title: Disposition to recognize goals in infant chimpanzees.
abstract: Do nonhuman primates attribute goals to others? Traditional studies with chimpanzees provide equivocal evidence for "mind reading" in nonhuman primates. Here we adopt looking time, a methodology commonly used with human infants to test infant chimpanzees. In this experiment, four infant chimpanzees saw computer-generated stimuli that mimicked a goal-directed behavior. The baby chimps performed as well as human infants, namely, they were sensitive to the trajectories of the objects, thus suggesting that chimpanzees may be endowed with a disposition to understand goal-directed behaviors. The theoretical implications of these results are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, C04 3SQ, Colchester, UK. uller40@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Uller
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D005403:Fixation, Ocular; D006040:Goals; D033182:Intention; D008297:Male; D002679:Pan troglodytes / Q000523:psychology*; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011340:Problem Solving; D021641:Recognition, Psychology