Chimpanzees

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Chimpanzees

A new study has shown that chimpanzees may be able to determine whether their partners know they are in
danger. This suggests that these primates are able to decide how ignorant or informed their peers are about
an unexpected situation.

The finding, made by a team of researchers at Ohio State University's Comparative Cognition Project,
suggests that chimps share with humans the ability to perceive the knowledge state of a peer, and perhaps
the intention to protect that peer.

Earlier experiments with both rhesus and Japanese macaque monkeys failed to show the same abilities in
those animals. These new results strengthen the argument that in some ways, chimpanzees are closer to
humans than they are to other primates.

The studies were presented Aug. 16 in Chicago at the annual meeting of the American Psychological
Association. Sally Boysen, associate professor of psychology at Ohio State and director of the project, said
the fundamental question for the test was whether one chimpanzee could tell if another was ignorant of a
specific situation, in this case, of a threat or a reward.

Boysen and her colleagues tested three pairs of chimpanzees at the Ohio State colony. Two adult males,
Kermit and Darrell, who had been together for 18 years, were tested, along with a pair of females, Sarah
and Abagail, and a male and female -- Bobby and Sheba.

For the tests, Boysen modeled both a treat and a threat to the chimps. She used grapes, a food the chimps
...

Submitted by: digitalessays
Date Submitted: 02-06-06 9:04am
Category: Social Issues
Words: 803
Pages: 3.21