Narrator: For 30 years, scientists at Georgia University, outside Atlanta, have been studying the mental skills of chimpanzees. Recently, they've been trying to find the limits of their abilities to plan ahead.

Scientist 1: OK. I'm going to set up a computer right here.

Scientist 2: The beauty of the maze task is that it allows us to get a quantitative estimate of the chimpanzee's ability to look ahead in time. We in our egocentrism have wanted to view that as being a uniquely human characteristic.

But indeed, there's no reason to believe that the chimpanzee wouldn't have this capability. After all, they have to forage for food. They have to deal with defense of themselves and their own kind. They have a lot of yearly planning to do.

Narrator: So just how good are chimpanzees at planning?

Scientist 2: One of our chimpanzees, Pansy, is essentially a genius at this. Not only is she excellent in running very complex multiple choice mazes that she's never seen before, but she can do it better than humans in many instances.

Narrator: This is a remarkable finding. Not only does Pansy take very few wrong turns, but she can sometimes see the solutions to the maze faster than a human.

Scientist 2: To be able to look ahead and to find that clear way between where she starts and where she ends reflects a very active, prefrontal lobe system. She's a genius.

Narrator: So the ability to imagine possible solutions, to plan before acting, is not a uniquely human skills.

Scientist 2: Chimpanzees do plan ahead. I don't believe that they can plan ahead nearly so far as we can. I think also that they reflect upon the past but not to the degree that we do. I would suggest the chimpanzees are able to plan ahead over the course of several days. Whereas, we can plan ahead four years or centuries if we wish.