How Monkeys See the World: Inside the Mind of Another Species

Book Description

Cheney and Seyfarth enter the minds of vervet monkeys and other primates to explore the nature of primate intelligence and the evolution of cognition.

"This reviewer had to be restrained from stopping people in the street to urge them to read it: They would learn something of the way science is done, something about how monkeys see their world, and something about themselves, the mental models they inhabit."—Roger Lewin, Washington Post Book World

"A fascinating intellectual odyssey and a superb summary of where science stands."—Geoffrey Cowley, Newsweek

"A once-in-the-history-of-science enterprise."—Duane M. Rumbaugh, Quarterly Review of Biology

Customer Reviews:

What Can a Monkey Know?.......2002-03-26

I read this book in connection with graduate coursework under Seyfarth at the University of Pennsylvania. Cheney and Seyfarth describe a fascinating line of research on primates, mainly but not solely their own work on vervet monkeys. The goal is to form an account of the mind of the nonhuman primate -- how much do they understand about themselves, about other minds, and about the world?

Amazon.com

Monogamy. Bipedalism. Tools. Language. Intelligence. Why on Earth did we develop all those tricks? Though it's trendy to diminish the differences between humans and other species, most of us just can't help noticing our often-striking peculiarities and wondering how they arose. Paleontologist Ian Tattersall's story of human origins is as compelling as a well-designed museum exhibit--no surprise, as he is Curator of Anthropology for the American Museum of Natural History. His prose, while not flashy, is satisfyingly clear and unapologetically fascinated with its topic. Covering genetics, evolutionary theory, primate anatomy, and archaeology, Becoming Human explains how and why our ancestors adapted to their surroundings to produce such clever, talented, immodest progeny. If you find it preposterous that a dumb, skinny ape can go from foraging for fruit and fleeing from lions to splitting the atom and solving Rubik's cube in just five million years, this book might change your mind. --Rob Lightner

Book Description

“In this superbly written book, Ian Tattersall combines his unique knowledge of the human fossil record, Paleolithic archeology, primate behavior, prehistoric art, as well as the workings of the human brain...to offer a convincing scenario of how we have come to hold dominion over the earth” (Donald Johanson, Scientific american).

Customer Reviews:

Very good, but I preferred The Fossil Trail.......2007-04-03

Paleoanthropologist Ian Tattersall tackles a difficult question: what is it, exactly, that differentiates us (Homo sapiens) from other primates and our direct biological ancestors? No clear or easy answers are provided, but the journey in exploring the question is fascinating.

After a brief chapter on human creativity, Tatersall addresses the similarities - and differences - between ourselves and our nearest extant relatives, and posits some ideas about how and why we have evolved the way we have. I agree with his idea that our social and biological development went hand in hand, and his explaination of this was the strongest part of the book. The final chapter - on "Being Human" was weaker, I thought, and tended to drift into the realm of philosophy rather than paleobiology (what is "consciousness", where did it come from, and how does it make us "human"?)

It was a fascinating read, but I much prefered _The Fossil Trail_.

"Becoming Human" by Ian Tattersall.......2006-09-08

I would give Tattersall a "good", but not "excellent" rating for this book. When he discusses fossil evidence, he is so heavily nuanced that he almost says nothing at all. When he talks in generalities, I long for him to provide some facts to substantiate the conjectures. Usually a superb illustrator, in this book he has provided virtually none. On the plus side, he took on a challenging task, and worked hard to accomplish it.
I agree with him on many points that he makes.
Ralph Hermansen 9/7/06

Disappointment.......2006-07-02

The book was a REVIEW of what over many years research all other men have 'measured with their thoughts and efforts' over the origin of human kind..with the true link still missing.

Well written but general.......2005-11-18

This was a well written book, but at the same time I feel it didn't go deep enough or far enough into detail. It has good points and ideas all the way through and I would recommend this as a good read to anyone but particularly the casual reader or new comer to the world of anthropology.

