The Perception of Rational, Goal-Directed Action in Nonhuman Primates

by: Justin N Wood, David D Glynn, Brenda C Phillips, Marc D Hauser

Science, Vol. 317, No. 5843. (7 September 2007), pp. 1402-1405.

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Abstract

Humans are capable of making inferences about other individuals' intentions and goals by evaluating their actions in relation to the constraints imposed by the environment. This capacity enables humans to go beyond the surface appearance of behavior to draw inferences about an individual's mental states. Presently unclear is whether this capacity is uniquely human or is shared with other animals. We show that cotton-top tamarins, rhesus macaques, and chimpanzees all make spontaneous inferences about a human experimenter's goal by attending to the environmental constraints that guide rational action. These findings rule out simple associative accounts of action perception and show that our capacity to infer rational, goal-directed action likely arose at least as far back as the New World monkeys, some 40 million years ago. 10.1126/science.1144663

@article{citeulike:1632947, abstract = {Humans are capable of making inferences about other individuals' intentions and goals by evaluating their actions in relation to the constraints imposed by the environment. This capacity enables humans to go beyond the surface appearance of behavior to draw inferences about an individual's mental states. Presently unclear is whether this capacity is uniquely human or is shared with other animals. We show that cotton-top tamarins, rhesus macaques, and chimpanzees all make spontaneous inferences about a human experimenter's goal by attending to the environmental constraints that guide rational action. These findings rule out simple associative accounts of action perception and show that our capacity to infer rational, goal-directed action likely arose at least as far back as the New World monkeys, some 40 million years ago. 10.1126/science.1144663}, author = {Wood, Justin N. and Glynn, David D. and Phillips, Brenda C. and Hauser, Marc D. }, citeulike-article-id = {1632947}, doi = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1144663}, journal = {Science}, keywords = {distributed, evolution, primate, rationality}, month = {September}, number = {5843}, pages = {1402--1405}, posted-at = {2007-09-08 03:29:39}, priority = {2}, title = {The Perception of Rational, Goal-Directed Action in Nonhuman Primates}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1144663}, volume = {317}, year = {2007} }

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TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:1632947 L3 - citeulike-article-id:1632947 TI - The Perception of Rational, Goal-Directed Action in Nonhuman Primates JF - Science VL - 317 IS - 5843 SP - 1402 EP - 1405 N2 - Humans are capable of making inferences about other individuals' intentions and goals by evaluating their actions in relation to the constraints imposed by the environment. This capacity enables humans to go beyond the surface appearance of behavior to draw inferences about an individual's mental states. Presently unclear is whether this capacity is uniquely human or is shared with other animals. We show that cotton-top tamarins, rhesus macaques, and chimpanzees all make spontaneous inferences about a human experimenter's goal by attending to the environmental constraints that guide rational action. These findings rule out simple associative accounts of action perception and show that our capacity to infer rational, goal-directed action likely arose at least as far back as the New World monkeys, some 40 million years ago. 10.1126/science.1144663 KW - distributed KW - evolution KW - primate KW - rationality AU - Wood, Justin AU - Glynn, David AU - Phillips, Brenda AU - Hauser, Marc PY - 2007/09/07/ UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1144663 ER -

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