The Development, Maintenance, and Mathematical Description of Tracking Behavior in Man and the Rhesus Monkey.

Abstract

The overall objective of this research was to explore several possible training methods to produce efficient compensatory tracking in the rhesus monkey. Various approaches were used. Several animals were successfully trained and a five-parameter model was developed to describe this behavior mathematically. A major finding was that no detrimental effects were evidenced following a shift from pursuit to compensatory tracking. This finding agrees with the findings of others in human tracking situations and illustrates another similarity between human and subhuman response to discrete tracking tasks. The study showed that no special retraining procedures are required to train subhuman primates on either pursuit or compensatory tracking and this feature, that of a universal training methods, was a primary goal of this research. Another major finding was that, based on the assumption that low doses of tranquilizing drugs may improve tracking efficiency of shock conditioned animals, it appears that the effect of tranquilizers was dependent as much on the individual animal as it was on dose level.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Nov 19, 1976
Accession Number
ADA038006

Entities

People

  • D. F. Mccoy
  • P. K. Bhagat

Organizations

  • University of Kentucky

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Ground and Sea Platforms

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Air Force
  • Animals
  • Chemical Warfare Agents
  • Closed Loop Systems
  • Complex Numbers
  • Corn
  • Data Acquisition
  • Efficiency
  • Equations
  • Errors
  • Food
  • Frequency
  • Identification
  • Rhesus Monkeys
  • Training
  • Tranquilizing Agents

Fields of Study

  • Biology
  • Psychology

Readers

  • Brain and Cognitive Science; Experimental Psychology; Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Computational Modeling and Simulation