The Role of Learning, Perception, and Reward in Monkeys' Choice of Food

Abstract

Harlow and Meyer have reported that monkeys given a choice between two tlifferent amounts of food usually choose larger amount, although 'errors' (i.e. choices of smaller amount) sometimes occur.1 The authors recognize that ability of animals to discriminate differences in amount of food may enter into such choices-at one point in their paper they account for an aberrant iSnding in terms of the ease with which a half-peanut may be confused with a whole peanutl but tlley give tlle impression that their results are to be understood primarily in tel ms of reinforcing properties of reward. Whether there was any evidence of learning during early stages of testing, they do not say. It may be significant, however, that animals used had earlier been trained in paired