US EditionChimps Revise Beliefs Like Children, Study Finds
Researchers found chimpanzees revised beliefs based on evidence reliability in 80% of tests, suggesting rational thought processes similar to young children.
- On October 30, a new study in Science found that chimpanzees can rationally revise their beliefs when presented with new information, led by Emily M. Sanford, Jan M. Engelmann, and Hanna Schleihauf.
- At Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Uganda, researchers used two-box tasks to test belief revision by giving chimps an initial hint and later stronger or conflicting clues.
- 20 chimpanzees completed five experiments and followed evidence above chance in about 80 percent of cases, with computational models showing their choices matched rational belief revision and ruled out recency bias.
- Sanford says the results may reshape how scientists think about learning, child development and AI, as her team collects data from two- to four-year-olds to compare belief revision with chimpanzees.
- Engelmann frames rationality as a continuum and the team plans to extend tasks to other primate species, while some experts caution assessing internal beliefs from behavior is difficult.
22 Articles
22 Articles
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A new study published in Science shows that chimpanzees are capable of rationally revising their beliefs when they receive new information. Chimpanzees may share more cognitive similarities with humans than scientists once believed. According to a new study published in Science, researchers have found that chimpanzees are capable of rationally updating their beliefs when they [...]
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