Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-03T05:30:13.337Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

7 - Differences between Humans, Great Apes and Monkeys in Cognition, Communication, Language and Morality

from Subpart II.1 - Infancy: The Roots of Human Thinking

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2022

Olivier Houdé
Affiliation:
Université de Paris V
Grégoire Borst
Affiliation:
Université de Paris V
Get access

Summary

The comparative psychology of human and nonhuman primates’ cognition, communication, language and morality is a prime area of study for understanding not only the roots of these abilities in our cousins, but also their place in human evolution. The groundbreaking work in this area was undertaken by Yerkes (1916) and Koehler (1925). Both scientists studied the mental life of apes. Using ingenious apparatus and procedures, such as the multiple-choice experiment, Yerkes investigated what Piaget was later to call object permanence. He also invented the stacking experiment (a suspended banana can only be reached if two or more boxes are stacked one on top of another), which was subsequently popularized by Koehler’s famous studies of problem-solving abilities in chimpanzees.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Amsterdam, B. (1972). Mirror self-image reactions before age two. Psychobiology, 5, 297305.Google Scholar
Astington, J. W. (1993). The Child’s Discovery of the Mind. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Bassano, D., & Maillochon, I. (1994). Early grammatical and prosodic marking of utterance modality in French. A longitudinal case study. Journal of Child Language, 21, 649675.Google Scholar
Bates, E. (1976). Language and Context: The Acquisition of Pragmatics. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Bates, E. (1979). The Emergence of Symbols. Cognition and Communication in Infancy. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Beran, M. J. (2004). Long-term retention of the differential values of Arabic numerals by chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Animal Cognition, 7, 8692.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Beran, M. J., Parrish, A. E., & Evans, T. A. (2015). Numerical cognition and quantitative abilities in nonhuman primates. In Geary, D., Berch, D., & Mann Koepke, K. (eds.), Evolutionary Origins and Early Development of Number Processing (pp. 91119). New York: Elsevier.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bickerton, D. (1990). Language and Species. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boesch, C. (1991). Teaching among wild chimpanzees. Animal Behaviour, 41, 530532.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boesch, C., & Boesch, H. (1984). Mental maps in wild chimpanzees: An analysis of hammer transports for nut cracking. Primates, 25, 160170.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bovet, D., & Vauclair, J. (1998). Functional categorization of objects and of their pictures in baboons (Papio anubis). Learning & Motivation, 29, 309322.Google Scholar
Bovet, D., & Vauclair, J. (2001). Judgement of conceptual identity in monkeys. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 8, 470475.Google Scholar
Bovet, D., & Washburn, D. A. (2003). Rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) categorize unknown conspecifics according to their dominance relations. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 117, 400405.Google Scholar
Boysen, S. T., & Berntson, G. G. (1989). Numerical competence in a chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes). Journal of Comparative Psychology, 103, 2331.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boysen, S. T., Berntson, G. G., Shreyer, T. A., & Hannan, M. B. (1995). Indicating acts during counting by a chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes). Journal of Comparative Psychology, 109, 4751.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brosnan, S. F. (2014). Precursors of morality: Evidence for moral behaviors in non-human primates. In Christen, M. E., van Schaik, C. E., Fischer, J. E., Huppenbauer, M. E., & Tanner, C. E. (eds.), Empirically Informed Ethics: Morality between Facts and Norms (pp. 8598). Cham, Switzerland: Springer.Google Scholar
Bruner, J. S. (1983). Child’s Talk: Learning to Use Language. New York: W. W. Norton & Company Inc.Google Scholar
Byrne, R., & Whiten, A. (1988). Machiavellian Intelligence. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Call, J., & Tomasello, M. (1999). A nonverbal false belief task: The performance of children and great apes. Child Development, 70, 381395.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chang, L., Fang, Q., Zhang, S., Poo, M., & Gong, N. (2015). Mirror-induced self-directed behaviors in rhesus monkeys after visual-somatosensory training. Current Biology, 25, 16.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chomsky, N. (1968). Language and Mind. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World.Google Scholar
