In the future, the researchers plan to study the imagination of the great apes.
Apes are able to anticipate the actions of people, including incorrect. To such conclusion scientists from Kyoto University (Japan), who managed to experimentally prove that the primates in certain instances you’d think someone wrong. Biologists presented the results of the study in an article published in the journal Science.
Scientists have shown that chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans live with a number of humorous scenes involving two people. During the experiment with an infrared eye tracking was monitored where I was sent the look of animals.
It turned out that primates could anticipate where the next second will occur, further action, and drew attention to the relevant point on the screen. For example, monkeys knew that one of the people in the video be sure to check the Bush, where, in his opinion, could hide the second, even if the latter managed to escape from her hiding place.
According to scientists, people are starting to understand the concept of false belief at the age of four years. However, it turned out that some monkeys can do it better. Like humans, they form a model of the mental state of a person, that is able to understand the thoughts of others and predict behavior.
Monkeys, despite high compared to other animals intelligence tests failed to recognize the erroneous belief that if the experiments were related to the manipulation of objects. However, biologists were able to demonstrate that primates have this ability and can be done by watching the actions of the people. In the future, the researchers plan to study the imagination of the great apes.
