Chimps vs. Humans
The NY Times is reporting on a recent study that pitted human children against chimps to figure out how we learn. Chimps were put through their paces to open an opaque box to get to food in a previous study. They were shown the steps they needed to take to open a door in the box. The steps included unnecessary steps. Surprisingly, when the chimps were given the same routine with transparent boxes, they saw that the unnecessary steps did nothing, so they skipped them and went straight for the prize. When those experiments were repeated with children, they imitated what they were taught even when they could reason that some steps were irrelevant.
Does this make chimps smarter thank kids? Not necessarily. It does tell us a few things about cognitive processes however. Chimps focus on their goal, while children are hardwired to learn by imitation. Probably goes some length in explaining why it's hard to change something that's been learned, no matter how logical it is to make the change.
Related reading:
Does this make chimps smarter thank kids? Not necessarily. It does tell us a few things about cognitive processes however. Chimps focus on their goal, while children are hardwired to learn by imitation. Probably goes some length in explaining why it's hard to change something that's been learned, no matter how logical it is to make the change.
Related reading:
- Causal knowledge and imitation/emulation switching in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and children (Homo sapiens) [PDF] -- Horner & Whiten, Journal of Animal Cognition.
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