Do chimpanzees reason logically?

Jan M. Engelmann; Lou M. Haux; Christoph Völter; Hanna Schleihauf; Josep Call; Hannes Rakoczy; Esther Herrmann

doi:10.1111/cdev.13861

Do chimpanzees reason logically?

Jan M. Engelmann, Lou M. Haux, Christoph Völter, Hanna Schleihauf, Josep Call, Hannes Rakoczy, Esther Herrmann

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Abstract

Psychologists disagree about the development of logical concepts such as or and not. While some theorists argue that infants reason logically, others maintain that logical inference is contingent on linguistic abilities and emerges around age 4. In this Registered Report, we conducted five experiments on logical reasoning in chimpanzees. Subjects (N = 16; 10 females; M = 24 years) participated in the same setup that has been administered to children: the two-, three-, and four-cup-task. Chimpanzees performed above chance in the two-cup-, but not in the three-cup-task. Furthermore, chimpanzees selected the logically correct option more often in the test than the control condition of the four-cup-task. We discuss possible interpretations of these findings and conclude that our results are most consistent with non-deductive accounts.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1102-1116
Journal	Child Development
Volume	94
Issue number	5
Early online date	18 Oct 2022
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13861
Publication status	Published - 1 Sept 2023

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10.1111/cdev.13861

Do chimpanzees reason logically
This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Engelmann, J. M., Haux, L. M., Völter, C., Schleihauf, H., Call, J., Rakoczy, H., & Herrmann, E. (2022). Do chimpanzees reason logically? Child Development, 00, 1– 15 which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13861. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. This article may not be enhanced, enriched or otherwise transformed into a derivative work, without express permission from Wiley or by statutory rights under applicable legislation. Copyright notices must not be removed, obscured or modified. The article must be linked to Wiley’s version of record on Wiley Online Library and any embedding, framing or otherwise making available the article or pages thereof by third parties from platforms, services and websites other than Wiley Online Library must be prohibited.
Accepted author manuscript (Post-print), 598 KB

Cite this

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title = "Do chimpanzees reason logically?",

abstract = "Psychologists disagree about the development of logical concepts such as or and not. While some theorists argue that infants reason logically, others maintain that logical inference is contingent on linguistic abilities and emerges around age 4. In this Registered Report, we conducted five experiments on logical reasoning in chimpanzees. Subjects (N = 16; 10 females; M = 24 years) participated in the same setup that has been administered to children: the two-, three-, and four-cup-task. Chimpanzees performed above chance in the two-cup-, but not in the three-cup-task. Furthermore, chimpanzees selected the logically correct option more often in the test than the control condition of the four-cup-task. We discuss possible interpretations of these findings and conclude that our results are most consistent with non-deductive accounts.",

author = "Engelmann, {Jan M.} and Haux, {Lou M.} and Christoph V{\"o}lter and Hanna Schleihauf and Josep Call and Hannes Rakoczy and Esther Herrmann",

year = "2023",

month = sep,

day = "1",

doi = "10.1111/cdev.13861",

language = "English",

volume = "94",

pages = "1102--1116",

journal = "Child Development",

issn = "0009-3920",