Sequential learning plays a role in a variety of common tasks, such as human
language processing, animal communication, and the learning of action
sequences. In this article, we investigate sequential learning in non-human
primates from a comparative perspective, focusing on three areas: the learning
of arbitrary, fixed sequences; statistical learning; and the learning of hierarchical
structure.Although primates exhibit many similarities to humans in their
performance on sequence learning tasks, there are also important differences.
Crucially, non-human primates appear to be limited in their ability to learn and
represent the hierarchical structure of sequences.We consider the evolutionary
implications of these differences and suggest that limitations in sequential
learning may help explain why non-human primates lack human-like language