AR-News: Chimps, humans display similar learning patterns

[jim robertson]

Chimps, humans display similar learning patterns
Girls study mothers, while boys play around

David Perlman, Chronicle Science Editor
  Monday, April 19, 2004


Chimpanzees and humans, close relatives on the evolutionary tree, are 
surprisingly similar when it comes to gender differences in early learning 
ability, according to a young scientist following in the footsteps of chimp 
research pioneer Jane Goodall.

Studies of children have long recognized that young girls learn fine motor 
skills like writing earlier and more effectively than boys. Now, Elizabeth 
Lonsdorf has found a corollary among the chimps she studies in Tanzania's 
Gombe National Park, where Goodall first demonstrated similarities between 
human and chimp behavior.

full story:

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/04/19/MNGS3671TJ1.DTL

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"As often as Herman had witnessed the slaughter of animals and fish, he
always had the same thought: in their behavior toward creatures, all men are 
Nazis.
The smugness with which man could do with other species as he pleased
exemplified the most extreme racist theories, the principle that might is 
right."
                     ~ Isaac Bashevis Singer

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