Dissertation Research: Social Intelligence in Monkeys and Apes

灵长类是高度社会性的动物，拥有巨大的大脑和高级的智力水平。以前对灵长类智力的比较研究忽略了认知的社会维度，转而专注于高度重复性的问题解决任务。最近，一些研究人员提出，某些形式的社会智力，与意图和目的的归因有关，可能仅限于类人猿和人类。如果这些猜测最终被证明是正确的，那么关于智力的社会功能以及早期人类出现的复杂形式的社交技能的许多想法将需要修正。在这项研究中，一系列实验将评估这样一个命题，即黑猩猩利用自己的经历来推断他人的经历，并将意图和责任归因于他人，而恒河猴不是这样做的。这项研究将提供与食物分享、复杂的社会角色和人类文化的非物质方面有关的认知能力的重要线索。更重要的是，它将对现有模型进行关键测试，该模型假设自我意识不仅存在于猴子中，而且仅存在于人类以及与人类关系最密切的高等类人猿中。

Primates are highly social animals with large brains and advanced levels of intelligence. Previous comparative studies of primate intelligence have overlooked the social dimension of cognition, and have instead focused on highly repetitive problem-solving tasks. Recently, some researchers have proposed that certain forms of social intelligence, related to the attribution of intent and purpose, may be limited to the great apes and humans. If these speculations turn out to be correct, many ideas concerning the social function of intelligence and the emergence of complex forms of social skills in the earliest humans will need to be revised. In this study a series of experiments will evaluate the proposition that chimpanzees use their own experiences to infer the experiences of others and attribute intent and responsibility to others, whereas rhesus monkeys do not. The research will offer important clues about cognitive capacities linked to food sharing, complex social roles, and non-material aspects of human culture. More importantly, it will provide a critical test of the existing model which postulates that self-awareness exists, not in monkeys, but only in humans and in the higher anthropoids most closely related to humans.