The research that we are interested in here is research on cognition, intelligence,
and, particularly, the evolution of intelligence.
This is a good place to do that because we have all the great apes,
and that means we can try to make some inferences
about how these cognitive abilities may have evolved.
We are interested in what is called ecological or physical cognition--
that is, how apes use tools; how apes find food; how apes quantify amounts of food.
But in addition, we are also interested in social cognition--
that is, how they solve social problems.
And here we will be talking about how they learn from each other,
how they communicate with each other,
or, in some cases, how they deceive others or how they cooperate with others.
You could do a problem-solving, a tool-using experiment,
where you would present exactly the same task for all of them.
For instance, you could have a situation in which you have a tube,
and inside the tube you put a peanut.
And there is some water inside the tube, but the ape cannot directly reach for it.
So here the solution consists of getting some water from a drinker,
and then pouring it down the tube so that the peanut floats,
and then the ape can get access to the peanut.
So that would be one task that you can use with all the great apes,
and also you can use with humans--with children--and see how they compare to each other.