Dasser, V. (1988). A social concept in Java monkeys. Animal Behaviour, 36, 225230.Google Scholar
de Saussure, F. (1966). Course in General Linguistics, ed. Bally, C., & Sechehaye, A.. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
de Waal, F. B. M. (1996). Good Natured: The Origins of Right and Wrong in Primates and Other Animals. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dennett, D. (1983). Intentional systems in cognitive ethology: The “Panglossian paradigm” defended. The Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 6, 343390.Google Scholar
Flemming, T. M., Thompson, R. K. R., & Fagot, J. (2013). Baboons, like humans, solve analogy by categorical abstraction of relations. Animal Cognition, 16, 519524.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gallup, G. G. (1970). Chimpanzees: Self recognition. Science, 167, 8687.Google Scholar
Hagège, C. (1985). L’homme de paroles. Paris: Fayard.Google Scholar
Hall, K., & Brosnan, S. F. (2016). A comparative perspective on the evolution of moral behaviour. In Shackelford, T. K., & Hansen, R. D. (eds.), The Evolution of Morality (pp. 157176). Cham, Switzerland: Springer.Google Scholar
Halliday, T. R., & Slater, P. J. B. (eds.) (1983). Animal Behaviour, Vol.3: Genes, Development and Learning. Oxford: Blackwell Scientific Publications.Google Scholar
Hamlin, J. K. (2013). Moral judgment and action in preverbal infants and toddlers: Evidence for an innate moral core. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 22, 186193.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hare, B., Addessi, E., Call, J., Tomasello, M., & Visalberghi, E. (2003). Do capuchin monkeys, Cebus apella, know what conspecifics do and do not see? Animal Behaviour, 65, 131142.Google Scholar
Hare, B., Call, J., & Tomasello, M. (2001). Do chimpanzees know what conspecifics know and do not know? Animal Behaviour, 61, 139151.Google Scholar
Hauser, M. D., Chomsky, N., & Fitch, W. T. (2002). The faculty of language: What is it, who has it, and how did it evolve? Science, 298, 15691579.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Herrnstein, R. J. (1990). Levels of stimulus control: A functional approach. Cognition, 37, 133166.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hobaiter, C., & Byrne, R. W. (2011). The gestural repertoire of the wild chimpanzee. Animal Cognition, 14, 745767.Google Scholar
Hockett, C. F. (1960). The origin of speech. Scientific American, 203, 8896.Google Scholar
Hopkins, W. D., & Vauclair, J. (2012). Evolution of behavioral and brain asymmetries in primates. In Tallerman, M., & Gibson, K. (eds.), Handbook of Language Evolution (pp. 184197). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Humphrey, N. (1976). The social function of intellect. In Bateson, P. P. G., & Hinde, R. A. (eds.), Growing Points in Ethology (pp. 303317). New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Koehler, W. (1925). The Mentality of Apes. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Company Inc.Google Scholar
Krupenye, C., Kano, F., Hirata, S., Call, J., & Tomasello, M. (2016). Great apes anticipate that other individuals will act according to false beliefs. Science, 354, 110114.Google Scholar
Kummer, H. (1968). Social Organization of Hamadryas Baboons. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Kummer, H. (1982). Social knowledge in free-ranging primates. In Griffin, D. R. (ed.), Animal Mind–Human Mind (pp. 113130). Berlin: Springer Verlag.Google Scholar
Leroi-Gourhan, A. (1993). Gesture and Speech. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Meguerditchian, A., & Vauclair, J. (2008). Vocal and gestural communication in nonhuman primates and the question of the origin of language. In Roska-Hardy, L. S., & Neumann-Held, E. M. (eds.), Learning from Animals? (pp. 6185). London: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Moore, R. (2013). Social learning and teaching in chimpanzees. Biology & Philosophy, 28, 879901.Google Scholar
Nieder, A. (2009). Prefrontal cortex and the evolution of symbolic reference. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 19, 99108.Google Scholar
Parrish, A. E., & Brosnan, S. F. (2012). Primate cognition. In Ramachandran, V. S. (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Human Behavior (vol. 3, pp. 174180). New York: Academic Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pinker, S. (1994). The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language. New York: W. Morrow and Co.Google Scholar
