Taxacom: systematics bias once again

[John Grehan]

Good point about comparing children with adult apes.

On Thu, Jun 1, 2023 at 3:56 PM Richard Zander <Richard.Zander at mobot.org>
wrote:

> Right on, John. Also, the study compared human children to adult African
> apes. Quite possibly, human children are more curious or perhaps more
> random than human adults, who have been schooled in helping get food
> (grapes!) for the family and their random-acting children. Sure, there are
> lots of poor studies out there.
>
> Not to bring up the Schwartz controvery again, but genetics is a poor way
> to compare our fellows in the larger lineage, as are lousy psychology
> studies. We are not alone.
>
> -------
> Richard H. Zander
> Missouri Botanical Garden – 4344 Shaw Blvd. – St. Louis – Missouri – 63110
> – USA
> richard.zander at mobot.org Ofc: +1 314 577-0276
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: Taxacom <taxacom-bounces at lists.ku.edu> On Behalf Of John Grehan via
> Taxacom
> Sent: Thursday, June 01, 2023 11:52 AM
> To: taxacom <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
> Subject: Taxacom: systematics bias once again
>
> In a recent press release titled "Temptation to Open Pandora's Box Could
> Set Us Apart From Other Apes"
>
> it was stated:
>
> Compared to apes, human children are more likely to open a mystery 'box'
> over one with known contents, a new study finds. This suggests that one
> thing that makes us unique as a species might be our innate sense of
> curiosity.
>
> Children "explored the uncertain options before the alternatives were
> presented, showing a higher degree of curiosity than the great apes,"
> psychologist Alejandro Sánchez-Amaro from the Max Planck Institute for
> Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany and cognitive scientist Federico
> Rossano from the University of California San Diego write in their
> published paper.
>
> Groups of 15 to 29 captive apes – a mix of chimps, gorillas, and bonobos –
> were tested using opaque and transparent upside-down cups containing juicy
> grape treats.
>
> There you have the obfuscation. The 'science' result was not about apes,
> but just African Great Apes. Never mind the orangutan which is in some
> respects smarter than African apes. All that can be said from the science
> is that in this experiment, human children are more likely to open a
> mystery box than African apes.Otherwise there is not much cognition going
> on, on the part of the researchers at least :)
>
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> Nurturing nuance while assailing ambiguity and admiring alliteration for
> about 36 years, 1987-2023.
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