High-brow but good ideas.......2004-10-30

First the good new:
Mr. Tattersall has some interesting ideas and keeps them concise.
The bad news:
His language is alittle high-brow for me. Be sure you have a dictionary handy.
I also would have liked a chapter on the different kinds of dating methods.
I would recommend reading Richard Leakey's ORIGINS RECONSIDERED if you want something more accessible.

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Look Who's Talking
An excellent resource for understanding ape communication.
Brilliant and Original
There's nothing 'personal' here!
thought-provoking and compelling

Apes, Language, and the Human Mind
Sue Savage-Rumbaugh , Stuart G. Shanker , and Talbot J. Taylor
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
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ASIN: 0195109864

Book Description

Current primate research has yielded stunning results that not only threaten our underlying assumptions about the cognitive and communicative abilities of nonhuman primates, but also bring into question what it means to be human. At the forefront of this research, Sue Savage-Rumbaugh recently has achieved a scientific breakthrough of impressive proportions. Her work with Kanzi, a laboratory-reared bonobo, has led to Kanzi's acquisition of linguistic and cognitive skills similar to those of a two and a half year-old human child. Apes, Language, and the Human Mind skillfully combines a fascinating narrative of the Kanzi research with incisive critical analysis of the research's broader linguistic, psychological, and anthropological implications. The first part of the book provides a detailed, personal account of Kanzi's infancy, youth, and upbringing, while the second part addresses the theoretical, conceptual, and methodological issues raised by the Kanzi research. The authors discuss the challenge to the foundations of modern cognitive science presented by the Kanzi research; the methods by which we represent and evaluate the abilities of both primates and humans; and the implications which ape language research has for the study of the evolution of human language. Sure to be controversial, this exciting new volume offers a radical revision of the sciences of language and mind, and will be important reading for all those working in the fields of primatology, anthropology, linguistics, philosophy of mind, and cognitive and developmental psychology.

Customer Reviews:

Look Who's Talking.......2007-07-20

Things were not going well at the Yerkes Regional Primate Center in Atlanta, Georgia. Biologist Sue Savage-Rumbaugh was attempting to train the female bonobo Matata to associate a handful of visual symbols ("lexemes") with familiar objects. But Matata was not cooperating. She just did not seem to get the point of the exercise, and furthermore she had a youngster to care for. For his part, the young bonobo Kanzi did what any child would do, alternately clinging to his mother and running wild in the room. He was constantly demanding his mother's attention, but showed little interest in the task she was struggling to learn. That is, until one day when Matata was gone and Kanzi demonstrated to the researchers that he had already mastered his mother's lessons and then some. From that point, Kanzi became the focus of Savage-Rumbaugh's research; but instead of using standard behavioral techniques, her research team taught Kanzi simply by interacting with him. Thus began the first attempt to teach language to a young bonobo in a naturalistic fashion.

Kanzi is now generally considered to be the most linguistically developed of all language-trained great apes. According to the authors, he has mastered the full complement of 256 lexemes in the artificial language Yerkish, expressly designed for ape language research. He can combine these symbols to express novel concepts, and he also uses gestures to help clarify intended meanings. But his most impressive accomplishment is that he can also understand spoken English, performing similarly to a two-and-a-half-year-old child. Kanzi cannot speak, though, because bonobos, like other great apes, lack the anatomical structures for producing speech sounds.

The book "Apes, Language and the Human Mind" consists of four chapters. The first, called "Bringing up Kanzi" and written by Savage-Rumbaugh, is an entertaining and highly readable account of how Kanzi learned to communicate with humans. Savage-Rumbaugh's approach is strongly anthropomorphic, and she attributes human-like intentions and motivations to the apes she works with. It is hard to discern to what degree this anthropomorphism is appropriate, since humans are prone to attribute intentionality to all sorts of things--cars, computers, the weather--that clearly have no mentality whatsoever. On the other hand, it is often not difficult to imagine being in Kanzi's position, as for example when Kanzi refuses to camp out in a tent with the researchers, choosing instead to return to the lab, where he can watch TV and sleep in a bed.

