Research article summary (published 30 Aug 2009):

Do great apes use emotional expressions to infer desires?

Full Abstract

Although apes understand others' goals and perceptions, little is known about their understanding of others' emotional expressions. We conducted three studies following the general paradigm of Repacholi and colleagues (1997, 1998). In Study 1, a human reacted emotionally to the hidden contents of two boxes, after which the ape was allowed to choose one of the boxes. Apes distinguished between two of the expressed emotions (happiness and disgust) by choosing appropriately. In Studies 2 and 3, a human reacted either positively or negatively to the hidden contents of two containers; then the ape saw him eating something. When given a choice, apes correctly chose the container to which the human had reacted negatively, based on the inference that the human had just eaten the food to which he had reacted positively - and so the other container still had food left in it. These findings suggest that great apes understand both the directedness and the valence of some human emotional expressions, and can use this understanding to infer desires.

Author information

Author/s: Buttelmann, David (D); Call, Josep (J); Tomasello, Michael (M);

Affiliation: Department of Developmental & Comparative Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany. buttelmann(-atsign-)eva.mpg.de

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: Developmental science (Dev Sci), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2009-Sep; vol 12 (issue 5) : pp 688-98

Dates: Created 2009/08/25; Completed 2009/11/02;

PMID: 19702761, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/2/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Animal Communication Animals Behavior, Animal Choice Behavior - physiology Concept Formation - physiology Discrimination Learning Emotions - physiology

Expressed Emotion - physiology Female Humans Male Motivation Primates - physiology Task Performance and Analysis

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