INTELLIGENCE TEST

Waipa Post, Volume 45, Issue 3214, 9 August 1932, Page 7

INTELLIGENCE TEST

CHIMPANZEE AND INFANT

A fascinating experiment in which a scientist reared his child and a chimpanzee under identical conditions and found that the simian surpassed tile youngster in memory, co-opera-tive spirit, and ability to grasp knowledge, was described before the MidWestern Psychological Association at Bloomington, Indiana. Dr W. N. Kellogg, Indiana University psychologist, and his wife conducted the experiment at their home in Orange Park. Through the experiment Mr Kellogg sought scientific support of the theory that environment is so important in life that a chimpanzee, if reafled in domestic surroundings, will act much as a human being acts. Its results, Dr Kellogg said, tended to substantiate the theory.

The experiments required nine months. They were completed some weeks ago. The baby, a boy. was 10 months old at the start of the tests, and the chimpanzee was seven months and a-half old.

The chimpanzee and the baby lived under identical conditions. They played together. They ate together. Their clothes were the same. As a result, Dr Kellogg reported, the chTnpanzee behaved in almost all respects like his own child.

Dr Kellogg noted that, owing to the animal’s shorter life, it matures earlier. Hence, it progressed more rapidly than the baby. To test their learning ability, Dr Kellogg tied slip knots on their wrists and feet. Then he timed them to see which would untie the knots the quicker. The chimpanzee, of course, won. The chimpanzee also learned the use of the hoe and rake quicker than the baby, he said. To test their respective memories, Dr Kellogg arranged two doors in full View of each. He then disappeared through one door and watched to see which could the longer remember through which door he went.

The chimpanzee, Dr Kellog found, could remember for 30 minutes. The baby could remember for only five “minutes.

The chimpanzee showed superior coordination, the psychologist said, by responding more quickly when called and by doing small tasks more readily than the child. Dr Kellogg was unable to teach the chimpanzee to speak, and doubted whether this ever would be accomplished. This finding is contrary to that of several other scientists who have reported that they succeeded in teaching chimpanzees to say a few words.

The experiment, Dr Kellogg believes, established the fact that much of an infant human being’s early be[haviour is acquired, not “ native or natural” reactions, as often contended.

“It is very likely,” he said, “that infants begin to acquire traits very soon after they are bom. Many of their reactions are due to their environment, and are not ‘ natural.’ ”