Abstract
We investigated the level of cognitive development of two chimpanzee infants, both tested at 14 and 19 months of age, within the Piagetian framework of cognitive development. We administered tasks related to the understanding of object-concept—visible displacement tasks-and the operation of physical causality—the support problem-and observed responses similar to those of human infants. Both subjects reached stage 5 object-concept when they were 19 months of age: only at this time, in fact, were chimpanzees able to find the object wherever it was hidden. Stage 4 errors still characterized infants' performance when they were 14 months old. However, only one of the 19-month-old subjects was able to solve the support problem: she ignored the support when the goal object did not rest on it, showing that the understood the necessity of spatial contact between the target and the intermediary object. On the contrary, the other subject was not proficient in such a task because he drew the support even when the reward was placed beside it. At 19 months of age its level of causality still remained characteristic of the fourth stage.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Beck, B. (1980).Animal Tool Behavior, Garland Press, New York.
Chevalier-Skolnikoff, S. (1983). Sensorimotor development in orang-utans and other primates.J. Hum. Evol. 12: 545–561.
Hallock, M. B., and Woroby, J. (1984). Cognitive development in chimpanzee infants (Pan troglodytes).J. Hum. Evol. 13: 441–447.
Kohler, W. (1976).The Mentality of Apes, 2nd ed., Liveright, New York.
Mathieu, M., and Bergeron, G. (1981). Piagetian assessment of cognitive development in chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes). In Chiarelli, B., and Corruccini, R. S. (eds.),Primate Behavior and Sociobiology, Springer, Berlin, pp. 142–147.
Mathieu, M., Bouchard, M. A., Granger, L., and Herscovitch, J.(1976). Piagetian object permanence inCebus capucinus, Lagothrica flavicauda andPan troglodytes.Anim. Behav. 24: 585–588.
Mathieu, M., Daudelin, N., Dagenais, Y., and Decarie, T. (1980). Piagetian causality in two house-reared chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).Can. J. Psychol. 34: 179–185.
Natale, F. (1989). Stage 5 object-concept. In Antinucci, F. (ed.),Cognitive Structures and Development in Nonhuman Primates, Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ, pp. 89–95.
Parker, S. T. (1977). Piaget sensorimotor series in an infant macaque: A model for comparing unstereotyped behavior and intelligence in human and nonhuman primates. In Chevalier-Skolnikoff, S., and Poirier, F. E. (eds.),Primate Biosocial Development: Biological, Social and Ecological Determinants, Garland, New York, pp. 43–112.
Piaget, J. (1971).The Construction of Reality in the Child, Ballantine Books, New York.
Redshaw, M. (1978). Cognitive development in human and gorilla infants.J. Hum. Evol. 7: 133–141.
Schiller, P. (1952). Innate constituents of complex responses in primates.Psychol. Rev. 59: 177–191.
Schiller, P. (1957). Innate motor action as a basic of learning. In Schiller, C. (ed.),Instinctive Behavior, International Universities Press, New York, pp. 264–287.
Snyder, D. R., Birchette, L. M., and Achenbach, T. M. (1978). A comparison of developmentally progressive intellectual skills betweenHylobates lar, Cebus apella andMacaca mulatta. In Chivers, J., and Herbert, J. (eds.),Recent Advances in Primatology, Vol. I. Behavior, Academic Press, New York, pp. 945–948.
Spinozzi, G., and Potì, P. (1989). Causality I: The support problem. In Antinucci, F. (ed.),Cognitive Structures and Development in Nonhuman Primates, Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ, pp. 113–119.
Uzgiris, J. C., and Hunt, J. McV. (1975).Assessment in Infancy: Ordinal Scales for Psychological Development, University of Illinois Press, Urbana.
Vaughter, R. M., Smotherman, W., and Ordy, J. M. (1972). Development of object permanence in the infant squirrel monkey.Dev. Psychol. 7: 34–38.
Wise, K. L., Wise, L. A., and Zimmerman, R. R. (1974). Piagetian object permanence in the infant rhesus monkey.Dev. Psychol. 10: 429–437.
Wood, S., Moriarty, K. M., Gardner, B. T., and Gardner, R. A. (1980). Object permanence in child and chimpanzee.Anim. Learn. Behav. 8: 3–9.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Spinozzi, G., Potí, P. Piagetian stage 5 in two infant chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes): The development of permanence of objects and the spatialization of causality. International Journal of Primatology 14, 905–917 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02220259
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02220259