Primatology Notes #9
BEHAVIOR and INTELLIGENCE

• Primate behavior and intelligence:
  • General remarks: instinct vs. learning     examples
  • Conditioned learning
  • Insight learning (Kohler)
    Aha!     play     imitation
    army tank     busy box
  • Tool use
    • Many captive species, incl. macaques--
      opening locks with keys, fitting sticks together, social use of ropes
    • Cebus monkeys--
      • finger dexterity, "habitat generalists"
      • stones and anvils to break hard seeds and fruits
      • monkey helpers to handicapped humans
        (https://monkeyhelpers.org/)
    • Feral Rhesus macaques: unwrapping caramels in India; dunking sweet potatoes in Japan
    • Chimpanzees-- termite-fishing; leaf-sponge; drinking brush
    Leaf-sponge       Drinking stick
  • Detour behavior     detours
  • Oddity and symbolism     oddity
  
  
• Language:
  • Early research-  importance of language in intelligence
    • Human and gorilla babies
    • Frederick the Great(?)
  • Feral children     Feral child
  • Early experiments, e.g. Vicki
  • Washoe  —
        dactylography; phoneme=word; "dirty"; "bib"
        "me in"; "open hurry" (& faucets); "baby in my drink"
        pictures in books/screen; "water bird", people and animals
        Hockett's design features
        tantrums ("terrible twos"); definitions (Piaget); "long yellow fruit..."
        adopted Loulis, taught her 70 signs
        Roger Fouts-- retirement home
  • Other chimps: Lana, Lucy, Nim--
        "hug", "tickle", "bad Lucy"; deaf children
  • Koko ("red", "smart animal", "stupid", "trouble old", "that lip")   Koko
  • Nicaraguan children (Judy Kegl)
  
  
• "Theory of mind":   Bindi; Harambe; langur midwives Langur Midwife
  Joys of reading (never too early)
  
  

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rev. Feb. 2019

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