Implicit chaining in cotton-top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus).

Abstract

In implicit learning, human subjects are exposed to patterned information, but they are not informed about the pattern. Typically, they demonstrate learning of that pattern, but little awareness of the experimental contingencies. In a nonhuman analog of this procedure, two cotton-top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus) were presented with a five-element chain that consisted of the same icon presented serially at different locations on a touchscreen. The tamarins had to touch the icon at each location to advance the chain and receive reinforcement at the end of the chain. One element of the chain was never differentially reinforced in the presence of another element, as is typically done in transitive inference and serial chaining studies. Following training, the tamarins were tested for their knowledge of the chain using pairwise tests that are common in transitive inference and serial chaining experiments, and a random test, common in some types of implicit learning, in which the sequence of elements was randomized. The results of both tests revealed that the tamarins appreciated the ordinal position of the elements composing the chain, although reinforcement had not been dependent on that knowledge.