The second chapter, penned by Shanker, discusses the philosophical ramifications of ape language research. Anyone who is not a philosopher will find this chapter extremely tedious, but the take-home message is actually quite interesting. The view that humans are qualitatively different from all other species goes back only to Descartes, who argued that only humans (and supernatural beings such as angels and gods) have minds. Before that, the standard view was the Great Chain of Being, which saw all existence as a hierarchical structure with graded differences in mentality from mineral to plant to animal to human to divine. On that view, humans are still intellectually superior to apes, but not categorically so. Cartesian dualism is appealing to those--as for example primate researchers--who, as part of their livelihood, regularly treat apes in ways that would be considered unethical with humans. Furthermore, Cartesian dualism is likely appealing to the ordinary person because, in our modern lifestyle, we no longer interact very much with other species, and what animals we do domesticate are intentionally bred for their docility (that is, stupidity). One has to wonder, though, how many hunters, stalking their prey, view their quarry as mindless automata.

The third chapter, by Taylor, outlines the ongoing and often vitriolic debate over whether trained apes actually "have" language or not. Cases such as that of "Clever Hans," the mathematical horse, illustrate just how easy it is to unintentionally train animals to respond to subtle cues. Furthermore, humans naturally attribute mental processes to others, so it is important to test language-trained apes in an objective manner. However, skeptics of ape language research categorically reject the possibility that apes could have some linguistic ability, so there is no evidence that could ever convince them otherwise. This is a wholly unscientific stance for scientists to take. Although the null hypothesis should be that apes do not use language, the skeptic must nevertheless grant some criterion that, if observed, would be sufficiently convincing that some primates can indeed communicate intentionally with a symbolic system.

In the fourth chapter, Savage-Rumbaugh considers what the data from ape language research tells us about the nature of human language, language acquisition, and the relationship of humans to other species. If apes can learn language, this means that language is not a uniquely human instinct, as Pinker argues. But if language acquisition and processing are based on general cognitive abilities that humans share with other primates--and perhaps with many other species as well--then why do only humans have language in their natural state? Regardless of the eventual answer to that question, ethical issues are also raised by primate language research. That is, if a non-human primate truly exhibits the cognitive abilities of a two-to-three-year-old human child, does that not then imply that non-human primates deserve the same rights that we accord human children? Researchers who regularly sacrifice primates on the altar of science do not want to even acknowledge the validity of this question.

If five centuries of science have taught us anything, it is humility. We are not special. We are not at the center of the universe. Yet the scientist who accepts the heliocentric solar system, geologic time, the evolution of species and our common ancestor with the other great apes only a few million years ago nevertheless staunchly insists that humans are still special when it comes to language and cognition. Maybe, as her critics claim, Savage-Rumbaugh is over-interpreting the data. But given the trend of science toward greater humility, it is not unreasonable to think that humans are not special when it comes to language and thought either.

An excellent resource for understanding ape communication........2007-01-09

When Sue Savage-Rumbaugh and others first began suggesting that apes (chimpanzees and bonobos) had better communication skills than language experts would credit, she and the others were soundly denounced by a scholarly community who suggested she and the others were fooled by the clever Hans phenomenon or were making up their evidence. As evidence from her research accumulated, cognition theorists, linguists, and the like continued to reject her methods and results. But eventually, the evidence that some apes have some skills comparable to human language skills became insurmountable.

This book is in three parts, written by a primatologist, philosopher, and a rhetoric and language scholar. Each takes the academic community to task at a different level. Savage-Rumbaugh presents her evidence that apes demonstrate communication (even language) skills. Stuart Shanker and Talbot Taylor examine the logic and rhetoric her arguments as compared to the arguments of her detractors, demonstrating that Savage-Rumbaugh's work is as serious and valid as that of the others', and demonstrating (at least to my satisfaction) that the arguments of her detractors are specious.

The ramifications of this book and several others like it are significant. It says a great deal about the nature of human communication and language if bonobos can use the same processes as children to come to human language.

As time passes, the value of a book may ebb. This is a 1998 book in a time when events happen quickly . . . it is for that reason, alone, that I give the book only 4 stars.

