Stating from the time of Galton, the role of IQ or genes in the human intelligence has been playing a crucial place in scientific studies. The evidence that human IQ is heritable has been provided, but with animals, the case is different as their cognition can be influenced by the school of thought. Thereafter, the objective of the following paper is to describe the intelligence process in chimpanzees and display whether it is heritable.

The paper is based on the study that has involved 99 chimpanzees. The task known as Primate Cognition Test Battery (PCTB) was used to access 13 tasks that were designed to estimate the activities related to social and nonsocial cognition. The principal-component analysis (PCA) has been applied to the tasks of the PCTB in order to get the access to the chimpanzees’ cognitive performance heritability. The score that was more than 1.0 was estimated as significant while indicators bigger than 0.55 were salient items. Moreover, a “g” factor was introduced to measure cognitive performance. The results have showed 54.20 percent of the variance. The score on four major points was compared between rearing groups and sexes, with no significant effects found.

In addition, Sequential Oligogenic Linkage Analysis Routines program known as Solar has been used to conduct further research and do the estimation of heritability. The overall “g” factor score showed significant heritability, and this was detected in components 1 and 3. The further analysis intended to see the genetic similarities that are present in genetic correlations within the mentioned components. The results of the analysis showed the huge number of similarities in multiple points, as this shows proof that the same genes sets can explain the performance variability.

To summarize, the results of the PCA analysis indicated the fact that there is a considerable amount of heritability in 1 and 3 components and also in “g” factor. Moreover, factors 1 and 3 have significant genetic correlations, and neither rearing or sex history have influenced the cognitive performance’s variance.

The investigation also showed the evidence of the genetic correlation between the components of the spatial-cognition and the communication, as the “g” score has revealed itself as significantly heritable. Thus, the findings that are presented in the analyzed article do not coincide with a similar study conducted by Herrmann et al. The previous study included nonsocial and social cognition, which are defined by PCTB as two-construct structure. The further breakage of the nonsocial cognition was done into such components as number discrimination, understanding causality and special cognition. The social cognition was divided into theory-of-mind and communication.

The study has certain limitations. This study on chimpanzees related to the cognition is one of the largest, but the scope is rather small, and involvement of larger cohort would be more useful. Thus, the mentioned study is believed to be truthful and have sufficient data as an outcome as the “g” factor calculation revealed the following h2 = 0.624, SE = 0.242, p < 0.005. Moreover, the heritability and structure in the conducted analysis sample was consisted over time. The other important disadvantage of the mentioned study – it looked particularly at the tasks at a certain time of assessment.

To conclude, it is important to mention that the study is highly valued to the scientific world as it provided evidence that some of the traits are heritable in chimpanzees. Moreover, the other significant correlations at the genetic level were found and presented. It might be an explanation to one kind of cognitive features and can be a base for explanations of other cognitive traits.

About the author: Juliette Patioson is a bachelor in English philology and sociology at California University. She is currently working as one of the best writers at the elite essay writing service She also studies feminine psychology.