A recent study conducted in Japan has shown that chimpanzees perform better at solving complex problems when observed by familiar individuals, such as their caregivers or researchers they know well. The research, carried out over six years by scientists from Kyoto University and Akita Prefectural University, offers new insights into how social factors, particularly the presence of familiar observers, influence cognitive performance in nonhuman primates.
The study involved six chimpanzees, who were tasked with solving a variety of cognitive exercises. The goal was to investigate how the presence of observers – particularly those they were familiar with – affected the chimpanzees' performance. Over the course of the study, the chimpanzees completed between 50 and 90 exercises daily, with their performance being measured in relation to the number of observers present and the familiarity of those individuals.
The researchers discovered a significant relationship between the type of observer and the chimpanzees' performance. When the chimpanzees were observed by familiar individuals, such as their caregivers or researchers they had regular contact with, they tended to perform better, particularly in more complex cognitive tasks.
However, the results were more nuanced when it came to simpler tasks. In these cases, an increase in the number of familiar observers actually led to a decrease in performance. This suggests that while familiar faces can enhance cognitive performance in complex tasks, they might also introduce distractions when the tasks are simpler, requiring less cognitive effort.
Shinya Yamamoto, one of the principal researchers involved in the study, emphasized the significance of the findings in an interview with Kyodo News. He noted that the discovery that familiar observers could enhance the cognitive performance of chimpanzees was an important development in behavioral science. This insight sheds light on the role of social factors in the cognitive abilities of nonhuman primates, and may even have broader implications for understanding how social dynamics influence problem-solving abilities across species.
The findings of the study were published in the scientific journal iScience, contributing to a growing body of research that explores the intersection of cognition and social behavior in animals.
