Do great apes use emotional expressions to infer desires?

Buttelmann, David; Call, Josep; Tomasello, Michael

doi:10.1111/j.1467-7687.2008.00802.x

Cited by 42 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Interestingly, when great apes of all four species are presented with exactly the same paradigm (Buttelmann et al 2009), they also cannot discriminate these two fairly similar human expressions. On the one hand, the difference between the happy and the disgusted expression is more pronounced and so perhaps this enabled the dogs to better discriminate between them.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…In the Happy-Disgust condition, one box was baited with food as before, but the other box was baited with garlic and provoked a disgusted emotion from the experimenter. Then dogs were allowed to select one of two containers to receive its content (see also Buttelmann et al (2009) for the use of this setup with great apes). The current study also included a control test for the Huskies to investigate whether they could succeed simply by using olfactory cues since they were the only breed tested outdoors.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Can domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) use referential emotional expressions to locate hidden food?

Buttelmann

Tomasello

2012

Anim Cogn

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Although many studies have investigated domestic dogs' (Canis familiaris) use of human communicative cues, little is known about their use of humans' emotional expressions. We conducted a study following the general paradigm of Repacholi in Dev Psychol 34:1017-1025, (1998) and tested four breeds of dogs in the laboratory and another breed in the open air. In our study, a human reacted emotionally (happy, neutral or disgust) to the hidden contents of two boxes, after which the dog was then allowed to choose one of the boxes. Dogs tested in the laboratory distinguished between the most distinct of the expressed emotions (Happy-Disgust condition) by choosing appropriately, but performed at chance level when the two emotions were less distinct (Happy-Neutral condition). The breed tested in the open air passed both conditions, but this breed's differing testing setup might have been responsible for their success. Although without meaningful emotional expressions, when given a choice, these subjects chose randomly, their performance did not differ from that in the experimental conditions. Based on the findings revealed in the laboratory, we suggest that some domestic dogs recognize both the directedness and the valence of some human emotional expressions.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) use referential emotional expressions to locate hidden food?

Buttelmann

Tomasello

2012

Anim Cogn

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“…A notable exception claims that apes can retrospectively infer humans' desires toward food items from the emotions expressed (14). However, given that the apes were explicitly trained about the relationship between human expressions and the availability of food, we cannot conclude that the apes inferred an underlying desire.…”

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confidence: 91%

Evidence suggesting that desire-state attribution may govern food sharing in Eurasian jays

Ostojić

Shaw

Cheke

et al. 2013

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

120

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State-attribution is the ability to ascribe to others an internal life like one's own and to understand that internal, psychological states such as desire, hope, belief, and knowledge underlie others' actions. Despite extensive research, comparative studies struggle to adequately integrate key factors of state-attribution that have been identified by evolutionary and developmental psychology as well as research on empathy. Here, we develop a behavioral paradigm to address these issues and investigate whether male Eurasian jays respond to the changing desire-state of their female partners when sharing food. We demonstrate that males feed their mates flexibly according to the female's current food preference. Critically, we show that the males need to see what the female has previously eaten to know what food she will currently want. Consequently, the males' sharing pattern was not simply a response to their mate's behavior indicating her preference as to what he should share, nor was it a response to the males' own desire-state. Our results raise the possibility that these birds may be capable of ascribing desire to their mates.corvid | Theory of Mind | cooperation | specific satiety I n human development, the earliest manifestation of state-attribution is the ability to explain and predict others' behavior in terms of desire-states (e.g., wants, wishes, hopes), a capacity that does not require a concept of others' mental representations (1, 2). At around the age of four, the more complex desire-belief system is formed by incorporating the attribution of epistemic mental states (e.g., belief, knowledge, doubt, expectation) (3, 4), an ability known as Theory of Mind. It is very possible that the attribution of desire-states may represent not only the developmental, but also the evolutionary, precursor of Theory of Mind. Thus, the first logical step in the investigation of state-attribution in nonhuman animals should be to search for this simpler manifestation (5). Despite this, most comparative studies focus solely on the attribution of epistemic mental states (6-13).A notable exception claims that apes can retrospectively infer humans' desires toward food items from the emotions expressed (14). However, given that the apes were explicitly trained about the relationship between human expressions and the availability of food, we cannot conclude that the apes inferred an underlying desire. In another study, the authors claimed that capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) attribute a need or desire to another individual and thus might exhibit empathetic perspective-taking because the number of tolerated thefts by another individual was lower after subjects had seen the other individual eat than when they had not (15). Unfortunately, this study failed to account for a much simpler competitive account, namely that the sight of another monkey eating triggered the monkeys to protect their food. A second issue is that this experimental paradigm could only investigate the understanding of another individual's physiological process...

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“…-462- (Braeuer, Call, and Tomasello, 2007;Flombaum and Santos, 2005;Hare, Call, Agnetta, and Tomasello, 2000;Hare, Call, and Tomasello, 2006;Melis, Call, and Tomasello, 2006;Santos, Nissen, and Ferrugia, 2006), reasoning about others' knowledge states (Hare, Call, and Tomasello, 2001;Kaminski, Call, and Tomasello, 2009;Marticorena, Ruiz, Mukerji, Goddu, and Santos, 2011), and desire comprehension (Buttelmann, Call, and Tomasello, 2009). Critically, however, non-human primates do not appear to represent the beliefs of others when tested in false belief tasks (Call and Tomasello, 1999;Kaminski et al, 2009;Krachun, Carpenter, Call, and Tomasello, 2009;Marticorena et al, 2011), and may instead represent situations in which an individual has a false belief merely in terms of that individual's ignorance (Kaminski et al, 2009;Marticorena et al, 2011).…”

Section: Comparative Developmental Psychologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative Developmental Psychology: How is Human Cognitive Development Unique?

et al. 2014

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Abstract:The fields of developmental and comparative psychology both seek to illuminate the roots of adult cognitive systems. Developmental studies target the emergence of adult cognitive systems over ontogenetic time, whereas comparative studies investigate the origins of human cognition in our evolutionary history. Despite the long tradition of research in both of these areas, little work has examined the intersection of the two: the study of cognitive development in a comparative perspective. In the current article, we review recent work using this comparative developmental approach to study non-human primate cognition. We argue that comparative data on the pace and pattern of cognitive development across species can address major theoretical questions in both psychology and biology. In particular, such integrative research will allow stronger biological inferences about the function of developmental change, and will be critical in addressing how humans come to acquire species-unique cognitive abilities.

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Do great apes use emotional expressions to infer desires?

Abstract: Although apes understand others' goals and perceptions, little is known about their understanding of others' emotional expressions. We conducted three studies following the general paradigm of Repacholi and colleagues (1997, 1998

Cited by 42 publications

References 24 publications

Can domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) use referential emotional expressions to locate hidden food?

Can domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) use referential emotional expressions to locate hidden food?

Evidence suggesting that desire-state attribution may govern food sharing in Eurasian jays

Comparative Developmental Psychology: How is Human Cognitive Development Unique?

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