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Exploration of virtual mazes by rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta)

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Abstract

A chasm divides the huge corpus of maze studies found in the literature, with animals tested in mazes on the one side and humans tested with mazes on the other. Advances in technology and software have made possible the production and use of virtual mazes, which allow humans to navigate computerized environments and thus for humans and nonhuman animals to be tested in comparable spatial domains. In the present experiment, this comparability is extended even further by examining whether rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) can learn to explore virtual mazes. Four male macaques were trained to manipulate a joystick so as to move through a virtual environment and to locate a computer-generated target. The animals succeeded in learning this task, and located the target even when it was located in novel alleys. The search pattern within the maze for these animals resembled the pattern of maze navigation observed for monkeys that were tested on more traditional two-dimensional computerized mazes.

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Notes

  1. Throughout this article, responses to the virtual maze are described using the terminology of traversing a real maze. Of course, when the cursor was moved upward, the animal did not literally move forward through the maze; rather, the screen image continuously changed when the joystick was moved to give the appearance of movement through space (i.e., stimuli got larger, providing the perspective that they were getting closer). The monkeys may not have seen these changes as "moving through the maze"—indeed, this issue motivated experiment 2. Notwithstanding, it is much easier and clearer to describe the animals' behavior as if they were advancing and turning within the virtual maze.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by grants from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (HD38051) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NAG2–1271) to Georgia State University. Additional support was provided by the College of Arts and Sciences of Georgia State University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30303, USA

    David A. Washburn

  2. Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA

    Robert S. Astur

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  1. David A. Washburn
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  2. Robert S. Astur
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Correspondence to David A. Washburn.

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Washburn, D.A., Astur, R.S. Exploration of virtual mazes by rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta). Anim Cogn 6, 161–168 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-003-0173-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-003-0173-z

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