Comparative Cognition

The basis of shared intentions in human and robot cognition

by Felix Warneken

Co-authored with P. F. Dominey
Published in 'New Ideas in Psychology' 2009

There is a fundamental difference between robots that are equipped with sensory, motor and cognitive capabilities, vs.... more There is a fundamental difference between robots that are equipped with sensory, motor and cognitive capabilities, vs. simulations or non-embodied cognitive systems. Via their perceptual and motor capabilities, these robotic systems can interact with humans in an increasingly more “natural” way, physically interacting with shared objects in cooperative action settings. Indeed, such cognitive robotic systems provide a unique opportunity to developmental psychologists for implementing their theories and testing their hypotheses on systems that are becoming increasingly “at home” in the sensory--motor and social worlds, where such hypotheses are relevant. The current research is the result of interaction between research in computational neuroscience and robotics on the one hand, and developmental psychology on the other. One of the key findings in the developmental psychology context is that with respect to other primates, humans appear to have a unique ability and motivation to share goals and intentions with others. This ability is expressed in cooperative behavior very early in life, and appears to be the basis for subsequent development of social cognition. Here we attempt to identify a set of core functional elements of cooperative behavior and the corresponding shared intentional representations. We then begin to specify how these capabilities can be implemented in a robotic system, the Cooperator, and tested in human–robot interaction experiments. Based on the results of these experiments we discuss the mutual benefit for both fields of the interaction between robotics and developmental psychology.

Chimpanzee helping in collaborative and noncollaborative contexts

by Felix Warneken

Co-authored with J. Greenberg, K. Hamann, & M.Tomasello
Published in 'Animal Behaviour' 2010

Chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes, help others in a variety of contexts. Some researchers have claimed that this only... more Chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes, help others in a variety of contexts. Some researchers have claimed that this only occurs when food is not involved and the recipient actively solicits help. In the current study, however, we found that chimpanzees often helped conspecifics obtain food in a pulling task with no solicitation whatsoever, in a situation in which, based on past experience, the conspecific’s desire for the food was apparent.We also assessed whether the collaborative context of the situation impacted helping rates. Specifically, we compared how often both partners obtained rewards when one partner needed the help of the other, who had already received a reward for free (helping without collaboration), and when one partner needed the other’s help after they had already begun collaborating (helping during collaboration). Partners provided assistance significantly more often in both of these helping conditions than in a control condition in which partners could provide unneeded help. However, unlike human children who have been tested in a similar task, chimpanzees did not help their partner more during (than without) collaboration. These results suggest that chimpanzees’ helping behaviour is more robust than previously believed, but at the same time may have different evolutionary roots from the helping behaviour of humans.

Chimpanzees help conspecifics obtain food and non-food items

by Felix Warneken

Co-authored with A. P. Melis, K. Jensen, A. C. Schneider, J. Call, & M. Tomasello
Published in 'Proceedings of the Royal Society B' 2010

Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) sometimes help both humans and conspecifics in experimental situations in which... more Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) sometimes help both humans and conspecifics in experimental situations in which immediate selfish benefits can be ruled out. However, in several experiments, chimpanzees have not provided food to a conspecific even when it would cost them nothing, leading to the hypothesis that prosociality in the food-provisioning context is a derived trait in humans. Here, we show that chimpanzees help conspecifics obtain both food and non-food items—given that the donor cannot get the food herself. Furthermore, we show that the key factor eliciting chimpanzees’ targeted helping is the recipients’ attempts to either get the food or get the attention of the potential donor. The current findings add to the accumulating body of evidence that humans and chimpanzees share the motivation and skills necessary to help others in situations in which they cannot selfishly benefit. Humans, however, show prosocial motives more readily and in a wider range of contexts.

