[Cognitive activity during the recognition of a different number of objects in the adolescent chimpanzee]

The ability of adolescent chimpanzee (5-7 years old) to recognise and generalize flat pictures of discrete amounts has been studied. A set of tasks (19 signal pairs) with pictures of different number of objects was used. Situational conditional reflexes of chimpanzee were developed in conditions of free behavior. Chimpanzee were taught to choose a large number of pictures. Reversion ability at conversion of signal value of irritants was examined. It is shown that chimpanzee are able to transfer the early developed knowledge to choose larger picture to larger number of objects. It points to rather developed function of generalization, and ability to make abstracts. Resolution of tasks with reversion appeared to be difficult for chimpanzee. Correlation between the ability to solve tasks of different complexity, latent period of choice and etiological indexes is revealed. Both common regularities and individual differences in formation of complex behaviour of chimpanzee are established.