[monkeywire] Study: Monkeys learn the same way humans do
Carrie McLaren
temporary181 at stayfreemagazine.org
Wed Aug 1 18:59:04 EDT 2007
Monkeys seem to learn the same way humans do, a new research study indicates.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070801161511.htm
August 1, 2007
A rhesus monkey chooses between images on a touch-screen computer
monitor. In a new study, monkeys were asked to select five
photographs in a particular order. (Credit: Herbert Terrace/Columbia
University)
"Like humans, monkeys benefit enormously from being actively involved
in learning instead of having information presented to them
passively," said Nate Kornell, a UCLA postdoctoral scholar in
psychology and lead author of the study, which appears in the August
issue of the journal Psychological Science. "The advantage of active
learning appears to be a fundamental property of memory in humans and
nonhumans alike."
In Kornell's study, conducted when he was a psychology graduate
student at Columbia University, two rhesus macaque monkeys learned to
place five photographs in a particular order. The photographs were
displayed on a touch-screen computer monitor similar to those found
on ATMs. When the monkeys pressed a correct photograph, a border
appeared around it. When either monkey pressed all five photographs
in the correct order, he received a food reward. The chance of
guessing all five accurately is less than one percent.
In all, each monkey learned to order at least 18 separate series of
photographs, which included such items as a fish, a human face, a
building, a football field and a flame from a match. They underwent
three of training before being tested.
In some of the training trials, the monkeys had to figure out the
correct order themselves, while in others, they had the option of
getting help by pushing an icon in the corner of the screen that
caused the border of the correct photograph to flash. They were
rewarded with an M&M candy each time they correctly completed the
task without help and with a less desirable food pellet when they
completed the task with hints from the help icon. After three days,
the monkeys were tested without the benefit of the help icon.
"Both monkeys did much better if they had studied without a hint than
if they had studied with a hint," Kornell said. "The monkeys did much
better on the first three days when they had the help than when they
didn't, but on the test day, it completely reversed. When they
studied with the hint, there is no evidence they learned anything
about the list. They learned the lists when they didn't get the
help." The findings are closely related to findings in humans that
recalling answers from memory enhances long-term learning.
"The findings were somewhat unintuitive, because passively using the
hint appeared to enhance performance during the study phase of the
experiment but had a deleterious effect on long-term learning,"
Kornell said.
What are the implications for human learning?
"Many people incorrectly assume the better you do as you're studying,
the more you're learning," said Kornell, who works in the laboratory
of Robert A. Bjork, professor and chair of psychology at UCLA. "If
students don't test themselves when they read a chapter, they can
easily think they know the material when they don't. When you test
yourself as you study, you may feel like you're making it harder on
yourself, but on the test, you will do much better. Robert Bjork
calls this 'desirable difficulty.' If you want to learn something
well, when you're reading, stop and think about what you've read, and
test yourself; you learn by testing yourself. If you make it more
difficult for yourself while you study, you feel like you're doing
worse, but you're learning more.
"Active learning is important in humans and -- this study
demonstrates -- in monkeys as well," he added.
Less effective passive learning includes listening to a presentation
and reading without testing yourself or summarizing what you have
learned.
"When you summarize the material in your own words, that's much more
active," Kornell said. "You can't do that if you don't understand it."
Cramming right before a test does not work as well as spacing
studying out over a longer period of time, Kornell added, citing
other research on learning and memory.
Kornell's research, supported by the National Institute of Mental
Health, was conducted with Herbert Terrace, a professor of psychology
at Columbia. The two monkeys, Macduff and Oberon, are housed at the
New York State Psychiatric Institute, where Terrace has a joint
appointment. Neither animal was harmed in the study, and they were
fed daily regardless of how they performed in the trials.
"Many people," Kornell noted, "have had the experience of listening
to a computer instructor open a menu and go through a series of
steps. Then you try to do it, and you don't even know which menu or
what the first step is. If you are passively following along, you
won't remember it as well as if you're forced to do it yourself.
Active learning is much harder, but if you can do it successfully,
you will remember it much better in the long run.
"If you're learning to serve a tennis ball, you won't get much out of
an instructor taking your arm and practicing the swing over and
over," he said. "That's not going to help you nearly as much as if
you serve the ball yourself."
The situation is the same for monkeys, according to Kornell.
"The way the monkeys learn to remember the correct answers is through
active learning, like humans," he said. "They have to generate the
answers themselves from memory. Generating the correct sequence from
memory resulted in more long-term learning than the more passive
training with hints."
Kornell noted that more than a century ago, author William James
remarked on the importance of being actively involved in learning.
Since then, science has proven him correct. Kornell also noted that
his research confirms the teachings of another monkey: Curious George.
Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by
University of California - Los Angeles.
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