Imagining and pretending aren't just for humans: monkeys can do it too, a study has revealed

Why it's important: These findings spur further research into whether other animals have simile games and can track similes, as well as study other aspects of monkey thinking.

Imagination and pretending aren't just for humans: A study shows that apps can too

Why is it important?These findings inspire further research into whether other animals have symbolic play and whether they can track imaginary objects, as well as the study of other aspects of great ape imagination.

Summary of Supervised Artificial Intelligence

A study published in 'Science' shows that apes such as gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans have the ability to imagine and act, skills previously thought to be unique to humans. Amalia P.M., Johns Hopkins University Bastos and Christopher Krupenye have shown through experiments that the 43-year-old bonobo Kanji can imagine imaginary objects.These findings show that monkeys can imagine things in their minds that do not physically exist, inviting us to rethink our understanding of animals' mental lives and ability to think about the future.In addition, it emphasizes the importance of designing specific experiments to assess the cognitive abilities of different species.

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According to a study published in "Science," monkeys know not only imagination, but also pretend play, which is thought to be unique to humans.Yes, even gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos or orangutans can perform mental states, predict or mimic futures.

Through real experiments, Amalia P. M. Bastos and Christopher Krupenye from the American Johns Hopkins University showed that monkeys have this ability, which may have come from all their evolutionary ancestors, between the ages of six and nine.

Secondary representation

The researchers conducted the study with a 43-year-old bonobo from the APE Initiative, who clearly demonstrated in three tests that he could visualize and understand mythical objects, a process known in humans as 'secondary representation'.

Secondary representation allows us to move away from the 'here and now' and create hypothetical possibilities, hypotheses or options unrelated to reality, which enables special cognitive skills such as mental reasoning, predicting possible futures or simulations.

The study suggests that this ability is also part of the cognitive potential, at least in Kanzi, a bonobo raised in captivity and trained to communicate with humans who died last year.“Imagination has long been considered an essential element in what it means to be human, but the idea that imagination may not be unique to our species is truly transformative,” Kruppen said.

A few decades ago, "Jane Goodall discovered that chimpanzees made tools, which led to changing the definition of what it means to be human; now this invites us to think seriously about what makes us special and what kind of mental life other creatures have", warns the scientist.

Grapefruitlé

By the age of two, people have figurative play, a skill that allows them to use toys or play with instruments to simulate or imitate real-life situations.With this skill, children pretend to drink water or tea and pretend to be friends.

However, in animals, although situations showing simulated behavior have been observed both in nature and in captivity (for example, a mother chimpanzee playing with a stick to her child), there is no scientific study that analyzes symbolic play.To do this, Krupenye and Bastos designed experiments based on empty snacks in cups, bowls and plates.

In the first test, the researchers pretended to pour juice into two cups, then pretended to empty one of them.However, when Kanji asked, "Where's the juice?" Bonobo almost always pointed to the correct cup, which had not been emptied during the game.

To dissuade Kanzi from thinking there was real juice even though he couldn't see it, they conducted a new experiment in which they placed a glass of imaginary juice next to a glass of real juice and asked him which one he wanted.Kanzi ordered the right drink every time.

In the third test, the researcher presented to eat some grapes from the container and put them on two empty plates. When he allowed nothing from one of them, he asked Kanzy: "Where are the grapes?" And Bonobo, scared of the imaginary container in which the fruit is said to lie.

The findings encourage further study of whether other animals have a symbolic game and can track imaginary objects, and other aspects of apes' imagination, such as the ability to think about the future or what is going on in the minds of others, the authors explain.

For Bastos, it was "extremely shocking and interesting" that the evidence showed that "monkeys can visualize things in their minds that are not real. Kanzi can create the idea of ​​this imaginary object, and at the same time, know that it is not real," the researcher emphasized.

"Imagination is one of the things that gives us humans a rich mental life. If we share some roots of that imagination with apes, it should challenge the assumption that animals live robotic lives limited to the present," says Krupenye.

Experimental paradigm

For Antonio J. Osuna, an animal cognition expert and postdoctoral researcher at the Veterinary University of Vienna (Austria), the work not only provides one of the "most definitive" experimental evidences for animal secondary representations, but also highlights the importance of designing experiments tailored to each species to assess the SMC platform, rather than the animal's abilities.

Likewise, Juan Carlos Gómez, researcher at the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of St. Andrews (Scotland), points out that the most important thing about the study is that it provides an experimental paradigm that can be further used to study the imagination of primates.

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