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Inferences about guessing and knowing by chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)
D J Povinelli1, K E Nelson, S T Boysen
1Department of Anthropology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520.
Journal of Comparative Psychology (Washington, D.C. : 1983)
|September 1, 1990
Summary
Chimpanzees demonstrated visual perspective-taking skills by choosing a knowledgeable experimenter over an uninformed one. This suggests chimpanzees can understand what others see, a key aspect of social cognition.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Ethology
- Primate Behavior
- Theory of Mind
Background:
- Understanding visual perspective-taking is crucial for social cognition.
- Investigating this ability in non-human primates offers insights into the evolution of complex social behaviors.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the visual perspective-taking ability in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).
- To determine if chimpanzees can differentiate between an informed and an uninformed individual regarding hidden information.
Main Methods:
- Four chimpanzees participated in a task involving two experimenters with alternating roles (guesser and knower).
- Subjects observed one experimenter (knower) hiding food and received cues from both experimenters, one of whom had partial information.
- A novel variation tested transfer of learning when the guesser was present but blindfolded.
Main Results:
- Chimpanzees consistently chose the correct cup based on cues from the 'knower'.
- Subjects successfully transferred this learning to the novel task variation.
- Performance indicates an understanding of the other's visual field.
Conclusions:
- The findings support the hypothesis that chimpanzees possess the capacity for visual perspective-taking.
- This ability suggests a level of "theory of mind" in chimpanzees, enabling them to model others' mental states.