The #1 source for news about monkeys and apes

[<miahzinn AT monkeylove.net>]

http://www.boingboing.net/2005/03/07/monkeys_think_about_.html

<from boing boing>

Yale psychologists report that rhesus monkeys think about whether 
they'll be seen by others before swiping food that doesn't belong to 
them. Essentially, they check to see where their "competitors" are 
looking before they act. From a press release about the study, 
published in this week's issue of the scientific journal Current 
Biology:

"These latest results... suggest that rhesus monkeys can do much more 
than just follow the gaze of others; they can also deduce what others 
see and know, based only on their perception of where others are 
looking. These data potentially push back the time during which our own 
abilities to "read the minds of others" must have evolved. Moreover, 
they suggest strongly a reason why these abilities may have evolved in 
the first place, namely for competitive interactions with others. 
Finally, these results lay the groundwork for investigating the neural 
basis for this kind of social reasoning in a readily available 
laboratory animal – an urgent endeavor for developing a better neural 
understanding of diseases such as autism, in which this kind of social 
reasoning appears impaired."

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-03/cp-rmc030305.php