Non Human Primates

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Cognition is a mental act, and therefore is not limited to the present. We humans can think about our futures effortlessly. We can plan for our retirement, and even conjure up some counterarguments for a future conflict. Evidence shows that non-human primates, such as apes and monkeys, also have this ability to anticipate the future, and thus plan for it. They also have the ability to remember past events, and therefore incorporate those teachings for future action. The purpose of this study was to test the planning abilities of human children and primates. The process by which they did this is described in the following paragraph. Experiment 1 consisted of seven adult male rhesus monkeys, eight capuchin monkeys including four males and four …show more content…
The easier mazes consisted of having to only move in one direction, whereas the more difficult mazes consisted of having to move in the opposite direction for successful completion. Another test consisted of a similar task for the human children. The twenty-seven children participating ranged in age from twenty-eight months to sixty-six months of age. They were all presented with identical mazes as their non-human counterparts. The children received visual and auditory rewards rather than treats. The human children were as successful as the chimpanzees in the tests. They also expressed verbally when they saw a trap, indicating that human cognition is bolstered by our abilities to communicate. The implications of this study revolve mainly around the idea that chimpanzees and children show similar amounts of cognitive function in regards to planning and inhibition. Inhibition is the ability to self-control oneself based on rational rather than instinct. In this case the chimpanzees had to inhibit their instinct to continue in a singular direction through the maze after planning a route. The monkeys lacked this ability for