Justin Wood: USC Department of Psychology

As social creatures, we wake up every morning to a dizzying array of actions from allies and competitors, in contexts that include cooperation, resource competition and parental care. Some actions are intentional, motivated by either distal or proximal goals; some are accidental, but nonetheless result in similar consequences. How do humans comprehend such actions, and are the mechanisms that subserve this ability uniquely human or shared with other species? In this talk, I present evidence that three nonhuman primate species (cotton-top tamarins, rhesus macaques, and chimpanzees), representing the three major groups (New World monkeys, Old World monkeys, and apes) comprehend others’ actions in the same way as human infants and adults. These results illuminate the evolutionary origins of a primary socio-cognitive ability and help distinguish between competing models of action comprehension in humans.
http://www.bec.ucla.edu/JustinWood.pdf