Premium
A competitive nonverbal false belief task for children and apes
Author(s) -
Krachun Carla,
Carpenter Malinda,
Call Josep,
Tomasello Michael
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
developmental science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.801
H-Index - 127
eISSN - 1467-7687
pISSN - 1363-755X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2008.00793.x
Subject(s) - psychology , nonverbal communication , task (project management) , cognitive psychology , false belief , theory of mind , developmental psychology , cognition , management , neuroscience , economics
A nonverbal false belief task was administered to children (mean age 5 years) and two great ape species: chimpanzees ( Pan troglodytes ) and bonobos ( Pan paniscus ). Because apes typically perform poorly in cooperative contexts, our task was competitive. Two versions were run: in both, a human competitor witnessed an experimenter hide a reward in one of two containers. When the competitor then left the room (version A) or turned around (version B), the experimenter switched the locations of the containers. The competitor returned and reached with effort, but unsuccessfully, towards the incorrect container. Children displayed an understanding of the competitor's false belief by correctly choosing the other container to find the reward. Apes did not. However, in version A (but not version B), apes looked more often at the unchosen container in false belief trials than in true belief control trials, possibly indicating some implicit or uncertain understanding that needs to be investigated further.