title: Observational learning in capuchin monkeys: a video deficit effect.
abstract: Young human children have been shown to learn less effectively from video or televised images than from real-life demonstrations. Although nonhuman primates respond to and can learn from video images, there is a lack of direct comparisons of task acquisition from video and live demonstrations. To address this gap in knowledge, we presented capuchin monkeys with video clips of a human demonstrator explicitly hiding food under one of two containers. The clips were presented at normal, faster than normal, or slower than normal speed, and then the monkeys were allowed to choose between the real containers. Even after 55 sessions and hundreds of video demonstration trials the monkeys' performances indicated no mastery of the task, and there was no effect of video speed. When given live demonstrations of the hiding act, the monkeys' performances were vastly improved. Upon subsequent return to video demonstrations, performances declined to pre-live-demonstration levels, but this time with evidence for an advantage of fast video demonstrations. Demonstration action speed may be one aspect of images that influence nonhuman primates' ability to learn from video images, an ability that in monkeys, as in young children, appears limited compared to learning from live models.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology, Graduate School of Letters , Kyoto University , Kyoto , Japan.
authors.forename: James R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Anderson
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology, Graduate School of Letters , Kyoto University , Kyoto , Japan.
authors.forename: Hika
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kuroshima
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology, Graduate School of Letters , Kyoto University , Kyoto , Japan.
authors.forename: Kazuo
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Fujita
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D002428:Cebus; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D003210:Concept Formation / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D019370:Observation; D010775:Photic Stimulation
keywords: Capuchin monkeys; Demonstration speed; Observational learning; Video