To date, a variety of animal species has been compared in cognitive studies, ranging from mammals (terrestrial and aquatic ones) to birds (e.g., Lambert et al., 2018), fish (e.g., Bhsary and Brown, 2014), reptiles (e.g., Wilkinson and Huber, 2012) and invertebrates such as cephalopods (mainly octopuses: Mather and Kuba, 2013 Amodio et al., 2019) or insects (mainly bees: Chittka, 2017 Solvi et al., 2020). The ultimate goal is to better understand how animal minds are organized and to reconstruct the evolution of mind, including the human one.

This will provide a more solid base for future cognitive comparisons within primates but also across a wider range of non-human animal species.Ĭomparative psychologists design and use cognitive tests to investigate and compare cognitive performance and capacities of extant non-human animal species and humans (mainly children). It is essential, however, to validate and eventually re-design several primate cognition tasks in order to ascertain that they capture the cognitive abilities they were designed to measure. We conclude that non-cognitive factors are a minor source of measurement error if acknowledged and properly controlled for. Aspects of test design, however, can also have a substantial effect on cognitive performance. Hence, it is crucial to systematically control for attention during cognitive tasks to obtain valid and reliable results. We find that individual differences in emotional and motivational factors primarily affect performance via attention. We review recent studies that address how non-cognitive factors affect performance in a set of commonly used cognitive tasks, and if cognitive tests truly measure individual variation in cognitive abilities. Unlike in human test psychology, however, cognitive tasks for non-human primates (and most other animals) have been rarely evaluated regarding their measurement validity. Critically, such species comparisons are only valid and meaningful if the tasks truly capture individual and inter-specific variation in cognitive abilities rather than contextual variables that might affect task performance. Based on performance differences and similarities in various species in cognitive tests, it is inferred how their minds work and reconstructed how cognition might have evolved. 4Leibniz ScienceCampus “Primate Cognition”, Göttingen, GermanyĬomparative psychology assesses cognitive abilities and capacities of non-human animals and humans.3Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology Unit, German Primate Center, Göttingen, Germany.2World Ape Fund, London, United Kingdom.1Evolutionary Cognition Group, Department of Anthropology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.Schubiger 1,2* Claudia Fichtel 3,4 Judith M. Today, we want you to help us celebrate chimpanzees by spreading the word and learning more about our closest relatives.Michèle N. World Wildlife Fund is also working to protect these endangered primates by monitoring populations, managing national parks and encouraging effective law enforcement for poaching. One method of conservation is bringing travelers to see chimpanzees in the wild, which helps local communities recognize the financial value of chimpanzees. Chimps face threats from illegal wildlife trade, where poachers capture wild chimpanzees and sell them as pets or as bushmeat.ĭespite these threats, many conservationists are working hard to preserve wild populations. These amazing creatures, who are so similar to humans, are currently endangered, with less than 300,000 left in the wild. Chimpanzees, one of the ‘ Great Apes,’ are found throughout central Africa, where they spend their days eating fruit and climbing trees.

Chimpanzee iq test