Brilliant and Original.......2000-01-05

This brilliant and original book demonstrates that symbolic representation is the basic substance of language, and shows once and for all that language is not an exclusively human achievement. Savage-Rumbaugh's serendipitous discovery that the critical period for language acquisition in bonobos is in early infancy renders all earlier language experimentation with apes obsolete. Contrary to Chomsky and Pinker, grammar is a high level embellishment to language, rather than the foundation of communicative skill. The philosophical commentaries on Savage-Rumbaugh's work by Shanker and Taylor bring out the revolutionary implications of her findings, and provide a new and more sophisticated point of view on the continuities and discontinuities between ourselves and our nearest relatives. It's good to see contemporary science finally replacing the 17th century perspective of many linguists.

There's nothing 'personal' here!.......1999-10-06

I wonder if the reader from Austin, Texas, read the same book as I did! I could find no trace of any personal attacks (nor personal glorifications, for that matter) in this highly original, provocative and exceptionally well-argued book. Interdisciplinary collaborations on complex themes are notoriously difficult to pull off, but this team has succeeded admirably. The philosophical analysis of the significance of the bonobo ape research for our currently dominant ways of thinking about language, communication and animal capacities is strikingly original. Certainly, these authors do not hold back from exploring the wider significance of their proposed interpretations, but there is a wealth of well-documented and rigorous argument here to support their contentions, and not a shred of evidence of -animus- against those whose views they dispute. A serious and significant book for everyone interested in animal cognition.

thought-provoking and compelling.......1998-08-24

This is a rewarding book, especially in its middle two chapters. After the scene-setting of ch. 1, in which we learn just what the Bonobo ape Kanzi can do as far as communicating with a human is concerned, ch. 2 gives us a protracted survey of the Cartesian tradition of thinking about the 'mental' and hence communicative lives of animals, showing the degree to which writers like Pinker, and indeed many of us, are, largely due to an outmoded view of ourselves, caught up in a fallacy about the status of animals vis-à-vis humans which needs to be replaced with a saner outlook. In ch. 3 we are given an insight into the rhetorical strategies of those who perpetuate the Cartesian view, and shown to what extent such strategies may be motivated less by a search for truth than by the socio-politico-economic imperative of our exploitation of the animal world. The authors then proceed to show that arguments which have been used to bolster the 'existential gap' view in fact are incapable of supporting the notion that humans themselves have the exclusive and proprietary capacities which Cartesian thinkers have attributed to them. That is, (a) the evidence which such thinkers use purportedly to prove the existence of various capacities in humans is shown to be equally in evidence in at least one kind of animal, but (b) the evidence which is used purportedly to disprove these capacities in animals is shown in fact to be inadequate to prove the existence of those capacities in humans. In other words, as is further suggested in the final chapter, we have no logical or evidential basis for maintaining the Cartesian view, and the implications for our own human behavior are accordingly far-reaching.

Primate Perspectives on Behavior And Cognition (Decade of Behavior)

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Primate Perspectives on Behavior And Cognition (Decade of Behavior)

Manufacturer: American Psychological Association (APA)
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Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1591474221

Book Description

In Primate Perspectives on Behavior and Cognition, experts with a diverse range of perspectives explore the contributions made to the study of primate cognition and behavior and provide guideposts for new generations of researchers studying behavior as manifested across primate species. The contributors first explore commonly used research methodology and then look at the groundbreaking content of recent research. Throughout this volume, contributors provide rich data and discussion of cutting-edge studies. In addition to serving as a comprehensive and integrative review of a wide range of research areas, the chapters in this volume establish a research agenda for years (and careers) to come. This book will be a vital resource for researchers in comparative psychology and cognitive psychology as well as for behaviorists, neuropsychologists, biopsychologists, and developmental psychologists.

Baboon Metaphysics: The Evolution of a Social Mind

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Into the minds of baboons...
What would the baboons say?
konrad lorentz, move over

Baboon Metaphysics: The Evolution of a Social Mind
Dorothy L. Cheney , and Robert M. Seyfarth
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
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Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0226102432

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In 1838 Charles Darwin jotted in a notebook, “He who understands baboon would do more towards metaphysics than Locke.” Fifteen years ago, following the extraordinary success of their How Monkeys See the World, Dorothy Cheney and Robert Seyfarth set out to take up Darwin’s challenge. Baboon Metaphysics is their fascinating response.

