After numerous trials the chimpanzee and orangutan showed above chance performance during the final block of production trials and a final block of comprehension trials given after the production task, respectively, suggesting that they learned something about the nature of the task during the previous trials. Because neither non-human ape differed significantly from chance on either comprehension or control trials, a precise understanding of their richness of understanding of the task is impossible. Though definite conclusions are unwarranted at this point, it appears that a developmental age for a deeper understanding of causality in human ontogeny is between 30 and 42 months of age, and it is suspected that non-human apes lack a more rich understanding of the causal relation between external objects. Introduction Cognition, defined as a way of processing information that allows behavior to function more effectively, is involved in many organisms' important adaptations. Organisms' understanding of the causal relations between events is a significant aspect of cognition, for such understanding allows an organism to more precisely predict and control events in its environment.
Causal cognition is of special interest to primatologists.
Visalberghi and Limongelli have conducted a series of experiments with several non-human primate species to distinguish between rote learning and understanding causal relations. In an experiment to determine whether chimpanzees and capuchin monkeys learn by rote or are capable of immediate causal understanding, Visalberghi and Limongelli presented subjects with a horizontal tube from which they were to push a piece of food with a stick. Because of a trap door located in the middle of the tube, through which food could fall and not be retrieved, a successful trial depended on the direction of the push. While Visalberghi and Limongelli found that capuchins slowly came to solve the task via rote learning, the results favored but were not conclusive as to chimpanzees having a true causal understanding of the task. The causal element, the shunt, prevents a stimulus from falling through one of two opaque tubes, both of which are connected to opaque boxes below.