Studies of concept formation by stumptailed monkeys concepts humans monkeys and letter a
Schrier, A.M.; Angarella, R.; Povar, M.L.
Journal of Experimental Psychology Animal Behavior Processes 10(4): 564-584
1984
ISSN/ISBN: 0097-7403 DOI: 10.1037/0097-7403.10.4.564Document Number: 343705
Natural concepts were studied in 3 of 4 experiments with monkeys, using a series of photographic slides. The concept humans was studied in Experiment 1 using scenes with or without 1 or more humans present, and the concept monkeys in Experiment 2 using scenes with 1 or more monkeys and scenes with other types of animals. In both experiments, the animals were trained on 1 set of slides using a conditional spatial discrimination task and tested for transfer to a new set. All animals tested showed positive transfer, performing at a higher level with the new slides initially than they had during original learning, though well below the level reached by the end of original learning. Control tests in Experiment 1 indicated that the initial transfer could not be explained by learning of individuals slides, though such learning was clearly a strong factor in the overall performance. Performance was better when humans were a prominent part of the scene. In Experiment 3 the discrimination task was changed to go-no-go. There was some improvement in discrimination but not in transfer. In Experiment 4 monkeys were trained to discriminate the letter A from the numeral 2 in a variety of typefaces. They transferred the discrimination at a high level to a set of these stimuli in new typefaces. Results are consistent with a concept interpretation, although alternative explanations are possible. Possible reasons for an apparent difference between the present results and those reported for pigeons are discussed.