Cheney and Seyfarth set up camp in Botswana’s Okavango Delta, where they could intimately observe baboons and their social world. Baboons are a perfect model for such a study because they live in groups of up to 150, including a handful of males and eight or nine matrilineal families of females. Such numbers force baboons to form a complicated mix of short-term bonds for mating and longer-term friendships based on careful calculations of status and individual need. The result is enough interpersonal drama to rival Jane Austen, as the baboons make and break alliances and try to anticipate the actions of their friends and rivals, all while avoiding frequent attacks by predators.

But Baboon Metaphysics is concerned with much more than just baboons’ social organization—Cheney and Seyfarth aim to fully comprehend the intelligence that underlies it. How do baboons actually conceive of the world and their place in it? Using innovative field experiments, the authors test whether baboons understand kinship relations, how they make use of vocal communication, and how they manage the stress and dangers of life in the wild. They learn that for baboons, just as for humans, family and friends hold the key to mitigating the ill effects of grief, stress, and anxiety.

Written with a scientist’s precision and a nature-lover’s eye, Baboon Metaphysics gives us an unprecedented and compelling glimpse into the mind of another species.

Customer Reviews:

Into the minds of baboons..........2007-07-19

Humans have minds. We know this indirectly, or a least we think we do. By examining the actions and vocalizations of others we seem able to infer, or at least to guess at, the mental states of others. If we witness some moral degenerate kicking a cat out a window while yelling "%$!# cat!" we may assume that the kicker had a negative mental attitude towards the now plummeting feline. In such cases humans engage more in "mind inferring" than "mind reading." As of now we seem capable of little else, for other's mental states sit locked in the Fort Knox of their minds. Not much hope there. So what about other animals? Do they infer thoughts from actions? How could anyone prove this? The authors of "Baboon Metaphysics" take up this challenge and follow Darwin in their choice of "brute" to study. The father of modern evolution, Darwin was also a budding metaphysician. He thought that baboons provided a good model for the early evolution of the human mind. The authors agree and so begin with the premise: Baboons, like humans, have minds. Building off this, they then ask a series of questions: Can baboons infer the mental states of other baboons? Do they feel empathy? Do baboons have a sense of self? What do baboons "know" about their environment and their existence? Do baboons utilize an internal or external language? And, finally, what do the answers to these questions tell us about human minds?

In the first chapter the authors divide the book into three sections: Chapters 1 through 5 discuss general information on baboons; chapters 6 through 11 delineate scientific research carried out on a group of baboons in the Okavango Delta in Botswana; Chapter 12 summarizes the research findings and explores the implications of these studies for the human mind. After a short historical survey of baboons, which includes the eyebrow raising tale of a baboon "hired" as a railroad track switcher and the equally intriguing Ahla the goat-herder, the book delves into baboon culture. They have rather stressful lives. Lion attacks. Crocodile attacks. Uncertain and dangerous water crossings. Not to mention the wandering alpha males. When a female with an infant sees a new male enter into her social network, she runs away as fast as she can. And who can blame her? Males dominate each other, and thus increase their reproductive success, not only by rigorous wahoo contests but also by killing the infants of previous alpha males. Given the data presented, Shakespeare could have penned a gripping baboon drama. While the males dominate, procreate, and murder, the females hold together an intricate, almost inexplicable, social nexus. With a dizzying complexity that would make Gödel proud, the women maintain numerous social strata, protect their infants via platonic male friendships, and maintain a steadfast, almost chivalric, loyalty to their kin. Their main stressors remain changes in the social rank, which creates uncertainty, wandering power hungry alpha males, and loss of a loved one through predation or infanticide. The text reveals some startling correlations between baboon and human life, which peaks when a member of the royal family visits the research site. After they relate baboon life and social rankings to the young aristocrat, she screams with glee that baboons provide evolutionary proof for her own elevated position. "Shortly thereafter," the authors relate, "she returned to her entourage, spirits lifted, leaving us to ponder the wider implications of our work." Did the authors point out to her that alpha male baboons typically reign for only six to seven months? Then, like ancient kings, they get deposed by a bigger wahoo.

