![]() ![]() ![]() Thus Component 1 (23.6% of test variance) was significantly heritable - h 2 = 0.538. They then used " Sequential Oligogenic Linkage Analysis Routines" (background here) to estimate the heritability of the PCA components: The authors gave 99 chimps 13 tasks from the Primate Cognition Test Battery, and used principal components analysis to select four components which collectively accounted for 54.2% of the variance in test battery scores: If we read the research report under discussion– William Hopkins et al., " Chimpanzee Intelligence Is Heritable", Current Biology I - we find the estimated genetic role diminishing somewhat further. “We found that some but not all cognitive traits were significantly heritable in chimpanzees,” the researchers said in their scientific paper. The performance of each ape was measured on a series of standardised cognitive tests for primates and the researchers concluded that about half of the variation in this ability is down to genetic factors – about the same or a little less than humans – and half down to non-genetic influences. The study involved behavioural tests on 99 captive chimps aged between 9 and 54 years. Researchers have argued for many decades over the genetic basis of human intelligence – based on IQ tests and studies of identical twins reared apart – but now a study has found that a chimpanzee’s “cognitive ability” is mostly governed by its genes rather than its environmental background.Īnd later in the same article, it becomes "about half of the variation in this ability is down to genetic factors": The next sentence backs off from "down to genes rather than upbringing" to "mostly governed by its genes rather than its environmental background": Scientists have found that being a smart primate is down to genes rather than upbringing, suggesting that nature rather than nurture governs intelligent behaviour in our closest living relatives. The vexed question of whether intelligence is inherited from birth or acquired through education seems to have been answered – for chimpanzees at least. (Related: "Chimps Shown Using Not Just a Tool but a 'Tool Kit.Steve Connor, " Nature rather than nurture governs intelligent behaviour in primates, scientists discover", The Independent : ![]() Since the toolmaking discovery, scientists have discovered our closest cousins can use sign language, hunt with spears of their own making, and even beat college students in basic memory tests, among other skills. The "notion is requires higher intelligence, because it requires refashioning what nature has provided to achieve the user's goal," Anne Russon, an expert in ape intelligence at Canada's York University, said via email. Until then, toolmaking had been considered a uniquely human ability. The supersmart chimpanzees of the new movie Rise of the Planet of the Apes may exist only on the silver screen-but in real life, great apes are still brainiacs of the animal kingdom.Įvidence for ape intelligence got a major boost in the 1960s in Gombe, Tanzania, when Jane Goodall observed chimpanzees using a twig to "fish" for ants (pictured in a file photo)-the first documentation of wild chimps making and using tools. Until then, toolmaking had been considered a uniquely human ability.The "notion is requires higher intelligence, because it requires refashioning what nature has provided to achieve the user's goal," Anne Russon, an expert in ape intelligence at Canada's York University, said via email.Since the toolmaking discovery, scientists have discovered our closest cousins can use sign language, hunt with spears of their own making, and even beat college students in basic memory tests, among other skills.(Related: "Chimps Shown Using Not Just a Tool but a 'Tool Kit.'")-Christine Dell'Amore The supersmart chimpanzees of the new movie Rise of the Planet of the Apes may exist only on the silver screen-but in real life, great apes are still brainiacs of the animal kingdom.Evidence for ape intelligence got a major boost in the 1960s in Gombe, Tanzania, when Jane Goodall observed chimpanzees using a twig to "fish" for ants (pictured in a file photo)-the first documentation of wild chimps making and using tools. ![]()
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