Do you see the monkey looking at you? She knows you are ignorant: shots

Newta, Bonobo lives in the APE initiative.

APE initiative

Hide the explanatory name

Switch the explanatory name

APE initiative

People constantly look at the behavior of others and get out of ideas about what may happen in their heads. Now, a new study of Bonobos adds to evidence that it may do the same.

Specifically, some Bonobos would like to point to a treatment site when they knew that a human companion was not aware of the place where he was hidden, according to Ticket Which appears in The facts of the National Academy of Sciences.

The results add a long -term debate about whether humans have a unique ability to imagine and understand the mental situations of others.

Some researchers say that this type of “mind theory” may be practiced on a wider scale in the animal kingdom, and perhaps watching it at work is completely experience.

“It is a completely surrealist. I mean, I have worked with the princesses a few years ago and have not been used to it,” he says. Luke TownroPhD student at Johns Hopkins University. “We have found evidence that they are describing their communication based on what I know.”

Hmm, where is grapes?

To find out what Bonobos might know about what humans around them know, Townrow worked with her Chris Krupna Johns Hopkins University to devise a simple experience.

“It is always a challenge for us, that animals do not speak, so we cannot only ask them what they think. We have to reach creative and experimental designs that allow them to express their knowledge.” .

The study included three male bonopos, all of whom live in a non -profit education organization called the APE initiative. During each experimental experience, Townrow sat on the other side of Bonobo, which was in a container, but looking through a grid covered.

Watch Bonobo as a treatment assistant, like grapes, under one of three blue cups that were lined up respectively.

“We have created a cooperative context of this task because if you know whether the treatment or nutrient has been hidden, I will reveal that and then Bonopo will be able to receive this as a reward,” he said.

Sometimes, Townrow could see what was happening when the treatment was placed under a cup. At other times, his point of view was blocked by a barrier, so he did not know his place.

Regardless of what he or not he had, Townrw will wipe the cups for a short period, saying: “Hmm … Where is the grape?” Then wait ten seconds.

It turns out that when Townrow enjoyed an unlikely view of hidden treatment, Bonobos usually sits and waits.

But when his eyes were behind the barrier, which prevented his point of view and made him until he could not see the cup that was chosen as a place to hide, Bonobos tends to direct their fingers over the network and take advantage of the right cup.

“Certainly there are times when you can see that they are trying to strip my attention only, and indicate, indicating, because they really want to behave, but they have to wait for 10 seconds because it is a governed environment,” says Townro.

In the real world

The results were not necessarily surprised by Krupenye, as he worked with monkeys for more than a decade and had strong doubts that they understood when another is ignorant of certain information. He says he was just “very exciting” to find a way to test this so that the Punobos can express this understanding.

Although it would be good to see this study conducted with more individuals, it is a “valuable contribution” in the discussion “the theory of mind”, he says. Catherine Crocford From the Institute of Knowledge Sciences, CNRS, in Lyon, France.

“At least three of three Punobos has been connected to the ignorant more than Onloker on a know -how that was allowed to help access to food, once Bonobo provides the necessary information,” she says.

This indicates that Bonobo can keep two ideas in his minds at the same time: that Bonobo knew the site of food, and that a person may have different information about the site that needs to be updated by Bonobo.

In the past, Crockford and some colleagues found that wild chimpanzees are likely to emit alarm calls when seeing a danger like the snake if these people did not already indicate that they saw the danger.

She says: “These studies in these contexts of alert and food are not limited to the fact that the ability to be the ability is not limited to a specific and narrow context.”