Mid Term Papers Home  |  Join  |  Contact Us  |  Privacy Policy  |  Login  |  Logout
  Search Keywords:  


Acceptance Essays
American History
Anatomy
Animal Science
Anthropology
Arts
Astronomy
Aviation
Beauty
Biographies
Book Reports
Business
Computers
Creative Writing
Current Events
Economics
Education
Engineering
English
Environmental Science
Ethics
European History
Film
Foreign Languages
Geography
Government
Health
History
Human Sexuality
Legal Issues
Marketing
Mathematics
Medicine
Miscellaneous
Music
Mythology
Philosophy
Physiology
Poetry
Political Science
Politics
Psychology
Religion
Science
Shakespeare
Social Issues
Sociology
Speech
Sports
Supernatural
Television
Technology
Theater
Zoology

A New Study Has Shown That Chimpanzees May Be Able To Determine Whether Their Partners Know They Are In

Below is a free term papers summary of the paper "A New Study Has Shown That Chimpanzees May Be Able To Determine Whether Their Partners Know They Are In." If you sign up, you can be reading the rest of this term papers in under two minutes. Registered users should login to view this term paper.

Term Paper TitleA New Study Has Shown That Chimpanzees May Be Able To Determine Whether Their Partners Know They Are In
# of Words803
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)3.21

A new study has shown that chimpanzees may be able to determine whether their partners know they are in
danger. This suggests that these primates are able to decide how ignorant or informed their peers are about
an unexpected situation.

The finding, made by a team of researchers at Ohio State University's Comparative Cognition Project,
suggests that chimps share with humans the ability to perceive the knowledge state of a peer, and perhaps
the intention to protect that peer.

Earlier experiments with both rhesus and Japanese macaque monkeys failed to show the same abilities in
those animals. These new results strengthen the argument that in some ways, chimpanzees are closer to
humans than they are to other primates.

The studies were presented Aug. 16 in Chicago at the annual meeting of the American Psychological
Association. Sally Boysen, associate professor of psychology at Ohio State and director of the project, said
the fundamental question for the test was whether one chimpanzee could tell if another was ignorant of a
specific situation, in this case, of a threat or a reward.

Boysen and her colleagues tested three pairs of chimpanzees at the Ohio State colony. Two adult males,
Kermit and Darrell, who had been together for 18 years, were tested, along with a pair of females, Sarah
and Abagail, and a male and female -- Bobby and Sheba.

For the tests, Boysen modeled both a treat and a threat to the chimps. She used grapes, a food the chimps
highly desired, as the hidden treat. A member of the research group hiding with a tranquilizer dart was the
threat. All of the animals in the study had previously been sedated by a dart or had seen a tranquilizer dart
used, and saw it as a threat.

In half of the test conditions, both animals in the pair were able to watch as either the grapes were hidden in
the cage, or a researcher with the tranquilizer dart hid as a predator.

For the rest of the experiments, one animal was placed in an adjoining cage with a clear view of the food or
threat while the other animal was kept off in a nearby room.

Boysen wanted to know if one animal would "tell" the other about the reward or threat. If they did, it would
mean one animal would have to decide how well informed the other was about a given situation.

When she tested the animals with the hidden grapes, absolutely nothing happe

This is not the end of the termpaper! Register below to see the complete version of this term paper.

Membership Plans Credit Card Check
1 month membership
3 month membership
(You Save 50%)
6 month membership
(You Save 67%)

Home  |  Login  |  Logout  |  Join  |  Privacy Policy  |  Contact Us
Copyright © 2002-2009 Mid Term Papers. All rights reserved. This term papers website is used for research purposes only.
If you have forgotten your username or password, please click here.
If you like to cancel your account, please click here.

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - 16 - 17 - 18 - 19 - 20 - 21 - 22