What separates humans from “ the fauna ” of nature ? One of the few standout features of human intelligence is often reason to be our ability to deep translate the desire , knowledge , motif , and aim of others . Known as“theory of mind ” , this ability allows us to understand and anticipate the thought process of others , even when they are unlike or opposed to one ’s own .
Many have pushed the theme that man are the only creatures to possess this complex power , however , a novel study on our closest evolutionary cousins is now shaking this longheld presumptuousness .
Reporting their findings in theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , an international team of investigator from Kyoto University in Japan , the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany , and the University of St Andrews in Scotland has demonstrated that other member of the expectant aper family – including chimpanzees , pygmy chimpanzee , and Pongo pygmaeus – appear to own “ theory of nous . ”
While this isnot the first studyto fence this , the new researchbuilds on the squad ’s previous workto supply some of the most convincing arguments yet .
They reached this conclusion through a serial of experimentation on 47 captive bang-up apes – 29 Pan troglodytes , 14 bonobos , and four Pongo pygmaeus – at sanctuary in Japan and Germany .
In the first test , the ape honour a motion picture that showed a human actor being tricked into recall an aim was hide in a box . After the human watched the aim be put in the box , they go behind a screen , after which the physical object was moved . So , the anthropoid eff the object was not in the box , but the human still cogitate it was there . Using eye - tracking technology to record their gaze , it appeared that the ape prognosticate the human ’s false belief that the object was still in the box ( even though they were cognizant it was not ) .
To dig deeply into whether this displayed true “ possibility of mind ” , they dress up another scenario that was a little number more confusing . The ape were randomly split into two group and familiarized with one of two type of screen : a roadblock made of an unintelligible stuff and a “ trick ” roadblock ( one which appear to be unintelligible from a distance but becomes gauze-like up close ) .
The aper watched a new cinema with the same assumption as the first , but with the two new screens at drama . As expected , the apes who were used to the opaque barrier anticipated that the homo would search for the object under the box where it was last see . However , the other apes were able to anticipate that the human would go to neither location , as the object had been removed entirely , and both parties were cognizant of this .
This penetrative ability to prognosticate the actions of someone else – even taking into history their dissimilar perspectives , knowledge , and spirit – shows a remarkable level of news and , according to the team , provides evidence that ape own “ theory of mind . ”
“ We are excited to find that great copycat in reality passed this difficult test , " work writer Fumihiro Kano , of Kyoto University ’s Kumamoto Sanctuary and Primate Research Institute , said in astatement . “The results hint that we share this power with our evolutionary first cousin . We be after to keep refining our method to examine further non - mentalistic alternatives to the theory of mind in nonhuman animals . "
