A new study finds clear evidence that great apes plan ahead – like humans.

We humans have generally believed that the complex skill of future planning is exclusive to us. Not so says a new study by Mathias and Helena Osvath from Lunds University Cognitive Science in Sweden.  According to the researchers, their finding provide conclusive evidence of advanced planning capacities in apes.  The study is published in Springer’s journal, Animal Cognition. 

In humans, planning for future needs relies heavily on two mental capacities: self-control or the suppression of immediate drives in favor of delayed rewards; and mental time travel or the detached mental experience of a past or future event.

Apes also can plan by using self-control and imagining future events, say the researchers

In a series of four experiments, the researchers tested chimpanzees and orangutans to see if they could take a pass on immediate drives in favor of future needs, demonstrating both self-control and the ability to plan ahead.

The test gave the apes a choice between a quick fix of a small amount of a treat, or waiting for a larger amount of the same treat.

Two female chimpanzees and one male orangutan were shown a hose and how to use it to extract fruit soup. They were offered a choice between their favorite fruit or a hose to extract the fruit soup.  The hose would lead to a larger reward (the fruit soup), but they would have to wait for 70 minutes for the larger tasty fruit soup payoff 

So a little fruit now, or a bunch of lovely fruit soup later.  had a plan.  Those smart apes chose the hose more frequently than their favorite fruit.   They choice of soup,say researchers, suggests that apes are able to make choices that favor future needs, even when they directly compete with an immediate reward.

The apes consciously chose the new functional tool more often and took it to the reward room later on, where they used it appropriately, demonstrating that they selected the tool based on its functional properties. According to the authors, this indicates that the apes were pre-experiencing a future event i.e. visualizing the use of the new tool to extract the fruit soup.

Smart.  Actually, come to think of it, how often do humans chose to pass on immediate gratification for a larger reward later?  Hmmm, who is the smarter species here?

Source
Springer