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?