Compares the reactions of a normal human infant between the ages of 10 and 14.5 months to psychological tests, and the responses of a chimpanzee companion, age 7.5 to 12 months, to the same tests. Brings out the effects of different rates of growth and learning abilities and illustrates the capacity of the animal to outdo the child in many tests. Includes hand preference, startle reaction time, delayed reaction, cap-on-head, detour, tickle, ice and rotation test.
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Reviewer:Mental Cleanser - - January 25, 2009 Subject: Entertaining glimpse into early psychological research A bit of background knowledge about "The Ape and The Child" study is helpful when watching the film: see http://www.psy.fsu.edu/history/wnk/ape.html, for example. This is only a few brief glimpses into the long timespan of the study, but they are interesting and at times amusing. The differences between the two test subjects (human Donald and chimpanzee Gua) were striking in some scenes, as were their similarities in other scenes.
While the end test of reaction to spinning was clearly not comfortable for either Donald or Gua, it also did not rise to the level of "torture."
Reviewer:One Only - - October 26, 2008 Subject: creepy ending This vignette starts out with an innocent premise, "psychological" tests in an era before the vaunted infant research of the behaviourists. But Near the end, we see what amounts to what we would call torture today. Comparing infantile behaviour between species is of coursr, ludicris to us today, the more inherent fearfulness of the baby chimp is apparent in the loud noise sequence, a reaction which I am sure puzzled the researchers, but seems easily explained by the fact that the baby chimp MUST react strongly and quickly when surprised, simply to survive in the wild.
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