Several methods for teaching serial position sequences to monkeys.
Gradual prompt fading beats sudden removal for teaching long response chains.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team taught monkeys to press five keys in the right order.
A small light came on above the next correct key.
The scientists then faded these cue lights little by little.
They wanted to see if slow fading beats sudden removal.
What they found
Monkeys learned longer chains when cues faded slowly.
Sudden removal made the animals quit sooner.
Gradual fading built strong, cue-free performance.
How this fits with other research
Kelly et al. (1970) saw the same edge with pigeons.
They faded bright colors to let a quiet sound control pecking.
Koegel et al. (2014) later moved the idea to children with autism.
They tested prompt types and fading speeds for daily tasks.
Together, the three papers show gradual fading wins across species and skills.
Palya (1985) added a twist: reward the animal for probe tries during fading.
This tweak cut the steps needed, giving you a way to speed things up.
Why it matters
Use slow prompt fading when you teach long chains like hand-washing or dressing.
Drop the cue a little each day instead of all at once.
Watch for probe responses and praise them to cut training time.
The same rule works for monkeys, pigeons, and kids—so trust the process.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Three keys were available for monkeys to press. The objective was to teach the animals to press the keys in sequences up to 10 members in length. With fading procedures, a light that cued the correct key at a given serial member of the sequence faded out slightly each time the animal selected it, and became slightly brighter after the animal made an error at that sequence member. The correct keys were faded out, starting from the end of the sequence and proceeding toward the beginning. With control procedures, the cue lights were turned off suddenly, rather than being faded gradually. In almost every instance, the animals learned a longer series of unlighted key positions with the fading procedures than they did when each key-light was turned off suddenly. Also, requiring the animals to press a series of keys cued by lights before they could reach the sequence members they were to learn hampered them in learning the later serial members. By using several different sequences, it was possible to replicate these findings within the individual animal.
Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior, 1967 · doi:10.1901/jeab.1967.10-467