Abstract
<title>Abstract</title> <p>Rationale Non-human primates (NHPs) and humans share highly developed visual systems and strong sensitivity to social information, creating a translational opportunity to examine socially relevant visual stimuli as reinforcers. Unlike traditional food or fluid rewards, social video stimuli permit reinforcement without ingestion-related confounds while enabling investigation of socially relevant behavioral variables. Objective Accordingly, this study tested whether affiliative social video clips could function as effective alternative reinforcers for maintaining operant responding in NHPs. Methods The robustness of short (10 sec) videos clips was tested using computer-controlled touchscreens. Concurrent choice schedules were used to assess preference for videos, followed by Progressive Ratio (PR) schedules to assess reinforcing efficacy. Results Under the concurrent choice schedules, videos were highly preferred compared to viewing a live camera feed of either the monkey at their panel (a selfie) or its social partner. Under the PR schedules, the video clips maintained responding up to an average break point of FR 32 (for the across-day PR increase) and FR 128 (for the within-session PR increase). Conclusions The data show that 10 sec video clips of conspecific monkeys engaged in affiliative social activity can robustly maintain responding, demonstrating the ability of an alternative to food or fluid reinforcement studies assessing operant analyses of behavior in NHPs.</p>