Custance, Deborah M.; Whiten, Andrew and Bard, Kim. 1995. Can young chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) imitate arbitrary actions? Hayes & Hayes (1952) revisited. Behaviour, 132(11/12), 837 -859. ISSN 0005-7959 [Article]

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Abstract or Description

Contrary to recent scepticism, systematic use of an experimental approach suggested by Hayes & Hayes (1952) shows that chimpanzees can imitate novel actions. Two chimpanzees imitated 13 and 17 novel arbitrary gestures, respectively. They were first taught to reproduce 15 gestures on the command, "Do this!", and then presented with 48 novel items. Using a rigourous coding system, two independent observers correctly identified a significant number of the chimpanzees' imitations (p < 0.0001). We conclude that after a period of tuition chimpanzees can go on to imitate arbitrary actions, providing evidence of a basic cognitive capacity for perspective-taking and cross-modal matching.

Item Type:	Article
Departments, Centres and Research Units:	Psychology
Dates:	Date Event September 1995 Published
Item ID:	5094
Date Deposited:	04 Mar 2011 10:02
Last Modified:	30 Jun 2017 14:35
Peer Reviewed:	Yes, this version has been peer-reviewed.
URI:	https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/5094

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