Could your child beat an ape at this simple test? Credit:Biology Letters To test foresight, Professor Suddendorf and his team compared the responses of chimpanzees and some young children via a simple experiment. The team set up two vertical tubes. A research assistant stood over them and held out an object - a ball for the children, a tasty grape for the chimps - before quickly dropping it through one of the tubes. The child or the chimp then had to grab the prize before it hit the floor. "We were trying to come up with a way for young children or other animals to demonstrate that they understood the future was uncertain, and prepare for one or multiple events," Professor Suddendorf explained.

An earlier version of the experiment, using a single inverted-Y tube Credit:Current Biology The best strategy to catch the object is to cover both holes with one's hands. But the apes and the two and three-year-old humans tended to cover only a single hole. By four years of age, the children's minds had developed enough to allow them to forecast multiple outcomes. In the experiment they covered both holes with their hands and caught the toy every time.

"The two-year olds seemed to not really be preparing for both outcomes. "We found as children aged they would use two hands, and by age 4 they would all cover both exits on the first try," Professor Suddendorf said. Animal brains are good at predicting immediate outcomes, Professor Suddendorf said. But they lack the ability to deal with what he terms "environmental uncertainty". Humans exclusively are able to "mentally represent multiple, even mutually exclusive versions of the future, and prepare accordingly". Animals can show limited signs of foresight. Squirrels hoard nuts for the winter, for example. But studies have shown this behaviour is instinctual, rather than evidence of actual cognition.