Want that “A” in Biology? Monkeys Teach Humans the Secret To Academic Excellence

Psychologists have found that monkeys learn in the same way as humans, and have unlocked a few secrets on academic excellence. By taking some notes from these “monkey professors”, you’ll be on your way to improving your intellectual performance.

“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.”

Rhesus macaque monkeys, Macduff and Oberon, learned to place photographs in a particular order using images 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 photographs in the correct order, he received a food reward. Neither animal was harmed in the study, and they were fed daily regardless of how they performed in the trials.

In all, each monkey learned to order more than 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. So what was their secret to good test-taking?

In some of the training trials, the monkeys had to figure out the correct order themselves, while in others, they had the option of receiving a hint 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.

So what are the implications for human academics?

“Many people incorrectly assume the better you do as you’re studying, the more you’re learning,” said Kornell, pointing out a common mistake humans make. “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…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."

Apparently we can take a hint from another monkey—Curious George. Trying to figure out how everything works on your own provides a better education than passive listening. Maybe, that’s why George never listened to the man with the yellow hat, until he’d made a big mess by putting all assumptions to the test!

Posted by Rebecca Sato

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