When humans work together, we know what our partner is doing and how our task relates to theirs. We can learn each other’s actions without having to do them ourselves. This sort of coordination also allows us to communicate in shorthand. If you and a partner are building a shelf together, nodding toward a hammer when you are holding a nail to a piece of wood can serve as shorthand for “will you please pass me the hammer?” The meaning of your nod is clear only because of the context of the task and the fact that you are coordinating. It is not currently known whether chimpanzees think about coordination in the same way. Do they know about their partner’s action in a coordination task? Can they communicate in shorthand? Our research investigates this using a coordination task with two actions, one performed by the chimpanzee and another by the researcher. 

We present the chimpanzees with a see-saw, which is out of their reach. They are trained to wait until the see-saw is tipped, allowing a grape to roll onto a strip of paper within their reach. Half the chimps will be trained with a human tipping the see-saw- a coordinated task together. The other half will be trained with an object falling on the see-saw causing it to tip- thus a solitary task.  When they are then given access to reach the seesaw themselves, which group will learn how to operate the seesaw faster? And will their communication towards the researcher differ?