Collaboration and helping in chimpanzees

by Felix Warneken

Co-authored with A.P. Melis & B. Hare
Published in 'The Mind of the Chimpanzee: Ecological and Experimental Perspectives' 2010

Share and share alike

by Felix Warneken

Co-authored with M. Tomasello
Published in 'Nature' 2008

The happy tendency to share resources equitably — at least with members of one’s own social group — is a central and... more The happy tendency to share resources equitably — at least with members of one’s own social group — is a central and unique feature of human social life. It emerges, it seems, in middle childhood.

Spontaneous altruism by chimpanzees and young children

by Felix Warneken

Co-authored with B. Hare, A. P. Melis, D. Haus, & M. Tomasello
Published in 'PLoS Biology' 2007

People often act on behalf of others. They do so without immediate personal gain, at cost to themselves, and even... more People often act on behalf of others. They do so without immediate personal gain, at cost to themselves, and even toward unfamiliar individuals. Many researchers have claimed that such altruism emanates from a species-unique psychology not found in humans' closest living evolutionary relatives, such as the chimpanzee. In favor of this view, the few experimental studies on altruism in chimpanzees have produced mostly negative results. In contrast, we report experimental evidence that chimpanzees perform basic forms of helping in the absence of rewards spontaneously and repeatedly toward humans and conspecifics. In two comparative studies, semi–free ranging chimpanzees helped an unfamiliar human to the same degree as did human infants, irrespective of being rewarded (experiment 1) or whether the helping was costly (experiment 2). In a third study, chimpanzees helped an unrelated conspecific gain access to food in a novel situation that required subjects to use a newly acquired skill on behalf of another individual. These results indicate that chimpanzees share crucial aspects of altruism with humans, suggesting that the roots of human altruism may go deeper than previous experimental evidence suggested.

Cooperative activities in young children and chimpanzees

by Felix Warneken

Co-authored with F. Chen & M. Tomasello
Published in 'Child Development' 2006

Human children 18 – 24 months of age and 3 young chimpanzees interacted in 4 cooperative activities with a human adult... more Human children 18 – 24 months of age and 3 young chimpanzees interacted in 4 cooperative activities with a human adult partner. The human children successfully participated in cooperative problem-solving activities and social games, whereas the chimpanzees were uninterested in the social games. As an experimental manipulation, in each task the adult partner stopped participating at a specific point during the activity. All children produced at least one communicative attempt to reengage him, perhaps suggesting that they were trying to reinstate a shared goal. No chimpanzee ever made any communicative attempt to reengage the partner. These results are interpreted as evidence for a uniquely human form of cooperative activity involving shared intentionality that emerges in the second year of life.

Altruistic helping in human infants and young chimpanzees

by Felix Warneken

Co-authored with M. Tomasello
Published in 'Science' 2006

Human beings routinely help others to achieve their goals, even when the helper receives no immediate benefit and the... more Human beings routinely help others to achieve their goals, even when the helper receives no immediate benefit and the person helped is a stranger. Such altruistic behaviors (toward non-kin) are extremely rare evolutionarily, with some theorists even proposing that they are uniquely human. Here we show that human children as young as 18 months of age (prelinguistic or just-linguistic) quite readily help others to achieve their goals in a variety of different situations. This requires both an understanding of others' goals and an altruistic motivation to help. In addition, we demonstrate similar though less robust skills and motivations in three young chimpanzees.

Beam, J. J., Killeen, P. R., Bizo, L. A., & Fetterman, J. G. (1998). The role of reinforcement context in temporal production and categorization. Animal Learning & Bhevaior, 26, 388-396.

by Lewis Bizo

Harper, D. N., & Bizo, L. A. (2000). Mediation of timing accuracy by operant behavior. Behavioural Processes, 50, 143-154.

by Lewis Bizo

The failure of Weber’s law in time perception and production

by Lewis Bizo

Bizo, L. A., Chu, J. Y. M., Sanabria, F., & Killeen, P. R. (2006). The failure of Weber’s law in time perception and production. Published in Behavioural Processes, 71, 201-210.