Like humans, certain apes can show signs of emotion, such as joy or frustration, when performing a task. A group of scientists got to this conclusion by conducting 2 experiements with chimpanzees and bonobos. One experiment was that they had to make choices about whether to get larger rewrds and the other was whether to take the chance to get a good treat, but risk getting a not as good treat if their choice was not a good one. Out of the 2 apes, chimpanzees were more patient and likely to take risks, but both apes responded with many emotions similar to humans if they got what they wanted or didn't. When the apes got the not as good treat, they responded negatively by banging, making noises, and showing signs of pouting like a human child would do. If they didn't get what they wanted in the risky choice experiment, they would try to switch their choice after realizing they made the wrong one, but never did this when they made the right choice to get the good treat. These apes showed motivational and emotional repsonse to these experiments and the scientists concluded that apes do indeed have emotional responses to decision making, but they would need more research to see if these emotions can change future choices the apes make.
NOS Themes:
Role of motivation and curiosity: These scientists were curious if apes have similar motivations and emotions when it comes to making decisions.
Science if based on evidence: The scientists conducted an experiment where they got good results an the apes' behavior.
Article:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/05/130529190933.htm
I think this is really cool and I really liked this article. I did a little more research and found that not only do chimpanzees and apes respond to decision making, they also respond to death. Chimps seem hit incredibly hard by the death of a loved one in a way that is almost human. http://animal.discovery.com/animal-facts/animals-have-emotions.htm
ReplyDeleteChimpanzees and humans differ by just over one percent of DNA, and biologically, chimpanzees are more closely related to humans than they are to gorillas. Dr. Jane Goodall discovered that chimpanzees have a large variety of complex emotions that were thought to be uniquely human. For example, chimpanzees show emotions such as joy, sadness, fear and despair, and have also been found to have an almost human like enjoyment of physical contact, laughter, and community.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.janegoodall.ca/about-chimp-so-like-us.php