Scientists placed monkeys in a cage with a ladder containing bananas. Any monkey climbing the ladder would cause all monkeys to be sprayed with cold water. Over time, monkeys stopped climbing the ladder and instead beat up any monkey that tried to climb to avoid the cold water punishment. When monkeys were substituted, the new monkeys learned this behavior without experiencing the cold water themselves and continued beating any monkey trying to climb the ladder, though none of them knew why this was the rule anymore. This experiment showed how learned behaviors and paradigms can persist even if the original reason for them is forgotten.