Chimpanzees are more skilful in competitive than in cooperative cognitive tasks
In a series of four experiments, chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes, were given two cognitive tasks, an object choice task and a discrimination task (based on location), each in the context of either cooperation or competition. In both tasks chimpanzees performed more skilfully when competing than when cooperating, with some evidence that competition with conspecifics was especially […]
Ontogeny and phylogeny: both are essential to human-sensitive behaviour in the genus Canis
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Great apes’ (Pan troglodytes, Pan paniscus, Gorilla gorilla, Pongo pygmaeus) understanding of tool functional properties after limited experience
Primates’ understanding of tool functionality has been investigated extensively using a paradigm in which subjects are presented with a tool that they must use to obtain an out-of-reach reward. After being given experience on an initial problem, monkeys can transfer their skill to tools of different shapes while ignoring irrelevant tool changes (e.g., color). In […]
Are great apes tested with an abject object-choice task?
A surprising finding in comparative social cognition is that great apes seem to have difficulties understanding others’ communicative behaviour. In no other paradigm is this more evident than in the object-choice task in which subjects use a human cue, such as pointing, to infer the correct choice of a reward hidden in one of a […]