Phylogeny of mentalising: Do Apes have a ToM?

Question 1

which seminal paper first studied whether the chimpanzee has a ToM?

Answer 1

Premack & Woodruff (1978) using the chimp ‘sarah’

Question 2

describe results of Premack & Woodruff (1978) study investigating whether the chimpanzee has a ToM?

Answer 2

• chimp offered correct solution to actor’s problems using a key
• suggests she could infer actor’s intentions

Question 3

what is a criticism of Premack & Woodruff (1978) study investigating whether the chimpanzee has a ToM?

Answer 3

chimpanzee was trained 5x a week on cognitive tasks, had been in lab for a long time and now 14

• can we generalise to animals in the wild?

Question 4

what would the povinelli camp argue in response to the debate ‘do chimps have a ToM?

Answer 4

• chimps do not reason about others beliefs or mental states
• same behaviours, but not same underlying psychological mechanisms

Question 5

what would the tomasello camp argue in response to the debate ‘do chimps have a ToM?

Answer 5

• chimps have ToM in some respects but not others
• no evidence whether they understand false beliefs
• but understand goals and intentions, perception and knowledge of others

Question 6

describe the behavioural abstraction hypothesis (povinelli) regarding chimps ToM?

Answer 6

• chimps understand only surface level behaviour
• form behavioural rules

Question 7

what does the behavioural abstraction hypothesis (povinelli) posit chimpanzees do?

Answer 7

• make predictions about future behaviours that follow from past behaviours
• adjust their own behaviour accordingly

Question 8

how does tomasello argue beyond behavioural rules in chimps?

Answer 8

• highly social (need to anticipate what others do)
• observing previous behaviour & deriving set of behavioural rules enables behavioural prediction
• inferring states not only in previously observed situations but also in novel ones
• need to anticipate actions based on goals and intentions

Question 9

describe the 2 conditions in Buttleman et al’s (2007) goal/intention study

Answer 9

condition 1: hands free but used foot

condition 2: hands not free so must use food - holding bucket

Question 10

describe the research question asked by Buttleman et al’s (2007) goal/intention study

Answer 10

would chimps only imitate foot action when it seems like experimenter intends to use his foot (has a purpose for doing so)?

Question 11

what does altruistic helping require? (Warneken & Tomasello, 2006)

Answer 11

cognition (understand of another’s goals)

altruistic motivation (no benefit/costly)

Question 11

describe the results of Buttleman et al’s (2007) goal/intention study

Answer 11

• 6 chimps imitated experimenter’s novel action when he seemed to do it intentionally
• not when this was due to physical constraint
• chimps must understand other’s goals and intentions

Question 12

what were the four categories in Warneken & Tomasello, 2006 study into altruistic helping?

Answer 12

1) out of reach
2) access thwarted by physical object
3) achieving wrong result (tries to stack blocks)
4) using wrong means (tries to reach something but goes through wrong door)

Question 13

describe the 3 request phases in Warneken & Tomasello, 2006 study into altruistic helping?

Answer 13

1) 10s focus - verbalises difficulty
2) 10s alternate gaze
3) 10s verbalise - ask for help

Question 14

describe results of Warneken & Tomasello, 2006 study into altruistic helping?

Answer 14

• children & chimps both willing to help without reward/praise
• chimps helped more in reaching tasks than other tasks
• infants responded very quickly (every child helped in initial 10s phase - did not need to verbalise or make eye contact) - took longer in chimps

Question 15

what is a criticism of Warneken & Tomasello, 2006 study into altruistic helping?

Answer 15

chimps reared in captivity - in the wild, chimpanzees more interested in competition than cooperation

Question 16

how do the findings from Warneken & Tomasello, 2006 study into altruistic helping contradict povinelli’s behavioural abstraction hypothesis?

Answer 16

chimps show understanding of goals or intentions in novel scenarios where they wouldn’t be able to rely upon behavioural predictions from past, yet still able to reason about other’s intentions

Question 17

what is well documented in infancy? (Butterworth & Jarrett, 1991; Maurer & Salapatek, 1976)

Answer 17

early sensitivity to eye gaze in infancy

Question 18

when do infants begin to follow eye gaze? (D’Entremont et al., 1997)

Answer 18

6 months

Question 19

contrary to infants, what do apes rely on more when following eye gaze?

Answer 19

on head direction rather than eye direction - Povinelli & Eddy (1996) & Tomasello et al (2007)

Question 20

how did Povinelli & Preuss (1995) & Povinelli & Eddy (1995) investigate what chimps know about seeing?

Answer 20

• do chimps beg for food from 2 diff carers?
• one carer has blindfold over eyes = cannot see chimp begging
• one carer with blindfold over mouth = can see chimp begging
• same stimuli used for both carers

Question 21

describe results from Povinelli & Preuss (1995) & Povinelli & Eddy (1995) study investigating what chimps know about seeing?

Answer 21

• begging is indiscriminate
• just as likely to beg for food from both carers
• chimps don’t understand what seeing means
• oblivious to psychological distinction
• cannot reason about what someone can see

Question 22

describe Kaminski et al (2004) study which provides positive evidence for chimps reasoning about seeing?

Answer 22

• person sitting who could give food
• varied orientation they were sat
• eyes open vs eyes closed vs back
• front face vs front no face vs back face vs back no face

Question 23

describe results of Kaminski et al (2004) study which provides positive evidence for chimps reasoning about seeing?

Answer 23

• chimps begged more when being watched (eyes open)
• sensitive to both body and face orientation but not eyes
• differences to someone facing backwards vs facing them
• did not show difference to someone facing backwards whilst looking at them vs facing backwards not looking

Question 24

describe the competitive paradigm (Hare, Call & Tomasello, 2001)

Answer 24

• no humans
• reasoning about another ape
• no training
• food hidden in way where subordinate chimp could see what was hidden
• dominant chimp either able to see where food was (blind down or not)

Question 25

what were the findings of the competitive paradigm (Hare, Call & Tomasello, 2001)

Answer 25

• subordinate chimp retrieves food when they know dominant chimp cannot see food
• suggests chimps can reason about other’s knowledge on basis of what others have/have not seen

Question 26

what is the behavioural abstraction interpretation of the findings of the competitive paradigm (Hare, Call & Tomasello, 2001)

Answer 26

“dominant chimp present & facing food when it was placed, likely to go after it”

“dominant chimp not present when food placed, less likely to go after it”

Question 27

in the face and chest trial in Hare et al (2006) study showing chimps show visual perspective taking, how did chimps behave?

Answer 27

chimpanzees approach from back - reason lady is less likely to grab food for herself

Question 28

describe the 2 conditions in the replication of Hare et al (2006) study using a barrier?

Answer 28

transparent window vs an opaque window

Question 29

describe Melis, Call & Tomasello’s (2006) study into auditory perspective taking in chimps?

Answer 29

• experimenter sat with head down (couldn’t see food)
• left door to get food = silent
• right door to get food = noisy

Question 30

describe the results of Melis, Call & Tomasello’s (2006) study into auditory perspective taking in chimps?

Answer 30

• chimps preferred to reach through a silent door/tunnel rather than noisy in presence of human competitor for food
• suggests they’re sensitive to what others can hear
• able to manipulate auditory perception of competitor

Question 31

what were the results of the first test for FB understanding in chimps? (Call & Tomasello)

Answer 31

none of the apes passed

Question 32

do apes fail to solve FB tasks in lab?

Answer 32

yes, until 2016