Monkey See Monkey Do

Here's a New York Times piece about learning in chimpanzees and humans. It appears that the chimps are better 'cause and effect' learners, while the human children are better imitators. It mentions that the imitation may be a higher evolutionary thought process than the 'cause and effect'.

This is an interesting observation as I am continually attempting to teach Isaac independent thinking skills. No wonder we have such a hard time thinking 'outside the box'.

Oh yes, if there are those that don't believe in evolutionary concepts; I suppose chimps were created with the 'cause and effect' skills, while humans were created simultaneously with the imitation skills.