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The ability to think, organize knowledge and pass it on to descendants is inherent not only to us – people. French anthropologists prove that monkeys can do all this. And they can give odds even to children.
What do monkeys lack to behave like us? Is that the tablets of the latest model, anthropologists Joel Fagot and Anaïs Maugard joke. They work at the Center for Primatology near Aix-en-Provence (France) and conduct research using modern electronic technology. The enclosures are equipped with touch screens. Baboons (highly developed marmoset primates) living in the center can approach the screen at any time, touch it and play one of the specially designed games. The reward is given to the one who successfully solves the game problem. Fago and Mogar found that baboons not only enjoy this pastime, they exhibit abilities that were previously thought to be unique to humans. Fago and Mogar share their discoveries with us.
THEY CAN UNDERSTAND THAT THEY DON’T KNOW SOMETHING
“What is an emerald? You may not know the meaning of this word. But at least you understand that there is a gap in your knowledge, and you can try to fill it – say, by googling this word or looking into the good old dictionary. This means that you are capable of metacognitive operations, that is, of realizing the possibilities and limitations of your own thinking. Metacognition allows us to constantly correlate the knowledge we already have with the new information that comes to us from outside. With its help, we can learn and develop our intellect.
It turned out that monkeys are also capable of metacognition. To test this, we conducted an experiment in which monkeys were shown a matrix of colored squares. During the first session, which lasted only a fraction of a second, two squares were green and the others were white. In the second session, all squares became white. Then the baboons had to touch those squares that were green in the first part of the task. They also had the opportunity to look at the left or right side of the screen from the first session before making their final decision. Most of the monkeys used this clue and it helped them make the right decision. This suggests that the monkeys understood what information they lacked to answer the question and what they needed to do to get it.”1.
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THEY CAN SOLVE PROBLEMS BY ANALOGY
“In order to successfully master a skill or ability, we must understand the principle that underlies this or that action, in order to then, by analogy, reproduce it with new elements. Monkeys, like people, have access to such an operation. We made a task: among the figures on the touch screen, find two identical ones. Before this, the baboons were shown a model of the correct solution: two other identical figures. To figure out what was required of them, they had to use analogical thinking.
There was also a false move in the task: among the “wrong” figures, we placed the one that had already been encountered in the model. This was confusing to some of the monkeys, but most of them eventually understood the principle and chose the correct answer. Interestingly, in this experiment, the baboons showed even more intelligence than many seven or eight-year-old children.
THEY CAN IMPROVE THE KNOWLEDGE FROM OTHERS
Many animals are able to pass on certain knowledge and skills to their descendants: how to use objects as tools, how to give signals, how to get food … But can descendants who have successfully mastered this knowledge improve them? Until recently, it was believed that only man possesses this capacity for cumulative evolution. It allows us to deepen our knowledge and make new discoveries.
But what if baboons also have elements of cumulative evolution? In 2014 we decided to check it out. And we developed a group exercise in which the result of one participant was used as a prerequisite for another. (In experiments involving people, the language example is usually used: one participant must teach another a new language. Each participant organizes knowledge better, finds new patterns in the language and new connections.)
To work with monkeys, we used multi-colored figures. First, the baboons were shown a screen with four red squares in the center and twelve white squares on the sides. Then all the squares turned white, and the monkey had to click on those that were red, and then teach others to do so. We observed the animals and found that the student monkeys not only came up with more efficient schemes for completing the task themselves (for example, marked squares that were consecutively adjacent to each other), but also created their own “schools”: if someone’s solution was especially successful he got followers.
Joel Fagot – Anthropologist, head of research programs at the National Center for Scientific Research of Aix-Marseille University (France).
Anais Mogar – Anthropologist, doctoral student (specialty – animal psychology) at the University of Aix-Marseille (France).
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1 The full article “Baboons do tests” by Joël Fago and Anaïs Mogard in French (“Intelligence: les babouins passent le test”) can be found on the magazine’s website pourlascience.fr.