Monkey See, Monkey Do

Share This Post

Monkey See, Monkey Do

It’s amazing what we can learn from monkeys, just like it’s amazing what children learn from us. Think about what you are teaching, think about the lessons you are passing on to those who come after. After all, we don’t have the excuse,”they’re wild animals, what do you expect?” We are supposed to be a civilized race, I hope someday we are.

This very interesting experience was performed in the late 1960s and here is a citation from the experience:

Below is a quotation from the experiment, in scientific Jargon: (sources cited below)

“Stephenson (1967) trained adult male and female rhesus monkeys to avoid manipulating an object and then placed individual naïve animals in a cage with a trained individual of the same age and sex and the object in question. In one case, a trained male actually pulled his naïve partner away from the previously punished manipulandum during their period of interaction, whereas the other two trained males exhibited what were described as “threat facial expressions while in a fear posture” when a naïve animal approached the manipulandum. When placed alone in the cage with the novel object, naïve males that had been paired with trained males showed greatly reduced manipulation of the training object in comparison with controls. Unfortunately, training and testing were not carried out using a discrimination procedure so the nature of the transmitted information cannot be determined, but the data are of considerable interest.”

Sources:
Stephenson, G. R. (1967). Cultural acquisition of a specific learned response among rhesus monkeys. In: Starek, D., Schneider, R., and Kuhn, H. J. (eds.), Progress in Primatology, Stuttgart: Fischer, pp. 279-288.

Mentioned in: Galef, B. G., Jr. (1976). Social Transmission of Acquired Behavior: A Discussion of Tradition and Social Learning in Vertebrates. In: Rosenblatt, J.S., Hinde, R.A., Shaw, E. and Beer, C. (eds.), Advances in the study of behavior, Vol. 6, New York: Academic Press, pp. 87-88:

More To Explore

A Potential New Treatment for Cystic Fibrosis
Cystic Fibrosis

A Potential New Treatment for Cystic Fibrosis

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is an inherited condition that affects the secretory glands in the body. Secretory glands produce sweat and mucus. While these secretions are

Facts

The Raw Truth About E-Cigarettes

The Raw Truth About e-cigarettes E-cigarettes are they really that helpful in your attempt to quit smoking?! Electronic cigarettes are smokeless, battery-operated devices shaped like

Inspiration

Benefits of Spas and Hot Tubs

Now this is some muscle therapy I can get behind! I wish I was in hot tub right now, would be lovely, I even love

infographics

You Need More Sleep!

Sleep is integral to our day to day function, but most of us are not having enough of it! The amount of sleep each one

Scroll to Top