Experimental analyses on cultural behaviors in a troop of Japanese monkeys: acquisition and transmission of token-use behavior.

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The first experiment was designed to study if Japanese monkeys were able to acquire new behavior which involved usage of token to obtain a grain of soybean under a semi-natural group setting. A troop of Japanese monkeys kept in a corral(WAKASA group in Inuyama;N=26) who had long experience to press a key to obtain soybean were used for this study. Picking up one of the balls scattered around the intelligence panel and dropping it into the receiving tray on the panel activated the feeder for a grain of soybean. Behaviors of monkeys shown near the panel were recorded in a hand held computer by the experimenter who was able to name all the members of the troop. First monkeys were adapted to golfballs until they ceased biting the balls. No spontaneous drops of the ball was observed for six sessions, even after the experimenter had acted as a model showing monkeys how to use a ball to obtain a soybean. Then, the experimenter teached two monkeys who showed continual attention to the panel. The method of successive approximation in operant conditioning was applied. Eventually a young female succeeded in learning to carry a ball from distant site and drop into the tray. Obsevation continued for several sessions to gather the transmission to other members of the troop. However no imitator was found even in a few months later. These results suggested that imiation might not play important roll in transmission of cultural behaviors in natural troops of Japanese monkeys.