Posted on 10/17/2019 10:25:49 AM PDT by BenLurkin
Monkeys may show off their physical flexibility as they clamber over tangled tree branches, but the animals also display impressive "cognitive flexibility," or the ability to quickly change how they think about, and work to solve, a problem.
In the game, four squares appeared on screen during each trial: one striped, one spotted and two blank. In training sessions, players learned that clicking the striped square and then the spotted square would cause a blue triangle to pop up in place of one of the blank squares. Clicking the blue triangle produced a reward — in this case, an auditory whoop for humans to indicate that they had solved the puzzle, and a banana pellet for monkeys.
"They kind of like playing computer games and getting banana pellets," Watzek told Live Science. The primates voluntarily enter the testing compartment during the study and interact with the computer using a modified video game controller.
Partway through the game, the researchers introduced a shortcut: a quick-and-dirty cheat to win the game without following the established rules.
Suddenly, the blue triangle began to appear at the start of gameplay, alongside the striped and spotted squares. If a player clicked on the blue triangle immediately, they received their reward right away. This shortcut appeared in half of the subsequent trials. About 70% of the monkeys took advantage of the shortcut the very first time it appeared, and more than 20% used the strategy whenever possible.
In comparison, only one human out of 56 took the shortcut when it first appeared, and none used the strategy in every trial they could. Instead, they stuck to what they knew, clicking the striped and spotted squares in succession before daring to prod the blue triangle.
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
Gee. The Stanford Marshmallow Test as applied to comparative testing between humans and apes.
Only in this case, the apes are considered ‘smarter’ for simply grabbing that marshmallow, rather than waiting for the second.
Never trust a monkey and its kinfolk.
The humans are easier to train to do a task a certain way. Which probably makes them better employees.
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Or, maybe, these humans assumed it was just a glitch and were concerned about messing up the “study” results.
Linky?
Please stand by
They are lazy, unmotivated, lacking in curiosity, intimated by learning, or some combination thereof. Generally, I would say that humans simply lack initiative and that may be a cultural thing (perhaps they have become hypnotized by human society into believing that the greatest reward comes from seeking the status quo).
On the other hand, the squirrels and raccoons who live in my yard are extremely bright, aggressive, and curious...always figuring out new ways to beat the system (the system in this case being me).;-)
This proves that Dems evolved from monkeys.
Monkeys are better at clicking on dumb squares to get banana treats than humans.
Next time you do this dumb experiment give the humans KitKat bars and you’ll see how good they are.
I’m sick of being told that monkeys are really as smart as humans. Haven’t seen any monkey brain surgeons.
I have never, nor do I hope to, had to walk through a jail.
Point taken though.
The difference might be in motivation. The monkey might have been hungry. Would you rather have your boss pay you or just give you a “whoop” for a job well done.
Thanks. The mods fixed it.
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