While the monkeys were able to keep up with the children in terms of physical-cognitive abilities, the children consistently performed better in terms of social-cognitive performance: they successfully completed 76 percent of all tasks, while the monkeys only managed to do so in 33 percent of cases.
For the researchers, this is clear proof that only humans possess higher social skills. This so-called cultural intelligence enables people to live together in a society in which they have to cooperate with others, the scientists explain.
The behaviour of dogs, which have been living together with humans for a long time, shows astonishing evidence for this theory. In physical-cognitive things they are far inferior to monkeys.
But when it comes to interpreting human behavior, they beat chimpanzees and orang-utans to the hilt. In order to better understand the development of social-cognitive abilities, the researchers also want to test the ability of other species of monkeys to think.
They hope to be able to understand the evolution of higher mental abilities.