What does an intermediate success rate mean? An analysis of a Piagetian liquid conservation task in the great apes

doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2005.01.005

Cognition

Volume 99, Issue 1, February 2006, Pages 53-71

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2005.01.005 Get rights and content

Abstract

The study investigates what an intermediate success rate means in bonobos, chimpanzees, and orangutans. Apes participated in liquid conservation experiments where they had to track the larger of two different quantities of juice after various kinds of transformations [Suda, C., & Call, J. (2004). Piagetian liquid conservation in the great apes (Pan paniscus, Pan troglodytes, and Pongo pygmaeus). Journal of Comparative Psychology, 118, 265–279). When making a decision, apes sometimes demonstrated hesitant behavior, concurrently pointing to both alternatives or successively changing their choice. Moderately successful apes showed more hesitation than highly successful or unsuccessful apes. The results are consistent with the cognitive conflict model: The experiments created a higher degree of cognitive conflict on moderately successful apes than on very successful or unsuccessful apes. This indicates that an intermediate performance reflects the joint operation and potential conflict between two different cognitive strategies (identity and appearance) inherent to the Piagetian conservation task.

Section snippets

Cognitive conflict model

Subjects will show more hesitation as the degree of cognitive conflict increases. Consequently, the model predicts that subjects using a single strategy will show less hesitation than subjects that are shifting between two strategies. The more heavily apes rely on a single strategy (and the closer the apes' success rate nears either extreme), the less hesitant they will become. Therefore, this model predicts an inverted U-shaped curve between success and hesitation. A 75% success rate will

Subjects

Four bonobos, five chimpanzees, and five orangutans served as subjects in Experiment 1, while the same subjects except for one chimpanzee (Sandra), who refused to take part in the testing, participated in Experiments 2 and 3. Table 1 provides further descriptions of the subjects used in this study.

Task procedure

The task was originally designed for investigating the apes' understanding of Piagetian liquid conservation (Suda & Call, 2004). The apes were tested in indoor cages with a Plexiglas window that had a

Results

There were no significant species differences in the apes' hesitation score across the experiments. An ANOVA on the apes' hesitation score with experiment as a within-subjects factor and species as a between-subjects factor revealed no effect of experiment, F(2,20)=0.03, P=.970, species, F(2,10)=1.33, P=.307, or an interaction between the two factors, F(4,20)=0.09, P=.985. The distribution of the subjects' data points on the y-axis could not be explained by species differences. Therefore, we

Discussion

The cognitive conflict model best fit the relationship between the apes' hesitation and their success rate. Moderately successful apes tended to show more hesitant behavior than very successful or unsuccessful apes in our series of liquid conservation experiments. Note that the other two models that we considered failed to explain our data satisfactorily. The simple monitoring of reward gain predicts that apes will hesitate more as the amount of their reward gain decreases, which we did not

Acknowledgements

Applicable animal care and use rules and guidelines were followed in the conduct of this research. We thank the staff of the Wolfgang Köhler Primate Research Center for their support. We also thank Daniel Stahl for statistical advice and Friederike Schmitz for helping with reliability assessment. C.S. would like to thank Laurence King for his useful comments on the original version of this manuscript, and Keith Jensen for grammatical correction. A part of this study was presented at the COE 21

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Animal Cognition

(2004)

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Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) show subtle signs of uncertainty when choices are more difficult
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However, relating these findings to studies of wavering and metacognition in humans is complicated by the facts that hesitation scores in both studies collapsed rather different types of motor behaviors, and that the relationship between hesitation and difficulty was based on subjects' aggregated performances on the level of individuals or test conditions, respectively. For example, Suda and Call (2006) investigated whether great apes' hesitation was related to performance in a Piagetian liquid conservation task. Wavering back and forth between options, and the simultaneous picking of two options with both hands, were both collapsed in a single measure of “hesitation”.
Humans can tell when they find a task difficult. Subtle uncertainty behaviors like changes in motor speed and muscle tension precede and affect these experiences. Theories of animal metacognition likewise stress the importance of endogenous signals of uncertainty as cues that motivate metacognitive behaviors. However, while researchers have investigated second-order behaviors like information seeking and declining difficult trials in nonhuman animals, they have devoted little attention to the behaviors that express the cognitive conflict that gives rise to such behaviors in the first place. Here we explored whether three chimpanzees would, like humans, show hand wavering more when faced with more difficult choices in a touch screen transitive inference task. While accuracy was very high across all conditions, all chimpanzees wavered more frequently in trials that were objectively more difficult, demonstrating a signature behavior which accompanies experiences of difficulty in humans. This lends plausibility to the idea that feelings of uncertainty, like other emotions, can be studied in nonhuman animals. We propose to routinely assess uncertainty behaviors to inform models of procedural metacognition in nonhuman animals.
Future Thinking: Children But Not Apes Consider Multiple Possibilities
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Citation Excerpt :
Previous research has shown that great apes can take multiple courses of action in tasks where they are uncertain. Suda and Call [16] reported that apes faced with uncertainty about which of two cups contained the greater reward would use both hands and point to both cups. Conversely, an experiment by Beck et al. [17] showed that children can represent alternative states of reality without spontaneously preparing for multiple possibilities.
When anticipating the future, we draw on our past experience but must take uncertainty into account; for example, while preparing for a trip, we might pack a raincoat and sunglasses because of unpredictable weather. New research shows that the ability to plan for multiple future possibilities may be present in human children from as early as 3–4 years of age, but appears to be lacking in non-human apes.
When in doubt, chimpanzees rely on estimates of past reward amounts
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2007, Journal of Comparative Psychology
Social cognition and metacognition in great apes: a theory
2023, Animal Cognition
Operationalizing Intentionality to Play Hanabi with Human Players
2021, IEEE Transactions on Games

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Cognition

Abstract

Section snippets

Cognitive conflict model

Subjects

Task procedure

Results

Discussion

Acknowledgements

References (25)

Conflict, learning, and piaget: Comments on Zimmerman and Blom's “Toward an empirical test of the role of cognitive conflict in learning”

Developmental Review

The uncertain response in humans and animals

Cognition

Summation and numerousness judgments of sequentially presented sets of items by chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)

Journal of Comparative Psychology

On linking comparative metacognition and theory of mind

Behavioral and Brain Sciences

Do apes and children know what they have seen?

Animal Cognition

Chimpanzee gaze following in an object-choice task

Animal Cognition

Liquid conservation in orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) and humans (Homo sapiens): Individual differences and perceptual strategies

Journal of Comparative Psychology

Perceptual strategies in the estimation of physical quantities by orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus)

Journal of Comparative Psychology

Rhesus monkeys know when they remember

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) discriminate between knowing and not knowing and collect information as needed before acting

Animal Cognition

Cited by (16)

Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) show subtle signs of uncertainty when choices are more difficult

Future Thinking: Children But Not Apes Consider Multiple Possibilities

When in doubt, chimpanzees rely on estimates of past reward amounts

Discrete Quantity Judgments in the Great Apes (Pan paniscus, Pan troglodytes, Gorilla gorilla, Pongo pygmaeus): The Effect of Presenting Whole Sets Versus Item-by-Item

Social cognition and metacognition in great apes: a theory

Operationalizing Intentionality to Play Hanabi with Human Players