AICE Psych - Yamamoto et al

chimps ong

Psychology being investigated:

* This study investigated altruism, which involves chimpanzees helping another without expecting any reward
* Like giving the straw to another chimp to drink the juice, even though the chimp giving the straw never got any juice
* It also looked into prosocial behavior which involves helping others who may need it
* The study looked into empathy which is understanding the emotional state of another organism
* Lastly, it looked into target helping, which is the ability to help someone else in a situation

Altruism

Doing things for someone else even if it disadvantages yourself

Empathy

Understanding the emotional state of someone else by imagining what it would be like to be in that situation

Prosocial behavior

Voluntary behavior that’s intended to benefit another

Instrumental helping

assisting another in achieving an action-based goal

Aim

1. To see if chimps can help another chimp with no immediate gain from doing so
2. Whether the chimpanzees would respond to the needs of another with targeted helping.

Research method

Laboratory experiment

Research design

Repeated measures

Sample:

3 Mother and child pairs:

* Ai & Ayumu
* Pan & Pal
* Chloe and Cleo
* 5 actual ppts - chloe didn’t participate in the tool offering
* Opportunity sample

Where were the chimpanzees housed

Kyoto Primate Research Institute in Japan

independent variable

The ability of the chimpanzee to give targeted helping to another chimpanzee

* ‘Can see’ and ‘cannot see’

Which was the experimental condition?

Can see

Which was the control condition?

Cannot see

Dependent variable

Trials where the stick/straw was given or not given & which tool was offered

Quantitative data collected:

\#s from the DV

Qualitative data collected:

Unique behavior of one chimp

This study was approved by:

Animal Care Committee & Kyoto University

Size of the experimental booths:

1) 136x142cm

2) 155x142cm

Both were 200cm tall

How big was the hole between the booths?

12\.5 x 35 cm & 1 metre above the floor

What separated the chimps?

A wall divider

What were the correct tools that the helper chimp had to offer?

A stick or straw

Objects in the helping tray:

* Hose
* Chain
* Belt
* Stick
* Straw

Exploration phase:

8, 5 minute trials (one per day) for exploration of all 7 objects

* so they were equally familiar with the function of each tool

How was the behaviours of the chimpanzees captured?

Via a video recorder. It captures how they moved

Explain the order the chimpanzees did trials?

1) Can see

2) Cannot see

3) Can see (for order effects)

Explain the cannot see condition:

The wall between the chimps was opaque, and the hole a metre above the ground allowed the helper chimp to stand up and look through to see what the other chimp required.

How many total trials were carried out?

96 (48 for each)

* 24 stick & 24 straw
* 2-4 trials per day

When did a trial start?

When the tray was presented to helper chimp

When did a trial end?

When the recipient successfully obtained the juice box using a stick/straw or 5 minutes had passed without receiving the object

How was the offer of first tool measured?

The first item that was offered to the other chimp, regardless of whether the chimp in the adjoining booth asked for help. It was simply the first tool offered to the other chimp.

Why were these chimpanzees selected?

They had previously participated in studies regarding tool use and were experts in this field of study.

What did the results show?

Chimpanzees are capable of targeted flexible helping based on the understanding of a conspecifics needs or goals.

What was upon request offer?

A tool is offered when the recipient requests (by sticking its arm through the hole)

What was the voluntary offer?

Help was actively offered w/o the recipient's specific request

Object offer was counted when:

When the helper chimp held out any tool to the recipient

Object-offer results of the 1st ‘Can See’ condition:

Object offer happened in 90.8% of trials

* Upon-request offers: 90%
* Object offer in familiarisation: 5%

All 4 chimps most frequently offered the stick/straw in the 1st Can see condition, except…

Pan who first offered a brush in 79.5% of trials

* Cleo first offered stick/straw the most: 97.4%
* Ayumu first offered stick/straw for 78% of trials

What does the majority of first offer being a stick or a straw suggest to us?

Chimps are able to discriminate between potential tools and redundant tools.
Since they correctly selected the first tool to their partner

Object offer results for cannot see condition:

Object offer happened in 95.8% of trials

* 71.7% of these were after request

In the cannot see condition, Pan continued to…

Offer brush first (55.3%)

* Pal first offered stick/straw 100%
* Cleo first offered stick/straw 88.9%

Who was the only chimp to look through the hole in the Cannot See condition?

Ayumu

What 3 chimps were tested in the 2nd Can see:

Ai, Cleo, Pal

Object offer results 2nd Can see:

Objects were offered 97.9% of trials

* Upon-request offers: 79.4%

In the 2nd Can see, stick and straw were first offered…

most frequently:

* Pal: 100%
* Ai: 81.3%

Conclusions:

1. Chimpanzees show altruistic behavior but they need to see the situation
2. The study suggests that chimpanzees can target help - when they understand the needs of another chimpanzee

How was the study standardised?

* Lab experiment
* Objects in the tray were always presented in the same way

Strength of repeated measures:

reduced the risk of individual differences & increased validity

Video recordings are a strength because…

they could be replayed for accuracy - which results in valid and bias free results

The task lacked mundane realism because…

giving a stick/straw to another chimp in the wild is unlikely to happen

The sample lacked generalisability because…

There were only 5 chimpanzees, since they were in a lab these behaviors may not represent chimps in the wild

Ethical strengths:

* Number of animals: the research team only used 5 chimps, which uses the minimum amount of animals necessary to fulfill the aim


* The research team didn’t deprive the chimps of their basic needs, like food
* Housing: chimps were socially housed at Kyoto University
* Species: the chimps were in captivity and had taken part in studies previously

Ethical weaknesses;

* Replacement: the research team could’ve considered using a simulation or watching recorded footage from a zoo
* Rewards: one chimp didn’t get the reward at the expense of the other chimp

Real-world application:

The procedure could be used in schools to teach about helping behavior - so teachers could set up a similar scenario so that children have to meet the needs of others to complete the task

Individual vs. Situational:

Individual:

* Personality type could resulted in Pan having a preference for the brush and Ayumu looking through the hole

Situational:

* Most chimpanzees offered help as a result of requests, so this prompted the helper to offer the tool

How does this support nature?

Chimps weren’t explicitly taught helping behavior, so it could be argued that this is their natural behavior