Next, the book takes a decisive philosophical turn. The authors turn their focus from baboon life and biology to baboon theory of mind (the ability to attribute mental states to oneself and others), self-awareness, social intelligence, communication, and language. To what extent are baboons "aware" of their standing in the world and their relation to other baboons? By measuring glucocortocoid levels, an indication of stress, and performing sound experiments within the group itself, the authors draw several conclusions, though several require further experimentation. Baboons don't seem able to attribute mental states to others. As such, empathy seems beyond them. Though the authors do find some evidence for attribution of basic intentions. Looking at language, baboons use grunts and vocalizations, but not in the way that humans use language. Both humans and baboons do possess great amounts of social knowledge, and the authors argue that this intelligence provides a possible foundation for language. The basis of this argument lies in "the language of thought" that the authors claim predated spoken language. Over time mental concepts relating to objects, events, and relations in the world became vocalized. Thought first, then language. Thus, baboons may represent a living model of our evolutionary linguistic development. From this basis humans evolved into beings with a theory of mind that then spurred the development of language and vocabulary. Recursive thought then allowed our ancestors and us to form mental representations of themselves, others, and even of thoughts (i.e., we can think about the thoughts of others).

Accessible enough for most general readers, "Baboon Metaphysics" does not assume prior knowledge of baboons, biology, or philosophy. Anyone dedicated enough can pick it up and digest its fascinating contents. Nonetheless, the book has its challenges as it prods into new territory and the mental states of animals. Doubtless others will follow the path that this book has trodden and build upon the experiments and observations of a team that spent fourteen years with a group of baboons in Africa. Anyone seeking appreciation of the complexities of both animal and human life will find it here. Rev up your recursive thinking abilities and dive in.

