm for assessing the capacity to learn and to transfer learning. The animals were then trained to manipulate a joystick to control a cursor and to respond to stimuli on a computer screen. After the animals had mastered the remote cause-effect relations required by the computerized test system, they were returned to manual Transfer Index testing to determine whether the joystick-training intervention had affected the monkeys’ capacity for efficient and relational learning. Transfer Index scores and overall accuracy was higher following the joystick intervention, but these differences were not statistically significant. Two-choice discrimination learning and reversal appeared to be associative in nature, and there was no evidence that joystick training made the monkeys more rule-like or relational in their learning. Despite the absence of significant differences, the patterns of results encourage further study of the ways that changes in the cognitive competencies of nonhuman animals might be catalyzed by significant learning experiences.

Highlights

Thirteen naïve capuchin monkeys (Cebus [Sapajus] apella) were manually tested with the transfer index (TI) procedure, a species-fair paradigm for assessing the capacity to learn and transfer learning
After the animals had mastered the remote cause-and-effect relations required by the computerized test system, they were returned to manual TI testing to determine whether the joystick-training intervention had affected the monkeys’ capacity for efficient and relational learning
Given that some stimulus pairs might be easier to learn or to reverse than others for purely random and individual reasons, fiveproblem means were calculated for each monkey

Summary

Introduction

Thirteen naïve capuchin monkeys (Cebus [Sapajus] apella) were manually tested with the transfer index (TI) procedure, a species-fair paradigm for assessing the capacity to learn and transfer learning. In the 1980s, Rumbaugh and collaborators applied computer-game technology to the study and enrichment of nonhuman primates (Rumbaugh, Richardson, Washburn, Savage-Rumbaugh, & Hopkins, 1989; Savage-Rumbaugh, 1986), training chimpanzees and monkeys to respond to computer-generated stimuli by manipulating a joystick or using a touchscreen, in accordance to the rules of a variety of game-like tasks Their first report that rhesus monkeys could master the discontiguous cause-and-effect relations required to control a computer-generated cursor by joystick manipulations (Rumbaugh et al, 1989) was itself somewhat revolutionary, as it showed that the monkeys could succeed on a type of challenge (i.e., learning under conditions of stimulus-response-reward discontiguity) that had been demonstrated as problematic for the species (e.g., McClearn & Harlow, 1954; Meyer, Polidora, & McConnell, 1961; Murphy & Miller, 1955; Stollnitz & Schrier, 1962). These examples are a small sample of the ways in which our understanding of monkeys and their cognitive continuities (and discontinuities) with humans has been changed in the 30+ years that they have been “computer-game players.”

Methods

Results

Conclusion