The #1 source for news about monkeys and apes

["carrie mclaren" <brooklynite282 AT gmail.com>]

Toddler Study Proves Humans Outsmart Apes
09.06.07, 12:00 AM ET
http://www.forbes.com/forbeslife/health/feeds/hscout/2007/09/06/hscout607993.html

THURSDAY, Sept. 6 (HealthDay News) -- For those needing evidence that
humans are brainier than the average ape, there's a new study showing
that toddlers are better at "social learning," compared to adult
primates.

When presented with a tube containing food or a toy,
two-and-a-half-year-olds followed an experimenter's example to
retrieve the prize, while the apes put all their energy towards simply
biting or breaking the tube.

Humans differ from the great apes because their brains are about
triple the size of their closest primate cousins. Human brains have
also developed language, symbolic math and scientific reasoning
skills.

The ability to learn by observing others enables human children to
develop social and physical skills, say researchers reporting in the
Sept. 7 issue of Science.

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
in Leipzig, Germany studied 230 subjects, including 100 chimpanzees,
30 orangutans and 100 human children 2.5 years old. The participants
were given the Primate Cognition Test Battery, which analyzes primate
thinking and problem-solving in dealing with the physical and social
world.

As part of one of the social learning tasks, the researchers
demonstrated how to pop open a plastic tube to retrieve the food or
toy inside. The children watched and copied the researcher; the apes
attempted to break the tube or pull it apart with their teeth.

All of the subjects performed equally well in terms of the physical
cognitive management of space, and in understanding concepts such as
quantities and causality. However, the children were correct in three
out of four of the social learning tests, while the two ape species
were correct only one out of three times.

"We compared three species to determine which abilities and skills are
distinctly human. The children were much better than the apes in
understanding nonverbal communications, imitating another's solution
to a problem and understanding the intentions of others," lead
researcher Esther Herrmann said in a prepared statement. This is the
first study to compare the performance of toddlers and apes on
cognitive and physical tests.

The researchers chose to test human children at two and a half years
old because that is when their physical skill level most closely
resembles the skill level of a chimpanzee. The apes ranged between
three and 21 years old.

According to the researchers, the results of the study support the
theory that human social skills give humans an evolutionary edge. A
second theory argues that humans differ in skill levels from apes as a
result of being generally more intelligent.

More information

For more on early childhood development, head to the American Academy
of Pediatrics.