Morgan BellTeamwork works
May 19th 2006 13:36
Two minds are better than one – even when they don’t think it, according to a recent study at the Northwestern University, USA.
The study involved the haptic (without seeing each other or talking) cooperation of two participants to spin a wheel. Researchers found that even though some participants reported the other person a hindrance rather than a help, pairs consistently performed better than individuals asked to spin the wheel.
Furthermore, researchers found that pairs often quickly developed cooperative strategies, without discussion. They speculate, on an Association for Psychological Science media release, that “a capacity for haptic communication is a basic human ability used in everyday tasks such as cooperatively moving a table or exchanging a drinking glass, in helping someone learn a manual skill, or in assisting a patient's motions in therapy after a stroke.”
But humans are far from the only species in the animal kingdom capable of cooperation. A separate study at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany has demonstrated that our chimpanzee cousins are not only able to tell when they need help to perform a task, but are also able to choose the most suitable partner for the job.
Researcher Alicia Melis said on the press release: “There is still no evidence that chimpanzees communicate with each other about a common goal like children do from a very early age. There’s also no evidence that chimpanzees can learn how good a partner is by watching them interact with others. It just suggests that when chimpanzees cooperate they understand a bit more than we thought. Hopefully, future studies can show us what it is that makes human cooperation so unique.”
(image from flickr.com)
The study involved the haptic (without seeing each other or talking) cooperation of two participants to spin a wheel. Researchers found that even though some participants reported the other person a hindrance rather than a help, pairs consistently performed better than individuals asked to spin the wheel.
But humans are far from the only species in the animal kingdom capable of cooperation. A separate study at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany has demonstrated that our chimpanzee cousins are not only able to tell when they need help to perform a task, but are also able to choose the most suitable partner for the job.
Researcher Alicia Melis said on the press release: “There is still no evidence that chimpanzees communicate with each other about a common goal like children do from a very early age. There’s also no evidence that chimpanzees can learn how good a partner is by watching them interact with others. It just suggests that when chimpanzees cooperate they understand a bit more than we thought. Hopefully, future studies can show us what it is that makes human cooperation so unique.”
(image from flickr.com)
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