A competitive nonverbal false belief task for children and apes

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Science
• Comparative Psychology
• Primatology

Background:

• Understanding false beliefs is a key aspect of theory of mind.
• Great apes (chimpanzees and bonobos) have shown varying abilities in social cognition tasks.
• Previous research suggests apes may struggle in competitive contexts.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess false belief understanding in children and two great ape species using a nonverbal task.
• To investigate if a competitive task design influences ape performance on false belief tasks.
• To explore potential implicit or uncertain cognitive processes in apes.

Main Methods:

• A nonverbal false belief task was administered to 5-year-old children, chimpanzees, and bonobos.
• Two versions of the task were used, one with a competitor leaving the room (A) and one with the competitor turning around (B).
• Performance was measured by the participant's choice of container to retrieve a reward.

Main Results:

• Children successfully identified the correct container, indicating an understanding of the competitor's false belief.
• Apes did not correctly choose the container in either version of the task.
• In version A, apes looked more at the unchosen container in false belief trials compared to true belief trials.

Conclusions:

• Children demonstrate a clear understanding of false beliefs in this nonverbal, competitive paradigm.
• Great apes, chimpanzees and bonobos, did not exhibit explicit false belief understanding.
• Apes' looking behavior in one condition suggests a possible implicit or nascent understanding that warrants further investigation.