Comparative Tests On A Human And A Chimpanzee Infant Of Approximately The Same Age (1932)
1932 · Short film · 11 min
Synopsis
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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Details
- Running time
- 11 minutes
Reviews on the Internet Archive
★★★ · creepy ending · One Only · 2008-10-26
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.
★★★ · Cruel? · justywusty87 · 2010-06-10
I think the ending where the man forces their eyelids up is cruel... Also I hope that gun wasn't real. Still, creepy shooting a gun directly behind 2 babies. I hope chimpanzees will be domesticated like cats and dogs one day. I would love to adopt 1. I know they are not just like regular animals and require a lot of attention and care, I think it would be nice though.
★★ · Animals (and humans) were harmed in the making of this film · RoboReview · 2010-07-30
Apparently there's a fine line between staid behavioral research films and bizarre child-and-chimp-torture camp. I'm surprised activists of one stripe or another haven't demanded the removal of this thing.