Get Inside An Ape's Head

February 21, 2008

Great apes imagine, suggests intriguing new research by cognitive scientist Tomas Persson, who will present a related paper on his findings tomorrow. Much of the theorizing comes down to the question—Do apes represent? That sounds like a rap term, and the two meanings are actually connected, but it refers to whether or not great apes can create, understand and interpret representations of reality and maybe even fiction too.

Consider a photograph. If you look at a picture online, it's both a representation of something or someone as well as being just a lit thing on your computer screen. Persson discovered that bonobos, which are closely related to chimpanzees, not only understand that photos represent reality, but that they can interpret these images and fill in any missing information. They're able to tell that a still photo of someone running does indeed represent motion, for example.

Now how do we know what apes know? The bonobos actually "told" Persson what they saw in the photos, since the apes had received prior language training. (Presumably this was by using sign language or through some kind of computer word recognition.)

“This is the most promising evidence yet that you don’t have to have a human brain to understand pictures as representations," he said. "But many studies remain to be done before we will know the extent of this ability in apes."

I wonder if bonobos daydream? The photo here sure looks like they do.

Comments

[Diana L Guerrero]

Bonobos have a unique society and are behaviorally very different from chimpanzees. Their physiology is different as well so it will be interesting to see what the findings of the study report.

[Jen Viegas]

Excellent point, Diana, concerning the differences between bonobos and chimpanzees. I've read that bonobos only exist in the wild in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Hopefully conservation of this fascinating species can coincide with our learning more about its capabilities and behavior.