Chimpanzee Mind Research Articles

Chimpanzee mind reading: Don't stop believing

AbstractSince the question “Do chimpanzees have a theory of mind?” was raised in 1978, scientists have attempted to answer it, and philosophers have attempted to clarify what the question means and whether it has been, or could be, answered. Mindreading (a term used mostly by philosophers) or theory of mind (a term preferred by scientists) refers to the ability to attribute mental states to other individuals. Some versions of the question focus on whether chimpanzees engage in belief reasoning or can think about false belief, and chimpanzees have been given nonverbal versions of the false belief moved‐object task (also known as the Sally–Anne task). Other versions of the question focus on whether chimpanzees understand what others can see, and chimpanzees can pass those tests. From this data, some claim that chimpanzees know something about perceptions, but nothing about belief. Others claim that chimpanzees do not understand belief or perceptions, because the data fails to overcome the “logical problem,” and permits an alternative, non‐mentalistic interpretation. I will argue that neither view is warranted. Belief reasoning in chimpanzees has focused on examining false belief in a moved object scenario, but has largely ignored other functions of belief. The first part of the paper is an argument for how to best understand belief reasoning and offers suggestion for future investigation. The second part of the paper addresses and diffuses the “logical problem.” I conclude that chimpanzees may reason about belief, but that there is already compelling evidence that they reason about perceptions.

Imagination: Human mind viewed from the study of chimpanzee mind

Imagination: Human mind viewed from the study of chimpanzee mind

How abnormal is the behaviour of captive, zoo-living chimpanzees?

BackgroundMany captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) show a variety of serious behavioural abnormalities, some of which have been considered as possible signs of compromised mental health. The provision of environmental enrichments aimed at reducing the performance of abnormal behaviours is increasing the norm, with the housing of individuals in (semi-)natural social groups thought to be the most successful of these. Only a few quantitative studies of abnormal behaviour have been conducted, however, particularly for the captive population held in zoological collections. Consequently, a clear picture of the level of abnormal behaviour in zoo-living chimpanzees is lacking.MethodsWe present preliminary findings from a detailed observational study of the behaviour of 40 socially-housed zoo-living chimpanzees from six collections in the United States of America and the United Kingdom. We determined the prevalence, diversity, frequency, and duration of abnormal behaviour from 1200 hours of continuous behavioural data collected by focal animal sampling.Results, Conclusion and SignificanceOur overall finding was that abnormal behaviour was present in all sampled individuals across six independent groups of zoo-living chimpanzees, despite the differences between these groups in size, composition, housing, etc. We found substantial variation between individuals in the frequency and duration of abnormal behaviour, but all individuals engaged in at least some abnormal behaviour and variation across individuals could not be explained by sex, age, rearing history or background (defined as prior housing conditions). Our data support a conclusion that, while most behaviour of zoo-living chimpanzees is ‘normal’ in that it is typical of their wild counterparts, abnormal behaviour is endemic in this population despite enrichment efforts. We suggest there is an urgent need to understand how the chimpanzee mind copes with captivity, an issue with both scientific and welfare implications.

The chimpanzee mind: in search of the evolutionary roots of the human mind

The year 2008 marks the 60th anniversary of Japanese primatology. Kinji Imanishi (1902-1992) first visited Koshima island in 1948 to study wild Japanese monkeys,and to explore the evolutionary origins of human society. This year is also the 30th anniversary of the Ai project:the chimpanzee Ai first touched the keyboard connected to a computer system in 1978. This paper summarizes the historical background of the Ai project,whose principal aim is to understand the evolutionary origins of the human mind. The present paper also aims to present a theoretical framework for the discipline called comparative cognitive science (CCS). CCS is characterized by the collective efforts of researchers employing a variety of methods, together taking a holistic approach to understand the minds of nonhuman animals. While the researchers of animals usually carry out experiments in the laboratory and conduct observational studies in the natural habitat, a different permutation is also possible. Field experiments can be carried out in the natural habitat, and observational studies can be in the laboratory. Such a two-by -two- contingency table based on location and research method thus provides the basis for a holistic approach. CCS provides a unique window on understanding the chimpanzee mind as a whole. The studies of the chimpanzee mind may also result in illuminating the evolutionary roots of the human mind.

