What can the study of young monkeys and apes tell us about the
minds of young humans? In this fascinating introduction to the
study of primate minds, Juan Carlos Gomez identifies evolutionary
resemblances--and differences--between human children and other
primates. He argues that primate minds are best understood not as
fixed collections of specialized cognitive capacities, but more
dynamically, as a range of abilities that can surpass their
original adaptations.
In a lively overview of a distinguished body of cognitive
developmental research among nonhuman primates, Gomez looks at
knowledge of the physical world, causal reasoning (including the
chimpanzee-like errors that human children make), and the
contentious subjects of ape language, theory of mind, and
imitation. Attempts to teach language to chimpanzees, as well as
studies of the quality of some primate vocal communication in the
wild, make a powerful case that primates have a natural capacity
for relatively sophisticated communication, and considerable power
to learn when humans teach them.
Gomez concludes that for all cognitive psychology's interest in
perception, information-processing, and reasoning, some essential
functions of mental life are based on ideas that cannot be
explicitly articulated. Nonhuman and human primates alike rely on
implicit knowledge. Studying nonhuman primates helps us to
understand this perplexing aspect of all primate minds.
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