Concept learning by monkeys with video picture images and a touch screen.
Monkeys learned an abstract same/different rule on a touch screen and used it on new photos, showing concept formation without language.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Two lab monkeys learned same/different with a touch screen. Each trial showed two digitized photos. If the photos matched, the monkey touched a green square. If they differed, the monkey touched a red square.
The team used food rewards and daily sessions. After the animals mastered the first picture set, new sets appeared. The goal was to see if the monkeys could transfer the rule to brand-new images.
What they found
Both monkeys learned the rule and used it on pictures they had never seen. Their accuracy stayed high even when the size, color, or object changed. The study shows that monkeys can form an abstract concept using only screen images and food rewards.
How this fits with other research
Lovitt et al. (1970) also worked with monkeys in operant chambers, but they used bar-pressing speed as the cue. The two studies do not clash; one tests social cues from response rate, the other tests abstract concept learning with pictures.
Wright (1972) shaped ultra-fast key releases in monkeys. Both papers show that tight lab control can build new operant forms, whether the target is speed or concept.
Manolov et al. (2022) give us a modern tool to judge if single-case effects repeat. Jones et al. (1992) is itself a replication of earlier lever-based work, so the pair shares a focus on proving an effect more than once.
Why it matters
You can teach abstract rules to non-verbal learners when you pair clear stimuli with immediate feedback. Try using a tablet, simple same/different photos, and a single consistent consequence. Watch for transfer to new examples within the session; if it happens, you have evidence that the learner holds the concept, not just rote memorization.
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Join Free →Run a same/different trial on a tablet: show two photos, reward touches to a green button when they match, red when they don’t, then swap in new photos to check for transfer.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Two rhesus monkeys were trained in a same/different task to discriminate digitized computer-stored picture stimuli. The pictures were digitized from 35-mm slides and presented in pairs on a computer monitor. The monkeys were required to touch the pictures and then make a choice response to indicate whether the pictures were identical or nonidentical. The response areas and stimuli were located to the sides of the picture stimuli. Responses were defined and monitored by an infrared matrix touch screen. After learning the same/different task, both monkeys showed performance accuracy with novel picture stimuli similar to that with training picture stimuli. This accurate novel-picture transfer indicates that a same/different concept had been learned, a concept similar to the one they had previously demonstrated in a different apparatus with rear-projected slide stimuli and a response lever.
Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior, 1992 · doi:10.1901/jeab.1992.57-219