Chimpanzee mind: Primate origins of human cognition and behavior

Chimpanzee mind: Primate origins of human cognition and behavior

比較認知科学:アイ・プロジェクトの30年

This paper aims to reflect the 30 years of Ai project that started in 1978. Ai project started as a sort of ape-language project. However, it was uniquely different from the previous studies in terms of the computer-interfaced system and the introduction of psychophysical measurement. The original version of Ai project may be summarized as an attempt to know the perceptual world of a nonhuman animal. It combined the psychological studies on learning and perception and utilized the language-like skill as a window through which we can access to the chimpanzee mind. This paper put the Ai project in a historical context, summed up the research results, showed the fieldwork on the wild chimpanzees, and illuminated the establishment and the perspective of a new discipline named Comparative Cognitive Science.

Why Some Apes Imitate and/or Emulate Observed Behavior and Others Do Not: Fact, Theory, and Implications for Our Kind

We suggest that it is a disservice to psychology and to our understanding of the minds of chimpanzees (as well as other species) to hold any one individual or small group of individuals responsible as representatives for the entire species. This is especially nonproductive in the case of reports of negative performance in various tests of cognitive skill. We focus on the issue of why some chimpanzees may imitate whereas others do not. We focus also on the role of early rearing and individual differences that emerge from such rearing. Accounting for these differences and what may have caused them is crucial in truly understanding the chimpanzee mind.

Our chimpanzee mind

Some might consider the title of this piece preposterous. Bishop Wilberforce would no doubt have shaken his fist at it, just as he disputed Huxley's championing of darwinian continuity. But the title of this essay is no more outrageous than one entitled 'The chimpanzee's bird brain', for there has been extensive evolutionary conservation of many neural and psychological functions across species. We share with chimpanzees some--but not all--mental functions, some of which are shared with other species as well. As the publication of the chimpanzee genome reveals, we also share a good deal of our DNA. Unfortunately, we are virtually in the dark when it comes to understanding how genes build minds. If comparative genomics is to enlighten our understanding of human origins, it must be accompanied by an equally rich description of animal psychology, both in terms of its underlying neural signatures and the evolutionary processes that led to convergence and divergence with other species.

We Don’t Need a Microscope to Explore the Chimpanzee's Mind

Abstract: The question of whether chimpanzees, like humans, reason about unobservable mental states remains highly controversial. On one account, chimpanzees are seen as possessing a psychological system for social cognition that represents and reasons about behaviors alone. A competing account allows that the chimpanzee's social cognition system additionally construes the behaviors it represents in terms of mental states. Because the range of behaviors that each of the two systems can generate is not currently known, and because the latter system depends upon the former, determining the presence of this latter system in chimpanzees is a far more difficult task than has been assumed. We call for recognition of this problem, and a shift from experimental paradigms that cannot resolve this question, to ones that might allow researchers to intelligently determine when it is necessary to postulate the presence of a system which reasons about both behavior and mental states.

The Ai project: historical and ecological contexts.

This paper aims to review a long-term research project exploring the chimpanzee mind within historical and ecological contexts. The Ai project began in 1978 and was directly inspired by preceding ape-language studies conducted in Western countries. However, in contrast with the latter, it has focused on the perceptual and cognitive capabilities of chimpanzees rather than communicative skills between humans and chimpanzees. In the original setting, a single chimpanzee faced a computer-controlled apparatus and performed various kinds of matching-to-sample discrimination tasks. Questions regarding the chimpanzee mind can be traced back to Wolfgang Koehler's work in the early part of the 20th century. Yet, Japan has its unique natural and cultural background: it is home to an indigenous primate species, the Japanese snow monkey. This fact has contributed to the emergence of two previous projects in the wild led by the late Kinji Imanishi and his students. First, the Koshima monkey project began in 1948 and became famous for its discovery of the cultural propagation of sweet-potato washing behavior. Second, pioneering work in Africa, starting in 1958, aimed to study great apes in their natural habitat. Thanks to the influence of these intellectual ancestors, the present author also undertook the field study of chimpanzees in the wild, focusing on tool manufacture and use. This work has demonstrated the importance of social and ecological perspectives even for the study of the mind. Combining experimental approaches with a field setting, the Ai project continues to explore cognition and behavior in chimpanzees, while its focus has shifted from the study of a single subject toward that of the community as a whole.

ESSAYS ON SCIENCE AND SOCIETY: Learning from the Chimpanzees: A Message Humans Can Understand

ESSAYS ON SCIENCE AND SOCIETY: Learning from the Chimpanzees: A Message Humans Can Understand