Toddlers vs. Monkey's, is not my usual topic of choice, and while I am not a scientific type, it's been in the news. Therefore I thought I would add my 2cents worth, and see what you the readers thought about.
In a recent study, a group of German team anthropologists, compared the action of 106 chimpanzees, 32 orangutans and 105 toddlers, in order to determine which innate abilities are distinctly human. The study was published this past Friday in the Journal of Science, and has some in the media going ape to report the story.
While the test where designed to see who was smarter, tots or monkey's, it was a close competition of sorts, and in some ways didn't end with a clear winner, but it appears that in the end the monkey's won by a small margin. The study led researchers to conclude that “Human children are not overall more intelligent than other primates, but instead have specialized skills of social cognition,” said lead researcher, Esther Herrmann of Germany's Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. “They learn in a way that chimpanzees don't learn” (Tots aren't smarter than apes, just more social). Dr. Frans de Waal, a primate expert not involved in the study, told the Associated Press, that while the results indicated that apes had high levels of social learning, it was “maybe not as perfect as in humans,” he said, “but it's very well developed” (Toddlers Are Smarter Than Apes, but Not by Much).
But don't loose hope on your giggling babies and toddlers, as children did out perform their primate counterparts in social areas. According to the scientists, “Young human children who had been walking and talking for about one year, but who were still several years away from literacy and formal schooling, performed at basically an equivalent level to chimpanzees on tasks of physical cognition, but far outstripped both chimpanzees and orangutans on tasks of social cognition” (Kids smarter than apes — sometimes, anyway).
This may make you think next time you call the kids your, “little monkeys”! Regardless, I know most parents out there are taking the joy in each step and development of their toddler, as each day seems like a giant step in their little lives. So as monkey's seem like little competition to parents, the only comparison most will make is if their child is monkey enough to ape it out this Halloween!
