Chimpanzees adapt their exploration to key properties of the environment.

ABSTRACT: Exploration is an important strategy for reducing the uncertainty that pervades daily life. Yet the evolutionary roots of adaptive exploration are poorly understood. We harness and adapt the human decisions-from-experience paradigm to investigate exploration under uncertainty in chimpanzees. In our study, chimpanzees (N = 15; eight females) are simultaneously confronted with an uncertain option (with outcome variance) and a safe option (without outcome variance) and tested in both stable and changing environments. Results reveal that, as in human exploration, how and how much chimpanzees explore depends on the environment. One key environmental property is change: Chimpanzees explore more across trials in changing than in stable conditions. Consistent with the assumption of classic economi

SUBMITTER: Haux LM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11842718 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature