Skip to main content
Journal cover image

Chimpanzees' (Pan troglodytes) strategic helping in a collaborative task.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Melis, AP; Tomasello, M
Published in: Biology letters
April 2013

Many animal species cooperate, but the underlying proximate mechanisms are often unclear. We presented chimpanzees with a mutualistic collaborative food-retrieval task requiring complementary roles, and tested subjects' ability to help their partner perform her role. For each role, subjects required a different tool, and the tools were not interchangeable. We gave one individual in each dyad both tools, and measured subjects' willingness to transfer a tool to their partner as well as which tool (correct versus incorrect) they transferred. Most subjects helped their partner and transferred the tool the partner needed. Thus, chimpanzees not only coordinate different roles, but they also know which particular action the partner needs to perform. These results add to previous findings suggesting that many of chimpanzees' limitations in collaboration are, perhaps, more motivational than cognitive.

Duke Scholars

Altmetric Attention Stats
Dimensions Citation Stats

Published In

Biology letters

DOI

EISSN

1744-957X

ISSN

1744-9561

Publication Date

April 2013

Volume

9

Issue

2

Start / End Page

20130009

Related Subject Headings

  • Tool Use Behavior
  • Task Performance and Analysis
  • Species Specificity
  • Pan troglodytes
  • Motivation
  • Male
  • Linear Models
  • Helping Behavior
  • Female
  • Evolutionary Biology
 

Citation

APA
Chicago
ICMJE
MLA
NLM
Melis, A. P., & Tomasello, M. (2013). Chimpanzees' (Pan troglodytes) strategic helping in a collaborative task. Biology Letters, 9(2), 20130009. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2013.0009
Melis, Alicia P., and Michael Tomasello. “Chimpanzees' (Pan troglodytes) strategic helping in a collaborative task.Biology Letters 9, no. 2 (April 2013): 20130009. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2013.0009.
Melis AP, Tomasello M. Chimpanzees' (Pan troglodytes) strategic helping in a collaborative task. Biology letters. 2013 Apr;9(2):20130009.
Melis, Alicia P., and Michael Tomasello. “Chimpanzees' (Pan troglodytes) strategic helping in a collaborative task.Biology Letters, vol. 9, no. 2, Apr. 2013, p. 20130009. Epmc, doi:10.1098/rsbl.2013.0009.
Melis AP, Tomasello M. Chimpanzees' (Pan troglodytes) strategic helping in a collaborative task. Biology letters. 2013 Apr;9(2):20130009.
Journal cover image

Published In

Biology letters

DOI

EISSN

1744-957X

ISSN

1744-9561

Publication Date

April 2013

Volume

9

Issue

2

Start / End Page

20130009

Related Subject Headings

  • Tool Use Behavior
  • Task Performance and Analysis
  • Species Specificity
  • Pan troglodytes
  • Motivation
  • Male
  • Linear Models
  • Helping Behavior
  • Female
  • Evolutionary Biology