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3 - Chimpanzees plan their tool use

from Part I - Cognition of tool use

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 March 2013

By
Richard W. Byrne ,
Crickette M. Sanz  and
David B. Morgan
Edited by
Crickette M. Sanz ,
Josep Call  and
Christophe Boesch
Richard W. Byrne
Affiliation:
Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution and Scottish Primate Research Group, School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St. Andrews
Crickette M. Sanz
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Washington University
David B. Morgan
Affiliation:
Lester E. Fisher Center for the Study and Conservation of Apes, Lincoln Park Zoo
Crickette M. Sanz
Affiliation:
Washington University, St Louis
Josep Call
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Evolutionäre Anthropologie, Germany
Christophe Boesch
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Evolutionäre Anthropologie, Germany
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Summary

Introduction

To a cognitive psychologist, chimpanzee tool use is exciting because of the opportunity it brings to examine how apes deal with a range of challenging situations that in humans would invoke planning. By planning it is meant a special kind of problem solving in which an appropriate course of action for the immediate or distant future is worked out by means of mental computation with brain representations of past or present situations (Miller et al., 1960). These include: a working representation of the current situation that presents a problem; episodic memories of specific past instances and events; and semantic knowledge about how things work or how people behave.

Because a tool is not itself a goal-object, but has meaning and functionality only in regard to achieving a goal, problem solving with tools often makes more of the planning process “visible” than is normally the case (Seed & Byrne, 2010). Because a tool often must be selected to meet specific criteria in order to work, or – more telling still – may have to be made from specific raw materials in a particular way, getting an appropriate tool becomes an extra stage in the planning process. Thus, to approach a cognitive understanding of animal planning, studying tool use is by no means the only approach, but it is certainly a good one. Historically, however, understanding cognition has not been the major driving force in the study of tool use in great apes in primatology: that stemmed instead from anthropology, a subject with a very different agenda.

Type
Chapter
Information
Tool Use in Animals
Cognition and Ecology
 , pp. 48 - 64
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2013

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  • Chimpanzees plan their tool use
    • By Richard W. Byrne, Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution and Scottish Primate Research Group, School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St. Andrews, Crickette M. Sanz, Department of Anthropology, Washington University, David B. Morgan, Lester E. Fisher Center for the Study and Conservation of Apes, Lincoln Park Zoo
  • Edited by Crickette M. Sanz, Washington University, St Louis, Josep Call, Max-Planck-Institut für Evolutionäre Anthropologie, Germany, Christophe Boesch, Max-Planck-Institut für Evolutionäre Anthropologie, Germany
  • Book: Tool Use in Animals
  • Online publication: 05 March 2013
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511894800.004
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  • Chimpanzees plan their tool use
    • By Richard W. Byrne, Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution and Scottish Primate Research Group, School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St. Andrews, Crickette M. Sanz, Department of Anthropology, Washington University, David B. Morgan, Lester E. Fisher Center for the Study and Conservation of Apes, Lincoln Park Zoo
  • Edited by Crickette M. Sanz, Washington University, St Louis, Josep Call, Max-Planck-Institut für Evolutionäre Anthropologie, Germany, Christophe Boesch, Max-Planck-Institut für Evolutionäre Anthropologie, Germany
  • Book: Tool Use in Animals
  • Online publication: 05 March 2013
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511894800.004
Available formats
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  • Chimpanzees plan their tool use
    • By Richard W. Byrne, Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution and Scottish Primate Research Group, School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St. Andrews, Crickette M. Sanz, Department of Anthropology, Washington University, David B. Morgan, Lester E. Fisher Center for the Study and Conservation of Apes, Lincoln Park Zoo
  • Edited by Crickette M. Sanz, Washington University, St Louis, Josep Call, Max-Planck-Institut für Evolutionäre Anthropologie, Germany, Christophe Boesch, Max-Planck-Institut für Evolutionäre Anthropologie, Germany
  • Book: Tool Use in Animals
  • Online publication: 05 March 2013
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511894800.004
Available formats
×