Study Finds 48 Great Apes Show Stable Cognitive Profiles, Diverging From Human Social Cognition
Updated
Updated · BIOENGINEER.ORG · Jun 18
Study Finds 48 Great Apes Show Stable Cognitive Profiles, Diverging From Human Social Cognition
3 articles · Updated · BIOENGINEER.ORG · Jun 18
Summary
Forty-eight bonobos, chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans tracked for 18 months showed stable individual cognitive differences rather than a single species-wide pattern, according to a Psychological Science study.
Six tests found performance was shaped by social group, prior research exposure, sex and rearing history, reinforcing the view that ape cognition develops through individual life experience.
Social-cue tasks such as following a human’s attention did not strongly correlate with one another, while nonsocial reasoning tasks did, pointing to a cognitive structure unlike humans’.
The findings challenge human-centered comparative tests and bolster calls for species-specific, longitudinal methods to study ape minds, with potential implications for welfare and conservation programs.