Yamamoto Flashcards
Altruistically
willingness to do certain things for others, even if it disadvantages you
shared intentionality
the ability and motivation to engage with others in collaborative activities with joint goals.
empirical evidence
information that can be acquired through observation and tested using experimental methods
flexible targeted helping
where you make a choice of how to help the other person achieve a goal
- help and care based on the cognitive appreciation of the need or situation of others
conspecifics
members of the same specie
background of Yamamoto (3 points)
- humans show altruistic behaviour
- animals rarely help spontaneously, but at direct request of others. The ability to offer targeted help is linked to TOM
- previous studies show little about the cognitive mechanism underlying the helping behaviour to non-human animals, no study has empirically examined if and how chimps understand others goals
Aims of Yamamoto
To learn more about helping behaviour in chimpanzees. Specifically, to find out whether chimpanzees:
- have the ability and flexibility to UNDERSTAND the needs of conspecifics
- can RESPOND to those needs with targeted helping
- can help conspecifics without being asked
IV
‘can see’, helper can see the other’s tool-use situation
‘cannot see’
DV
percentage of voluntary offer & upon request offer
How did they operationalise ‘targeted helping’
operationalised by letting the chimps choose the correct tools to help their conspecifics
How did they operationalise ‘offer’
as the chimps holding out a tool towards the recipient
How did they operationalise ‘request’
as the recipient poking their arm through the hole
Outline the 7 steps of procedure
- familiarisation phase
- can see booth
- cannot see booth
- can see booth x2
- 48 trials, 24 stick-use, 24 straw-use
- trials ended when the recipient received the object and succeeded in obtaining the juice reward, OR after 5 mins elapsed without an object being passed
- offers were counted when the chimpanzee held out the object to recipient, whether the recipient took it or not. Only the 1st offer was counted, subsequent offers of different items were not included
Describe the familiarisation phase
8 days, 5 mins. They went through this phase each day before the trials started, they could examine and manipulate all the objects without the need to use them as tools or offer them to others
Describe the ‘can see’ booth
panel between the two chimps was transparent