3. Theory of Mind in apes

Flashcards reviewing key concepts and studies related to Theory of Mind (ToM) in chimpanzees.

What is the main argument of the Povinelli camp regarding chimpanzees and Theory of Mind (ToM)?

Chimpanzees do not reason about others' beliefs or any other mental states; their behaviors may be due to other reasons than ToM.

What is the main argument of the Tomasello camp regarding chimpanzees and Theory of Mind (ToM)?

Chimpanzees have ToM in some respects, understanding goals, intentions, perception, and knowledge of others, but it might not be as complex as human ToM.

What does the Behavioural Abstraction hypothesis posit about chimpanzees?

Chimpanzees make predictions about future behaviors based on past behaviors and adjust their own behavior accordingly, without deeper psychological thought processes.

What is a 'goal' in the context of understanding goals and intentions?

What a person is trying to do or achieve.

What is an 'intention' in the context of understanding goals and intentions?

The action plan chosen for pursuing a goal.

What are the required components for altruistic helping?

Understanding of another's goals and altruistic motivation, with no benefit or costly.

What were the main findings of the Warneken & Tomasello (2006) studies on helping behavior in children and chimpanzees?

Children and chimps both willing to help without reward or praise.

Besides understanding goals, what else is important in understanding others' perception and knowledge?

Important to know what they can see and what they know.

What kind of vital information about an individual's mental states do the eyes communicate?

Focus of attention, object of reference, desire or aversion, intent to act, and feelings/mental activities.

What do infants prefer when looking at eyes?

Open rather than closed eyes.

What kind of gaze do infants prefer?

Direct rather than averted gaze.

In gaze following, what do apes rely more on, compared to infants?

They rely more on head direction than eye direction.

What was the finding of Povinelli & Eddy (1996) regarding chimps begging for food from blindfolded vs. non-blindfolded humans?

Chimps begged the same amount from blindfolded and non-blindfolded humans.

What were the findings of Kaminski et al. (2004) regarding chimps begging behavior and the researcher's orientation (facing, not facing, eyes open/closed)?

Chimps begged more when they were being watched, and were sensitive to both body and face orientation, but not eyes.

What is a potential issue when using co-operative communication with humans to test for ToM in chimps in the lab?

When testing cooperativeness you're not using the context that it's involved in.

What was the key finding in the Hare, Call & Tomasello (2001) competitive paradigm experiment with dominant and subordinate chimps?

Subordinate chimps only went for the food when the dominant chimp didn’t see the hiding place of food.

What does the mental state attribution entail?

What the subordinate chimp is thinking

What is the behavioural abstraction

What the subordinate chimp is 'thinking

What do the findings of Melis, Call & Tomasello (2006) suggest about chimpanzees and auditory perspective-taking?

They are sensitive to what others can hear and are able to manipulate the auditory perception of a competitor.

According to the reports, what explanation have been put forward to argue that apes act according to false beliefs?

Apes used knowledge of behavioral rules - specifically, that people tend to look for objects in the place they last saw them - link with critique of Onishi & Baillergeon (2005)

What do Apes understand?

Goals/ intentions and seeing = knowing