What would the baboons say?.......2007-07-06

The intrepid team of Cheney and Seyfarth has done it again. Their work has a long-standing and deserved reputation for being both pioneering and sensible, a rather rare combination. This book traces implications for human evolution of their research on baboons in the Okavango Delta of Botswana. I have had my camps in the Delta raided by baboons who must be close relatives of Cheney and Seyfarth's friends. I formed a healthy respect for their intelligence. They can bring off a raid with military precision and scientific thoroughness, taking advantage of the least opportunity to steal everything usable and wreck everything else.
The title comes from Darwin: "he who understands baboon would do more towards metaphysics than Locke." Of course, we don't really learn about the baboons' metaphysics here; we learn how their behavior can change our metaphysics, as Darwin intended. (I don't know if baboons have metaphysics or not, but if they do, they surely believe that God is a huge dominant male baboon who mercifully sends endless parties of humans with crackers and bacon and peanuts.)
This book describes baboon social behavior and communication, and then goes on to show how it is and is not similar to human equivalents. They argue, convincingly, that human communication, complex thought, and high intelligence could and did evolve from primate social interaction. We need our smarts for our social life more than for toolmaking or feeding or avoiding predators. Their discussion of language is particularly good--a really thoughtful, excellent, up-to-date discussion of how human language differs from animal communication, and how this might have come about.
The authors also compare baboons with dogs, jays, and other highly social creatures. This leads them to many of their best insights.
I have three minor criticisms. First and worst, they take philosophy too seriously. We hear a lot about "theory of mind," "consciousness," "concept of the self," and other ineffable and "metaphysical" entities. The authors do as well as anyone could with these concepts, but one can go only so far in making a plate of cooked spaghetti stand up straight. Daniel Dennett's book CONSCIOUSNESS EXPLAINED pretty well devastated philosophers' talk about consciousness, as opposed to the good old testable folk notion that contrasts being conscious with being knocked out, drunk, or asleep. And how do you really assess what an animal knows? I have spent thousands of hours listening to mockingbirds and still have no idea whether they actually think of or remember a jay or killdeer when they imitate one. I suspect they think only "This is a fun sound to work into my song." I suppose we will never know. At least we can know that they do NOT merely repeat mindlessly; they subtly change the imitations to fit their song patterns, such that the imitations change over time, according to a real if rudimentary plan. Cheney and Seyfarth try bravely to make operational science out of "theories of mind" and "the self," and say some very important things in the process, but one can go only so far in applying abstract, debatable, mentalistic concepts to animals, or even to humans.
Conversely, it seems to me that the real difference between people and baboons (and other animals) is that people can form deep hierarchic plans. We can go from tactics to strategy to goals, or from words to sentences to books to life work to whole literary genres. A baboon has trouble with "to be," and could never discuss how "to be or not to be, that is the question" fits with Shakespeare's oeuvre and the history of western drama. Baboons have tactics, strategy, and goals, but only at a quite simple level. They can raid camps and manage troops brilliantly, but can't do much beyond that. In communication and foraging, their plans are excellent but simple.
Second, somewhat related: The authors are somewhat primate-centric, and a bit unaware of how different other animals' communication and "consciousness" may be. Dogs, notably, live in a world of scent that is closed to humans. Dogs are alleged to have "no self-concept" because they don't make a big deal of mirror images of themselves. But, if you put a dog in front of a mirror for the first time, you learn why: the dog is startled by the strange dog in the mirror, sniffs it, and immediately loses interest--realizing that this is a trick of the light rather than a real dog. Similarly, when dogs meet, they don't communicate just by barking or whining; they interact by visual displays (which are exceedingly complex in their own right) and by pheromone releases. These latter are not detected by humans, so humans don't usually realize how complex the interaction really is.
Third, the baboons' very real abilities get somewhat short-counted here, because the interest is so much on humans. If baboons could talk (and read), they would surely say: "All very well for these stupid humans to talk about what we can't do, but let's see them execute a perfect campsite raid! Let's see them get into a 'guaranteed animal-proof' container in five minutes! Let's see them give up their fancy gear and still detect and escape lions, leopards and crocodiles!" Evolution gives us the minds we need, and documenting that is more interesting to this reviewer than trying to make sense of theories of "theories of mind" and self-consciousness about "consciousness of self."
That said, this is a totally delightful book. Cheney and Seyfarth write well; no dry scientific dullness here. You will find yourself getting fascinated with even the most arcane matters of baboon social life.

konrad lorentz, move over.......2007-06-24

Ok, that's a little hype. But the earlier chapters especially were practically as charming. Several thousand undergraduates will be assigned this book and for many of them it will be one of the most memorable things they read in college. Who's Simon and who's Garfunkle in this team of authors I don't know, but their style is very engaging. This is one aspect of the work, the pure ethology, and it's very good. How many of us have been chased up a tree with a bunch of monkeys by a lion? Me, only once or twice.

Another aspect is a running series of experiments done by the authors interspersed with others carried on by other researchers on monkey (and a little ape) behavior designed to "get inside their minds" in order to obtain a sense of how they view the world. No doubt many readers will have encountered many of these results here and there in their other reading. It's nice to have so many collected in one book and I can't help feeling up to speed on the subject now.

The BIG IDEA is that "social intelligence" is a precursor to language as it appears in humans, and I'll let the reader make her own judgments on that. It at least gives one a lot to think about and despite the remarks of one professional reviewer, it's not a particularly "challenging" book if that means hard-to-read. It is challenging for sure in that it-makes-you-think.Anyone interested in origin of language theory will need to read this book.

((I would only negatively remark as a onetime philosophy teacher that the authors have an inordinate amount of respect for the (current) folk philosophy of D. Dennet and the philosophy speak of intention and recursiveness. That's probably why the book is called "challenging". It's not really part of the science in the book, though reading the book you might think it is. Pain is a "mental state" and it doesn't have a referent. And is "belief" a mental state? Is it really that simple? Oddly, though the title "Baboon Metaphysics" is supposed to refer to the baboon's world-view, it would be more accurate to think of it as a book about baboons PRESUMING a particular metaphysics. Like all metaphysics it assumes a particular epistemology, fashionable but questionable. However, this does little to diminish the book or its interest, the philosophy is mostly irrelevant being mostly a fill-in for ideas that are simple and unexceptional in this domain of science. I hope all non-philosophy people ignore these remarks, it's a great book.))

