Jennifer Vonk And Povinelli's Theory

One of the first people Alan goes to see is a person who believes chimps have more similarities than dissimilarities with humans. To explains one of their similarities as a type of politics. He believes that like humans chimps also develop a type of politics. He shows this by giving the chimps to watermelons and observing what the group of chimpanzees does with them. The two watermelons are taken by the two biggest males in the group while the females are left with nothing. The females begin to pester one of the males until he gives in and gives them half of the watermelon. They remember his kindness towards them and will do return it somehow in the future. This is what the researcher explains as the chimpanzee’s politics.
The next person Alan
He did his research with Jennifer Vonk (2003), and they believe that chimps are not able to reason about mental states. They believe that chimps react to cues and are not using mental reasoning. Vonk and Povinelli believe that in order to posses theory of mind a non-human animal must be able to make predictions. Thus, their behavior is based off of what they predict. They think that the task presented to non-human animals that asks them to make predictions are too simplistic. Their work is consistent with newer studies and is a very promising possibility.
However, the researcher Duvall from the film who believed that chimpanzees are more alike than different does not seem very accurate. He believes that the chimps are reacting mentally to social skills and in turn do posses a theory of mind. Povinelli and Vonk would disagree with Duvall and say that they are not using a mental state. Kristen Andrews (2005) elaborates theory of mind and mental state as beliefs, desires and other mental states. His idea expands Vonk’s and Povinelli’s idea that theory of mind is just being able to predict and it also questions Duvall’s belief that chimpanzees do posses theory of