Analysis of the effects of frontal lesions in monkeys. III. Object alternation.

Abstract

Four rhesus monkeys frontally ablated one year previously were trained on an object alternation task, and the results were compared with their own performance on a spatial alternation and with the object alternation performance of four monkeys with temporal lobe ablations. Frontal lesions interfered equally with both types of alternation performance. "On the basis of the results of the current experiment, the successful performance of frontal operates on delayed-response-type problems observed in earlier experiments was accounted for in terms of the "distinctiveness" which the pre-delay cues had acquired from contiguity with distinctive responses and differential reward. ".