The more g-loaded, the more heritable, evolvable, and phenotypically variable: Homology with humans in chimpanzee cognitive abilities

• Published in: Intelligence (Norwood) 2015-05, Vol.50, p.159-163
• Main Authors: Woodley of Menie, Michael A., Fernandes, Heitor B.F., Hopkins, William D.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animal cognition; Chimpanzee; Cognitive ability; CVA; General intelligence; Genotype & phenotype; Heritability; Intelligence; Monkeys & apes; Pan troglodytes; Primate intelligence
• ISSN: 0160-2896; 1873-7935
• DOI: 10.1016/j.intell.2015.04.002

Expanding on a recent study that identified a heritable general intelligence factor (g) among individual chimpanzees from a battery of cognitive tasks, we hypothesized that the more g-loaded cognitive abilities would also be more heritable in addition to presenting greater additive genetic variance and interindividual phenotypic variability. This pattern was confirmed with multiple analytical approaches, and is comparable to that found in humans, indicating fundamental homology. Finally, tool use presented the highest heritability, the largest amount of additive genetic variance and phenotypic variance, consistent with previous findings from comparative primate studies indicating that it is associated with high interspecies variance and has evolved rapidly. •We computed g-loadings for 13 cognitive tasks in chimps to test Jensen effects.•We calculated phenotypic and additive genetic variance for each task.•We obtained h2 of cognitive abilities from the same sample of chimpanzees as Hopkins et al. (2014)•The four variables were positively, strongly related, expanding on studies in humans.•Tool use showed signs of strong selection pressures in line with Primate-wide studies.