... sure that social learning caused the other monkeys to imitate Imo. Also is the fact that operant conditioning plays a role in the findings of this study for two reasons. The first being that the monkeys only went onto the beach as they were being rewarded to do so, they had learnt the behaviour through rewarding, the key concept of operant conditioning. Also, Imo found the sweet potatoes tasted better once washed so if other monkeys tried it once and found it tasted better and so repeated the behaviour, again they were being rewarded for a certain behaviour. Although the study does have some extraneous variables it is a good indication of the role social learning has in the behaviour in NHA's. It shows that animals imitate each other and learn this way, they socialise and pick up knew skills. A human example of this can be found in studies of anorexia ...

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