USE OF SOCIAL INFORMATION IN THE PROBLEM-SOLVING OF ORANGUTANS (PONGO-PYGMAEUS) AND HUMAN CHILDREN (HOMO-SAPIENS)

Fourteen juvenile and adult orangutans and 24 3- and 4-year-old childr en participated in 4 studies on imitative learning in a problem-solvin g situation. In all studies a simple to operate apparatus was used, bu t its internal mechanism was hidden from subjects to prevent individua l learning. In the 1st study, orangutans observed a human demonstrator perform 1 of 4 actions on the apparatus and obtain a reward; they sub sequently showed no signs of imitative learning. Similar results were obtained in a 2nd study in which orangutan demonstrators were used. Si milar results were also obtained in a 3rd study in which a human encou raged imitation from an orangutan that had previously been taught to m imic arbitrary human actions. In a 4th study, human 3- and 4-year-old children learned the task by means of imitation.