Pinker, S. (2013). Language, Cognition and Human Nature. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Pollick, A. S., & de Waal, F. B. M. (2007). Ape gestures and language evolution. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA), 104, 81848189.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Premack, D., & Woodruff, G. (1978). Does the chimpanzee have a theory of mind? The Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 1, 515526.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sanz, C., & Morgan, D. (2007). Chimpanzee tool technology in the Goualougo triangle, Republic of Congo. Journal of Human Evolution, 52, 420433.Google Scholar
Sanz, C., Morgan, D., & Gulick, S. (2004). New insights into chimpanzees, tools, and termites from the Congo Basin. American Naturalist, 164, 567581.Google Scholar
Sarnecka, B. W., & Carey, S. (2008). How counting represents number: What children must learn and when they learn it. Cognition, 108, 662674.Google Scholar
Savage-Rumbaugh, E. S. (1986). Ape Language. From Conditioned Response to Symbol. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Savage-Rumbaugh, E. S., McDonald, K., Sevcik, R. A., Hopkins, W. D., & Rubert, E. (1986). Spontaneous symbol acquisition and communicative use by pygmy chimpanzees (Pan paniscus). Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 115, 211235.Google Scholar
Seyfarth, R. M., & Cheney, D. L. (2012). Primate social cognition as a precursor to language. In Gibson, K., & Tallerman, M. (eds.), Oxford Handbook of Language Evolution (pp. 5970). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Seyfarth, R. M., Cheney, D. L., & Marler, P. (1980). Monkey responses to three different alarm calls: Evidence of predator classification and semantic communication. Science, 210, 801803.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Slocombe, K. E., & Zuberbühler, K. (2005). Functionally referential communication in a chimpanzee. Current Biology, 15, 17791784.Google Scholar
Southgate, V., Senju, A., & Csibra, G. (2007). Action anticipation through attribution of false belief in 2-year-olds. Psychological Science, 18, 587592.Google Scholar
Thompson, R. K. R., & Oden, D. L. (2000). Categorical perception and conceptual judgments by nonhuman primates: The paleological monkey and the analogical ape. Cognitive Science, 24, 363396.Google Scholar
Tomasello, M. (2016). A Natural History of Human Morality. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tomasello, M. (2019). Becoming Human: A Theory of Ontogeny. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press.Google Scholar
Tomasello, M., & Call, J. (1997). Primate Cognition. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tomasello, M., Carpenter, M., Call, J., Behne, T., & Moll, H. (2005). Understanding and sharing intentions: The ontogeny of cultural cognition. The Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 28, 675735.Google Scholar
Tomasello, M., Kruger, A. C., & Ratner, H. H. (1993). Cultural learning. The Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 16, 495552.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vauclair, J. (1990). Primate cognition: From representation to language. In Parker, S. T., & Gibson, K. (eds.), Language and Intelligence in Monkeys and Apes: Comparative Developmental Perspectives (pp. 312329). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Vauclair, J. (1996). Animal Cognition: Recent Developments in Comparative Psychology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Vauclair, J. (2003). Would humans without language be apes? In Valsiner, J. (Series ed.) & Toomela, A. (Vol. ed.), Cultural Guidance in the Development of the Human Mind: Vol. 7. Advances in Child Development within Culturally Structured Environments (pp. 926). Greenwich, CT: Ablex Publishing Corporation.Google Scholar
Vauclair, J. (2012). Piaget and the comparative psychology of animal cognition. In Marti, E., & Rodríguez, C. (eds.), After Piaget (pp. 5972). New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.Google Scholar
Vauclair, J., & Cochet, H. (2013). Ontogeny and phylogeny of communicative gestures, speech-gestures relationships and left hemisphere specialization for language. In Botha, R. and Everaert, M. (eds.), Oxford Studies in the Evolution of Language: The Evolutionary Emergence of Human Language (pp. 160180). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Vidal, J. M., & Vauclair, J. (1996). Un Animal politique autre qu’humain? Epokhè, 6, 3555.Google Scholar
Wimmer, H., & Perner, J. (1983). Beliefs about beliefs: Representation and constraining function of wrong beliefs in young children’s understanding of deception. Cognition, 13, 103128.Google Scholar
Winnicott, D. W. (1971). Playing and Reality. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Yerkes, R. M. (1916). The Mental Life of Monkeys and Apes: A Study of Ideational Behavior. New York: Holt & Co.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×