Apes Can Do It Too; Predicting Others’ Behavior

Using an Infrared eye tracking device and the with the help of an actor wearing a ‘King Kong’ suit. A study shows that the human skill of predicting others’ unspoken intentions are not exclusive anymore.

Among all creatures, common belief holds that only humans have the ability to anticipate different behaviors of others, also known as the great evolutionary skill. Having this skill allows humans to get ahead of others.

Another version of this skill is the ability to comprehend that someone holds a mistaken belief. By doing this, it means you totally understand what’s inside their minds. However, not only through observing their anticipated reactions in a specific situation.

Scientists conducted a test to children ages of 4; they showed them a doll named Sally put a block in a box. When Sally left, another doll named Anne showed up and moves the block. The kids were then asked where Sally would search for it. The kids figures out correctly that Sally would check the block from where she left it, knowing that it was not there anymore.

Many years ago, researchers figured out a way to conduct this test to toddlers ages 2. The same “sally” scenario was given to them only this time, using an eye-tracking device to see where the toddlers think Sally is going. Researchers were surprised to discover the toddlers were able to predict that Sally would act on her incorrect belief.

These experimental studies led scientists to conduct another significant experiment. They would use the same Infrared eye tracking technology on Apes.

This experimental study led by evolutionary anthropologist Christopher Krupenye at Duke University and comparative psychologist Fumihiro Kano of Kyoto University lined up 41 chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans.

The scientists showed a string of videos to the apes featuring a man and a guy wearing a King Kong suit.

In the videos, King Kong hides a stone from the man. If the man figured what’s going on, then he will look for the rock from where King Kong left it. If not, then he didn’t.

To make sure Apes really understand what’s going on, the researchers showed another scene in which King Kong hides in one of the haystacks. Sometimes the man sees where King Kong is going, and sometimes not. With the help of the eye-tracking device, the scientist determined the movement of the apes’ eyes. They then made some conclusions on what runs through their minds.

This experimental study confirmed that Apes can really think and understand like humans, and were able to identify right and wrong.

Thanks to these results, the claim that only humans can ascertain the mental states of others “is starting to wobble”. Primatologist Frans de Waal of the Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory University, stated this in a commentary included in the study.

Body language, Not Mind Reading

Krupenye and company wrote that this ability possibly developed originally in a hominid forebear we shared with the apes.

De Waal agrees, saying the results highlight “the mental continuity between great apes and humans.”

“Reading others’ minds is beyond anybody’s capacity,” he wrote. “All we can do — and what apes apparently do in similar ways — is read bodies.”

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