Does the Chimpanzee Have a Theory of Mind

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Does the chimpanzee have a theory of mind? Theory of mind is a term coined by Premack and Woodruff referring to the ability to attribute mental states and interpret behavior of others. It is the understanding that not everyone knows and thinks the same, highlighting behavior such as deceit, imagination and communication. Research has shown that children display an early understanding of a theory of mind, from around age four. However researchers were also interested in whether close relatives, such as apes, also have a theory of mind. The idea that chimpanzees hold a theory of mind branches from evolutionary ideas and whether chimpanzees also hold this specialized cognitive ability. This essay will discuss both sides of this argument with relevant research and looking at two main theorists – Povinelli and Tomasello. Numerous tasks have been used to examine this area, such as gaze following and false belief tasks. Alternatively the idea of altruistic helping has also been used. Povenelli believed that chimps do not hold a theory of mind and are unable to reason about behavior. He believes that having a theory of mind means that second order intentions, as well as first order, are understood. Povenelli suggests that chimps only have first order intentions and therefore do not hold theory of mind. Leading to his ‘behavioural abstraction hypothesis’, which suggests that chimps only understand surface level behavior and perform behavioural rules. He suggests chimps make predictions about future behaviours that follow from past behaviours and adjust their own behavior accordingly, rather than an indepth level of understanding illustrated by humans. False belief tasks are used to illustrate the concept of theory of mind. This is the idea that people understand others may not know what you know. Call et al. in 1999 used a typical non-verbal false belief task in
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