Differences in the Nonverbal Requests of Great Apes and Human Infants

• Published in: Child development Vol. 85; no. 2; pp. 444 - 455
• Main Authors: van der Goot, Marloes H., Tomasello, Michael, Liszkowski, Ulf
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Malden, MA Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.03.2014; Wiley for the Society for Research in Child Development; Wiley-Blackwell
• Subjects: Analysis of Variance; Animal communication; Animals; Apes; Babies; Biological and medical sciences; Child development; Chimpanzees; Cognition & reasoning; Cognitive Psychology; Comparative Analysis; Developmental psychology; EMPIRICAL ARTICLES; Experiments; Female; Food security; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Gestures; Humans; Infant; Infants; Language development; Locomotion; Locomotion - physiology; Male; Manual Communication; Monkeys & apes; Newborn. Infant; Nonverbal Communication; Ontogeny; Pan paniscus - physiology; Pan troglodytes - physiology; Phylogenetics; Phylogeny; Proximity; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Social cognition; Subject; Human; Vertebrata; Mammalia; Query; Monkey; Primates; Goal directed movement; Infant; Non verbal communication; Motricity; Motor control; Comparative study
• ISSN: 0009-3920; 1467-8624
• DOI: 10.1111/cdev.12141

This study investigated how great apes and human infants use imperative pointing to request objects. In a series of three experiments (infants, N = 44; apes, N = 12), subjects were given the opportunity to either point to a desired object from a distance or else to approach closer and request it proximally. The apes always approached close to the object, signaling their request through instrumental actions. In contrast, the infants quite often stayed at a distance, directing the experimenters' attention to the desired object through index-finger pointing, even when the object was in the open and they could obtain it by themselves. Findings distinguish 12-month-olds' imperative pointing from ontogenetic and phylogenetic earlier forms of ritualized reaching.