Chimpanzees converse like humans

Researchers at the University of St Andrews have published this new article in the journal Current Biology. They reveal that chimpanzees’ exchanges of gestures share similar turn-taking patterns to conversations between humans. Chimpanzees converse like humans, very animatedly.

The study recalls that humans regularly engage in efficient communicative conversations. These serve to socially align individuals. In conversations, humans take turns at a rapid pace. They use a universal human structure of sending and receiving signals. This shows consistent synchronization across cultures.

Chimpanzees converse like humans, taking turns.
Chimpanzees converse like humans, taking turns.

Face to face

The paper reveals that chimpanzees also take turns rapidly during face-to-face gestural exchanges. They do so with an average latency between turns similar to that of human conversation.

What does this correspondence between face-to-face communication between humans and chimpanzees point to? Shared underlying rules of communication. These structures could derive from shared ancestral mechanisms or convergent strategies. These enhance coordinated interactions or manage competition for communicative space.

Research suggests that many animal species use turn-taking to communicate. However, in most well-studied systems, interlocutors exchange signals outside of face-to-face interaction. These include long-distance vocal exchanges and short-distance contact calls.

An exception is the gestural communication of apes. They use signals in a face-to-face setting to make a series of imperative requests. Researchers stress the importance of sequences of events in which the signaling ape produces a gesture and the receiver responds by changing his or her behavior. They parallel human conversational turns. They have a latency between signal and behavioral response that sometimes approaches 200 ms between human conversational turns (up to 2,000 ms in apes). Yes, chimpanzees converse like humans.

This is another similarity that brings us closer to them.
This is another similarity that brings us closer to them.

Other elements

However, in a human conversation both participants exchange communicative signals (words or signs). The exchange typically represents more than a simple signal-response paradigm. It includes clarification, persuasion, and negotiation between interactants.

The study concludes that the similarity in the temporal structure of chimpanzee gestural exchanges suggests shared mechanisms with human conversation. “There is species-level consistency in such rapid synchronization (and even occasional signal overlaps). It indicates that interacting chimpanzees can be completely on the signal. This is just as observed in the interruptions common to human conversation,” the researchers say.

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