TY - JOUR
T1 - Abstract knowledge in the broken-string problem
T2 - evidence from nonhuman primates and pre-schoolers
AU - Mayer, Carolina Patricia
AU - Call, Josep
AU - Albiach-Serrano, Anna
AU - Visalberghi, Elisabetta
AU - Sabbatini, Gloria
AU - Seed, Amanda Madeleine
N1 - There was funding from the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851.
PY - 2014/10/1
Y1 - 2014/10/1
N2 - There is still large controversy about whether abstract knowledge of physical problems is uniquely human. We presented 9 capuchin monkeys, 6 bonobos, 6 chimpanzees and 48 children with two versions of a broken-string problem. In the standard condition, participants had to choose between an intact and a broken string as means to a reward. In the critical condition, the functional parts of the strings were covered up and replaced by perceptually similar, but non-functional cues. Apes, monkeys and young children performed significantly better in the standard condition in which the cues played a functional role, indicating knowledge of the functional properties involved. Moreover, a control experiment with chimpanzees and young children ruled out that this difference in performance could be accounted for by differences of perceptual feedback in the two conditions. We suggest that, similar to humans, nonhuman primates partly rely on abstract concepts in physical problem-solving.
AB - There is still large controversy about whether abstract knowledge of physical problems is uniquely human. We presented 9 capuchin monkeys, 6 bonobos, 6 chimpanzees and 48 children with two versions of a broken-string problem. In the standard condition, participants had to choose between an intact and a broken string as means to a reward. In the critical condition, the functional parts of the strings were covered up and replaced by perceptually similar, but non-functional cues. Apes, monkeys and young children performed significantly better in the standard condition in which the cues played a functional role, indicating knowledge of the functional properties involved. Moreover, a control experiment with chimpanzees and young children ruled out that this difference in performance could be accounted for by differences of perceptual feedback in the two conditions. We suggest that, similar to humans, nonhuman primates partly rely on abstract concepts in physical problem-solving.
UR - https://figshare.com/collections/Abstract_Knowledge_in_the_Broken_String_Problem_Evidence_from_Nonhuman_Primates_and_Pre_Schoolers/2005550
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0108597
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0108597
M3 - Article
C2 - 25272161
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 9
JO - PLoS One
JF - PLoS One
IS - 10
M1 - e108597
ER -