The Mentality of Apes

The Mentality of Apes Wolfgang Köhler demonstrated that chimpanzees could solve problems by applying insight. His research showed that the intellectual gap between humans and chimpanzees was much narrower than previously thought. The work was revolutionary when originally published in 1917 in German, but it was largely ignored for decades because it violated the conventional wisdom that animal behavior is simply the result of instinct or conditioning. However, Köhler’s research showed this was not the case. He used four chimps in his experiments, Chica, Grande, Konsul, and Sultan. The experiments consisted of placing chimpanzees in an enclosed area and presenting them with a desired object that was out of reach. In one experiment, Köhler placed bananas outside Sultan’s cage and two bamboo sticks inside his cage which needed to be put together to reach the bananas. Köhler demonstrated the solution to Sultan by putting his fingers into the end of one of the sticks. After some contemplation, Sultan put the two sticks together and was able to reach the bananas. As Jaan Valsiner shows in his introduction to this classic work, Köhler’s analysis of the intelligence of apes marked a turning point in the psychology of thinking and the continuing struggle between behaviorism and cognitive psychology. Köhler achieved his two-fold aim: to determine the relationship between the intellectual capacity of higher primates and man, and to gain insight into the nature of intelligent acts. Wolfgang Köhler (1887–1967) was a German psychologist and a major contributor to the creation of Gestalt psychology. Jaan Valsiner is Niels Bohr Professor of Cultural Psychology at Aalborg University, Denmark. The Mentality of Apes Wolfgang Köhler Translated from the second revised edition by Ella Winter First Published in paperback, with an introduction by Jaan Valsiner 2019 by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 and by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN First Published in 1925 Second Edition (revised and reset) 1927 Reprinted 1948, 1973 First Published in a Liveright Paperback edition 1976 by arrangement with Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd. Reprinted, 2013 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2013, 2019 Taylor & Francis The right of Wolfgang Köhler to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record has been requested for this book ISBN: 978-0-415-20979-3 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-4128-6540-1 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-351-29496-6 (ebk) Typeset in Times NRMT Pro by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire Contents Preface vi The place of innovation in the lives of apes: Wolfgang Köhler in his context viii Jaan Valsiner Introduction 1 1 Roundabout methods 11 2 The use of implements 26 3 The use of implements (cont.) Handling of objects 69 4 The making of implements 101 5 The making of implements (cont.) Building. 136 6 Detours with intermediate objectives 176 7 “Chance” and “imitation” 189 8 The handling of forms 231 Conclusion 270 Appendix: some contributions to the psychology of chimpanzees 275 Index 336 Preface This book contains the results of my studies in the intelligence of Apes at the Anthropoid Station in Tenerife from the years 1913–1917. The original, which appeared in 1917, has been out of print for some time. I have taken this opportunity of making a few changes in the critical and explanatory sections, and have added as an Appendix some general considerations on the Psychology of Chimpanzees. With various recent books and essays on the subject I shall have an opportunity of dealing in a further contri- bution to the subject not yet completed. W. Köhler Berlin, October 1924. Translator’s note The terminology used in this translation was agreed upon after detailed discussion between author and translator. Often the only method possible of covering all the implications of the German terminology was to use several different English terms: as has been done with such words as Einsicht, Umweg, Gestalt, das Zueinander von Gestalten, etc. Attention has been drawn to most of these cases in translator’s footnotes. Preface vii The paragraphs in square brackets, correspond to sections printed in small type in the original, and denote supplementary explanations or digressions. Ella Winter. The place of innovation in the lives of apes Wolfgang Köhler in his context Jaan Valsiner This classic book in psychology is remarkable in its simplicity. It is a description of the lives of a group of chimpanzees and investigators brought together in the world’s first research center to study primates. Established just prior to the turmoils of World War I, both the researchers and researches became stranded on the beautiful island of Tenerife for the duration of the whole war. Its author—then a young man in his mid- twenties—was considered by his mentor Carl Stumpf to give promise for further advancement of psychology as science. Stumpf was right—Wolfgang Köhler became one of the leading figures in the 20th century psychology. But at the time the young man had been enamoured by the ways physicists at the time conducted their science. He had no previous knowledge of experience with chimpanzees. Neither had the chimpanzees of him, or of other strange humans who acted as researchers. The encounter of the two species during the years on Tenerife were a mid-way house in the life courses of both. The author was promoted to the directorship of Germany’s leading psychology institute in Berlin, and the animals entered into their roles as ambassadors of their species for the visitors to the Berlin Zoo. The place of innovation in the lives of apes ix Wolfgang Köhler may have had no prior experience with apes when he arrived at Tenerife, but he certainly was curious about the ways in which the mind worked. It was a pioneering work to start to understand the mentality of apes. What he accomplished in the world’s first primate research laboratory was seminal. There was a need to establish a timely experiential “window of opportunity” to observe the general principles of the minds of other species. That could not be done in zoos—where animals were on display for human interests, and where they are kept in far from natural circumstances. This also could not be done in human “home conditions”—in cases where inquisitive human researchers raised young chimpanzees alongside their own children (see Mironenko, 2010). These courageous experiments in human upbring- ing brought in interesting evidence on the limits of adapt- ability to human conditions—but left science blind about their adaptation in nature. The Tenerife experience was a meeting ground of two life-worlds: that of humans (represented by the mind of Köhler and all of his conspecifics thinking of relations with animals), and that of the primates (represented by the 7 (later 9) chimpanzees, and one orangutan, in the Center). Occasionally other experimental subjects— chicken and children (Köhler’s own) become participants in his studies on Tenerife. Köhler was systematic and productive—in a short period of time managing to carry out a research program that has remained crucial for the very foundations of psychological science ever since. The present book is the main result of his work. It is overwhelmingly descrip- tive—telling us the stories about how chimpanzees tried, and succeeded, in solving problems that were inserted into their everyday life realities. The researchers played tricks on the animals—by putting the important resources x The Mentality of Apes (bananas) in places out of reach, but with potential materials around to make getting to them in principle possible. Descriptions of how they succeeded leave the reader with the feeling of awe and appreciation of the intellectual potential of our closest animal relatives. The “Aha-effect” is not there only in the animals who reach a breakthrough in finding a solution to the given puzzles, but also will surface in the human readers. For them, The Mentality of Apes is filled with instances of creative innovations that the large hairy creatures produced for the watchful eye of the young German scholar. What the reader of this book encounters is the basic question of mentality of survival. In case of chimpanzees this was simple—how to get food. For researchers it was complex—what does chimpanzee behavior tell humans about their own intelligence, and of their own roots? The observations made a century ago remain vivid in the skill- ful presentation of the details that the present book is filled with; we learn about the most incredible inventions by the chimpanzees in their “open air” semi-naturalistic laboratory. More importantly for science, the theoretical implications from the careful observations Köhler made in his experimental settings on Tenerife remain actual in primate research today—even as the focus on that research now is of different general focus than that on Tenerife a century ago. Wolfgang Köhler: a humanistic physicist in psychology Wolfgang Felix Ulrich Köhler was born in Tallinn, Estonia (then Reval) on January 9, 1887.

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