Same-different conceptualization: evolutionary, developmental and neurocognitive implications for behavioral science

• Published in: Current opinion in behavioral sciences 2021-02, Vol.37, p.153-157
• Main Authors: Flemming, Timothy M, Thompson, Roger KR
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 2352-1546; 2352-1554
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cobeha.2020.12.006

•Success in relational matching by monkeys is conditional.•Marked individual differences in reaching and/or maintaining performance criteria in matching relations exist.•Abstraction of same/different concepts seems constrained by context/domain.•Cognitive limitations in executive control and working memory load likely limit the ability generally to match relations. There is compelling evidence over many decades of the ability of old-world and new-world monkeys to judge absolute stimulus properties (i.e. form, size and color) to be the same or different. However, when it comes to judging relations-between-relations to be the same or different the answer is, regardless of species or task, some can, but definitely not all of them. Here, we review the evidence over the past 20 years for these constrained successes in relational matching by both old-monkeys and new-monkeys and the challenges they present for their prior labelling of ‘paleological’ monkeys.