Positive reinforcement training as a technique to alter nonhuman primate behavior: Quantitative assessments of effectiveness (2003)

Schapiro, S. J., Bloomsmith, M. A., Laule, G. E.

Abstract

Empirical analyses quantified the amount of time required to train group-housed rhesus monkeys to come up, station, target, and stay. Twenty-four of the 26 monkeys who were successfully trained to station also were reliably trained to touch their targets on command. A mean of slightly more than 5 hr of total training time was required to meet criterion for this behavior. The fastest monkeys required only 55 min to achieve reliability, and 14 montkeys were trained to criterion in less than 3.5 hr.