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Chimpanzee intellect: personality, performance and motivation with touchscreen tasks.
Drew M Altschul1,2, Emma K Wallace2,3, Ruth Sonnweber4
1Department of Psychology, School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
Royal Society Open Science
|June 3, 2017
Summary
Chimpanzee personality traits, like conscientiousness and openness, influence their cognitive task performance and participation. These findings suggest that animal cognition is also shaped by individual personality, similar to humans.
Area of Science:
- Comparative psychology
- Animal cognition
- Behavioral science
Background:
- Human intellect involves interconnected domains like intelligence, academic performance, and personality.
- Personality traits such as openness and conscientiousness correlate with human cognitive performance.
- Limited research exists on personality-cognition links in non-human species, especially tracking learning and performance over time.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between personality traits and cognitive performance in chimpanzees.
- To examine how conscientiousness and openness affect participation, learning, performance, and dropout rates in cognitive tasks.
- To determine if personality influences cognitive abilities in chimpanzees similarly to humans.
Main Methods:
- Conducted three participatory experiments using touchscreen cognitive tasks with 19 zoo-housed chimpanzees.
- Assessed chimpanzee personalities three years prior to the cognitive experiments.
- Recorded performance, participation, and dropout data across all experimental sessions.
Main Results:
- High conscientiousness chimpanzees showed increased participation, reduced dropout, and better performance, though experience mediated this.
- High openness chimpanzees displayed greater interest, improved performance, and sustained participation even without food rewards.
- Personality traits significantly impacted chimpanzee engagement and success in cognitive tasks.
Conclusions:
- Chimpanzees exhibit broad intellectual capacities influenced by their distinct personality traits.
- The study highlights parallels between human and chimpanzee cognitive-personality relationships.
- Personality plays a crucial role in shaping cognitive performance and learning trajectories in non-human primates.
