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Chimpanzees Beat out Children in Reasoning Test

caffeinemessiah writes "The New York Times has a story on how chimpanzees seem to exhibit a better understanding of cause and effect than human children. While training chimps to perform a routine task with redundant steps, the chimps were able to figure out and eliminate the redundant steps, while the human children routinely performed them despite their evident uselessness. It says something about the way we learn compared to chimps and should be interesting to cognitive scientists and those interested in computational learning theory, at the least."

3 of 663 comments (clear)

  1. animal experimentation stats by Schlemphfer · · Score: 0, Flamebait
    Seems like a good time to mention that, according to the Humane Society of the United States, 1300 chimpanzees are being experimented on in US labs.

    And why are animals used for this testing? Isn't a main justification that they are incapable of reasoning? Here's a link with info on the effort to keep primates out of labs.

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    I'm generally "Interesting," "Insightful," and even "Funny" here. What the hell happens to me at parties?
  2. Re:This is nothing new... by Prune · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    You cretin, those weren't adult chimps. Should have read TFA, as should have the morons that modded you up.

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    "Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason."
  3. Re:Language by Beyond_GoodandEvil · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I find it interesting that continuously we prove to ourselves that while apes can't reason, think or act on a human adult level, they are able to do so on a level above or equal the human child/mentally handicaped adult. And yet, we continue to deny them equal rights to children/retards. It says a lot about our society on the whole I think.

    Dude, your tree just called it's getting lonely, and wants you to come back and start hugging it again.

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    I laughed at the weak who considered themselves good because they lacked claws.