SIMPLE DISCRIMINATION WITH AUDITORY STIMULI IN CAPUCHIN MONKEYS

Abstract

A part of human symbolic behavior can be characterized in terms of generalized relational discriminative repertoires. The capuchin monkey (Sapajus sp.) has been used as an animal model to investigate the acquisition of generalized relational discriminative repertoires. It has been shown that this species can learn some of such repertoires (e.g., Identity Matching-to-Sample and Generalized Identity) with visual stimuli. However, little is known about the auditory discriminative capabilities of capuchin monkey, and even less on his intermodal discriminatory repertoire. This study aims to evaluate the acquisition of auditory simple discrimination with three monkeys, using a Go/No-Go procedure. The subjects were exposed to seven pairs of auditory stimuli, each pair comprising one S+ and one S-. The criterion used to change the training pair was reaching discriminative index equal or above 80% in five consecutive sessions. All subjects learned the seven discriminations tasks showing evidence of learning-set across exposition to stimulus sets. These results show the capability of the capuchin monkey to learn auditory simple discriminations in experimental context and enable new studies that seek to teach auditory-visual discrimination for this species. Keywords: Auditory simple discrimination, learning-set, capuchin monkey.