If a chimp of average intelligence is about as intelligent as your average 3 year old, what’s the barrier keeping a truly exceptional chimp from being as bright as an average adult?

Question

That’s pretty much it. I searched, but I didn’t find anything that addressed my exact question.

It’s frequently said that chimps have the intelligence of a 3 year old human. But some 3 year olds are smarter than others, just like some animals are smarter than others of the same species. So why haven’t we come across a chimp with the intelligence of a 10 year old? Like…still pretty dumb, but able to fully use and comprehend written language. Is it likely that this “Hawking chimp” has already existed, but since we don’t put forth much effort educating (most) apes we just haven’t noticed? Or is there something else going on, maybe some genetic barrier preventing them from ever truly achieving sapience? I’m not expecting an ape to write an essay on Tolstoy, but it seems like as smart as we know these animals to be we should’ve found one that could read and comprehend, for instance, The Hungry Caterpillar as written in plain english.

In: Biology

Answer 1

Watch “Ape Genius” on YouTube. It will answer your question completely. The big points are:

Lack of the ability to cooperate as readily as most humans.

Lack of a desire to be taught complex tasks, mostly due to lack of joint attention.

Lack of language syntax (e.g. chatting about how the weather makes you feel).

Lack of mental time travel (e.g. making a decision based on past experience, present circumstances, and future consequences).

Lack of emotional regulation.

A lot of the above differences are due to a prefrontal cortex (the part of your brain behind and above your eyes) that isn’t nearly as large compared to humans, but it’s never just about differences in brain structure. Brain structure does not equal function, but that’s another story for another time.