Monkey 'IQ test' hints at intelligent human ancestor

First, the article:

Human intelligence may not be so human after all. New research on monkeys finds that individual animals perform consistently on numerous different tests of intelligence – a hallmark of human IQ and, perhaps, an indication that human intellect has a very ancient history.

No doubt, the human brain has bulged in the six million or so years since our species last shared a common ancestor with chimpanzees, offering more cognitive prowess compared to our closest relatives.

But traces of human intelligence, such as a sense of numbers, or the ability to use tools, lurk in a wide range of animals, particularly in other primates.

Less clear, though, is whether animals possess the same kind of general intelligence as humans: where performance on one facet, say verbal, strongly predicts performance on other tests of intelligence like working memory.

Monkey IQ test

"We were essentially looking for evidence of a general intelligence factor – something that would be an evolutionary homologue of what we see in humans," says Konika Banerjee, a psychologist at Harvard University who led the new study along with colleague Marc Hauser.

Working with 22 cotton-top tamarins (Saguinus Oedipus), the researchers tested all the monkeys on a wide range of cognitive tasks, 11 in total. "What we did here was, very crudely, create a monkey IQ test," Banerjee says.

In most tasks, the monkeys ended up in clear-cut groupings – above average, average, and below average.

For instance, in one test, animals had to reach around a plastic barrier to obtain a raisin placed right in front of them, but behind the barrier. The smartest monkeys quickly figured out the trick, another group went straight for the raisin before realizing a reach-around was needed, while the dunces never seem to it figure out, Banerjee says.

Consistent performance

There was less of a spread in a test of numerical discrimination, when monkeys had to pick between two dishes, one with three treats another with four. Most monkeys consistently picked the dish with four treats.

Banerjee's team ranked the 22 monkeys across all 11 tasks and found that the same animals tended to perform similarly well across all the tests. When her team calculated an IQ score for each monkey, the smarter monkey bested the less intelligent monkey two-thirds of the time for any given test.

"This is a difficult study to undertake, and this team should be commended for doing it so well," says Robert Deaner, a psychologist at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan. He says the new work "really strengthens the argument" that general intelligence has a long evolutionary history.

new scientist

Keep in mind here that we're not talking about inherited evolutionary primate intelligence here.
That tedious conversation has been discussed ad nauseam on ATS.

What we're talking about is proving a correlation of scales of intelligence between human and primates.

That is to say that primates, just as humans, have measurable levels of intelligence within their own species.

It is by no means THE smoking evolutionary gun, just yet one more piece of solid evidence confirming Man's evolutionary ancestry.

For many, I expect this will make little difference ...

Though that will hopefully change when we soon discover that primates also practice dogma.

Then there will be no doubt.


The full paper is available here:

General Intelligence in Another Primate: Individual Differences across Cognitive Task Performance in a New World Monkey (Saguinus oedipus)

I pray that some of you will actually read it before knee jerking your indignation meter to eleven.

I want to add the conclusion of the cited paper for clarification purposes:

Conclusion

Individual differences in cognitive abilities within at least one other primate species can be characterized by a general intelligence factor, supporting the hypothesis that important aspects of human cognitive function most likely evolved from ancient neural substrates. *

There are gradations in intelligence in every animal species.

Everyone who has bred cats or dogs knows that some are more intelligent than others, and that their intelligence, along with character, tends to be inherited.

I've bred goats, and had some turn out much more intelligent than others, and noticed their offspring followed suit.

I've had a rabbit that was more intelligent than other rabbits I've known. I found him in a gutter one night in the rain, so tired he looked like a cotton ball.When mother quail ignored her chicks he was the first to notice. He tunnelled into the quail cage and mothered them.

Our cat, when he was just a kitten, climbed onto my desk and smacked my nose because he didn't approve of my manners. He made it clear that good cat manners involved sharing a plate, and wanted his dinner to be beside mine.

He also got upset when I was eating "non-food" like carrots or cake, but eventually gave up trying to teach me. These days he eats by daintily picking up food between 2 claws, and likes to hold hands, clasping my finger gently in his claws. He can say hello in English, and loves it when I reply in cat. He winks to say sorry and he returns blown kisses.

Many of us can tell of a particularly clever or dumb animal.

My daughter keeps guppies, and has found she can train some to swim to her finger and get stroked before they are fed, but others don't ever catch on.

All living creatures have differences in brain formation, and these are bound to cause differences.


So I don't see what this study proves except that the researchers originally were not aware of animals as individuals.

Originally posted by Kailassa
There are gradations in intelligence in every animal species.

Everyone who has bred cats or dogs knows that some are more intelligent than others, and that their intelligence, along with character, tends to be inherited.

I agree ...

But it's one thing to suspect something via anecdotal experience, and another to scientifically affirm said hypothesis.

reply to post by Kailassa


Also, though I am sure that your daughter's guppies are indeed very smart, I am sure they have not been subjected to the following scrutiny:

Occluded reach
Targeted reach
A-not-B
Reversal learning
Exploration
Numerical discrimination
Acoustic discrimination
Object tracking
Social tracking
Hidden reward retrieval
Food extraction puzzle

All of which were part of the study.

Human intelligence may not be so human after all.

Who's intelligence would it be?

No doubt, the human brain has bulged in the six million or so years since our species last shared a common ancestor with chimpanzees

Its funny how they say, "Since our species last shared a common ancestor" even though we still haven't found the bloody thing.

offering more cognitive prowess compared to our closest relatives.

Well, I think "we" all are pretty much related to one another since we are all made up of "gravitons" and "strings" haha...

But traces of human intelligence, such as a sense of numbers, or the ability to use tools, lurk in a wide range of animals

So do crows share a lineage with lemurs too?

"We were essentially looking for evidence of a general intelligence factor – something that would be an evolutionary homologue of what we see in humans,"

Isn't intelligence learned?

Why would they think it evolves?

As far as I know, I have expanded my intelligence through learning, not evolving.

the researchers tested all the monkeys

Nuff, said about that, lol

"This is a difficult study to undertake, and this team should be commended for doing it so well,"

For listening to monkey's make noise and giving them blocks to play with?

He says the new work "really strengthens the argument" that general intelligence has a long evolutionary history.

It must be extremely long, since we can only go as far back to lemurs with disposable thumbs.

Originally posted by schrodingers dog
What we're talking about is proving a correlation of scales of intelligence between human and primates.

I'd match my dogs intelligence up there with the monkey's any day.

Originally posted by schrodingers dog
That is to say that primates, just as humans, have measurable levels of intelligence within their own species.

They needed a study to prove monkeys can "think?"

Originally posted by schrodingers dog
It is by no means THE smoking evolutionary gun,

Nope, that gun is still mia.

Originally posted by schrodingers dog
just yet one more piece of solid evidence confirming Man's evolutionary ancestry.

How exactly does, the ability of monkey's playing with blocks confirm "mans evolutionary ancestry?"

Originally posted by schrodingers dog
The full paper is available here:

Oh, god, they actually wrote a paper about block playing monkey's...

----------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------

"disposable thumbs" was a joke, lol don't be so hard on yourself, ok.