The chimpanzee Sultan used a short stick to pull a longer stick that was out of reach into his cage. He then used the longer stick to reach a piece of fruit. Researchers hypothesized that Sultan's discovery of the solution to his problem was the result of

Question

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Sultan's ability to use one object to manipulate another in order to obtain a desired outcome suggests that he had an "aha!" moment of sudden understanding, or insight. Trial and error and heuristics involve a more gradual process of problem-solving, while functional fixedness would have prevented Sultan from even attempting to use the tools in such a creative way.

The Chimpanzee Sultan Used a Short Stick to Pull a Longer