Infants and Apes Remember Things Similarly
Infants and apes apparently adopt the same tactics（1） for remembering where things are, but as children develop their strategies change, a new study shows.
The findings might reveal in part how the minds of our distant ancestors shifted gears（2） to embark（3） on the road toward humanity.
There are two basic strategies animals use to remember where things are. Either they remember a things features, such as whether it was a banana, or they remember its place in space, such as left.
All animals scientists have tested seem to employ both strategies. However, if experiments are rigged（4） such that animals had to choose between the tactics, some species, such as chickens and toads（5）, prefer a feature-based strategy. Others, such as fish and dogs, favor a place-based strategy.
Researcher Daniel Haun at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany and his colleagues investigated orangutans（6）, gorillas（7）, bonobos（8）, chimpanzees（9） and humans. They wanted to see whether humanity and its closest relatives all adopted the same strategies for remembering where things are. Any changes in strategy between species or within species would shed light on how they all evolved.
At the Leipzig Zoo, the scientists hid rewards such as grapes, banana slices or toy animals under either a hollow piece of wood, an imitation（10） birds nest or an artificial hollow rock.
