Apes are intuitive statisticians.
Inductive learning and reasoning, as we use it both in everyday life and in science, is characterized by flexible inferences based on statistical information: inferences from populations to samples and vice versa. Many forms of such statistical reasoning have been found to develop late in human ontogeny, depending on formal education and language, and to be fragile even in adults. New revolutionary research, however, suggests that even preverbal human infants make use of intuitive statistics. Here, we conducted the first investigation of such intuitive statistical reasoning with non-human primates. In a series of 7 experiments, Bonobos, Chimpanzees, Gorillas and Orangutans drew flexible statistical inferences from populations to samples. These inferences, furthermore, were truly based on statistical information regarding the relative frequency distributions in a population, and not on absolute frequencies. Intuitive statistics in its most basic form is thus an evolutionarily more ancient rather than a uniquely human capacity.
Institute of Psychology & Courant Research Centre "Evolution of Social Behaviour", University of Göttingen, Germany. Electronic address: hannes.rakoczy@psych.uni-goettingen.de.
Hannes
H
Rakoczy
Institute of Psychology & Courant Research Centre "Evolution of Social Behaviour", University of Göttingen, Germany.
Annette
A
Clüver
Institute of Psychology & Courant Research Centre "Evolution of Social Behaviour", University of Göttingen, Germany.
Liane
L
Saucke
Institute of Psychology & Courant Research Centre "Evolution of Social Behaviour", University of Göttingen, Germany.
Nicole
N
Stoffregen
Institute of Psychology & Courant Research Centre "Evolution of Social Behaviour", University of Göttingen, Germany.
Alice
A
Gräbener
Institute of Psychology & Courant Research Centre "Evolution of Social Behaviour", University of Göttingen, Germany.
Judith
J
Migura
Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology, Leipzig, Germany.
Josep
J
Call
D000818:Animals; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D006071:Gorilla gorilla / Q000523:psychology; D015186:Hominidae / Q000523:psychology*; D019545:Intuition; D007858:Learning; D008128:Logic; D008297:Male; D019974:Pan paniscus / Q000523:psychology; D002679:Pan troglodytes / Q000523:psychology; D011148:Pongo pygmaeus / Q000523:psychology; D011587:Psychology, Comparative
Comparative psychology; Intuitive statistics; Numerical cognition; Primate cognition