Monkeys OUTSMART humans in problem solving exercise to win food in test of cognitive flexibility

New research shows that monkeys outperform humans in a test meant to measure cognitive flexibility. The experiment, conducted by a team of psychology researchers at George State University, pitted humans against capuchin and rhesus macaque monkeys. Both groups were asked to interact with a touchscreen computer that featured four squares with different patterns in them. When subjects pressed on the squares in the right sequence, a triangle would appear in place of one of the squares, and when pressed the triangle would produce a reward. For the monkeys, the reward was a banana pellet, and for humans it was either a short audio jingle or a sign of points being tallied up.