Manipulation and learning in monkeys

The external or environmentally aroused group of motives have been shown experimentally as strong and persistent. So far as studies on monkeys are concerned, Harlow and his associates made a series of investigations on the manipulation and visual exploration of such animals (5, 6, 7, 8 and 9). They found a strong and persistent drive of manipulation to account for the mechanical puzzle learning of the monkeys in the absence of rewards aside from the manipulatory stimulus configuration. Butler and Harlow (4), using the discrimination method as part of their experimental technique, found that visual exploration as basis for discrimination learning was extremely resistant to satiation. Butler himself made a series of studies on discrimination learning in which he (1, 2, 3) used various conditions of visual and auditory stimulation and their deprivation. These pointed to the conclusion of the effectiveness of externally elicited drives.