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It is a great reference
The best reference on (non-human) primate cognition research

Primate Cognition
Michael Tomasello , and Josep Call
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0195106245

Book Description

Soon after Charles Darwin formulated his theory of evolution, primate cognition became a major area of research. In this book, Michael Tomasello and Josep Call assess the current state of our knowledge about the cognitive skills of non-human primates. They integrate empirical findings on the topic from the beginning of the century to the present, placing this research in theoretical perspective. They begin with an examination of the way primates adapt to their physical world, mostly for the purpose of foraging. The second part of the book looks at primate social knowledge and focuses on the adaptations of primates to their social world for purposes of competition and cooperation. In the third section, the authors construct a general theory of primate cognition, distinguishing the cognition in primates from that of other mammals (human in particular). Their broad-ranging theory provides a guide for future research. Primate Cognition is an enlightening exploration of the cognitive capacities of our nearest primate relatives and a useful resource for a wide range of researchers and students in psychology, behavioral biology, primatology, and anthropology.

Customer Reviews:

It is a great reference.......2002-01-23

Read the other review. Other than telling the world how much I love this book, I don't have much more to add, except that this is a reference I actually use on a weekly basis.

The best reference on (non-human) primate cognition research.......2001-06-26

This is a very technical work compared to the 'popular' talking apes literature. One the other hand, it is not as detailed as "Chimpanzee Politics : Power and Sex Among Apes" by Frans De Waal. The book comprehensively covers all non-human primate cognition research as of 1996. The authors do a masterful job of keeping their own opinions from dominating the text, allowing the hundreds individual studies to stand more-or-less on their own.

The book is organized along Piaget's outline of cognitive development. It is broken into 3 major sections: (1) knowledge of the physical world, (2) knowledge of the social world and (3) a theory of cognition. I found the first section the best researched and interesting. The last sections is underdeveloped, but represents the state of research. Overall, the book is expertly crafted.

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Chimpanzees, the human species' closest living relatives, spend their lives in serial relationships: they feed, sleep, mate, and socialize in groups whose members constantly change. Given this complex and fluid social environment, how do chimps coordinate their movements to travel as a group to, say, another feeding spot?

The question of how animals organize their group movements has long puzzled observers; even today, the mechanics of how monarch butterflies and arctic terns move from place to place are matters of considerable conjecture. In On the Move, 30 leading scholars examine that question and its implications for the study of animal communication, cognition, and memory. Some argue that carnivores and nonhuman primates lack mental representations and "game plans" for movement, relying instead on "rules of thumb" to gather information about the ground before them. Other scholars maintain that phenomena like the echolocation of dolphins and whales and the long-distance, movement-coordinating signals of elephants suggest a complex knowledge of local environments.

What is certain, the contributors seem to agree, is that "group movement is as much a social behavior as it is an ecological response to the distribution and availability of resources and risks," and therefore worthy of continued study. --Gregory McNamee

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Getting from here to there may be simple for one individual. But as any parent, scout leader, or CEO knows, herding a whole troop in one direction is a lot more complicated. Who leads the group? Who decides where the group will travel, and using what information? How do they accomplish these tasks?

On the Move addresses these questions, examining the social, cognitive, and ecological processes that underlie patterns and strategies of group travel. Chapters discuss how factors such as group size, resource distribution and availability, the costs of travel, predation, social cohesion, and cognitive skills affect how individuals as well as social groups exploit their environment. Most chapters focus on field studies of a wide range of human and nonhuman primate groups, from squirrel monkeys to Turkana pastoralists, but chapters covering group travel in hyenas, birds, dolphins, and bees provide a broad taxonomic perspective and offer new insights into comparative questions, such as whether primates are unique in their ability to coordinate group-level activities.

Customer Reviews:

Monkeys on the Move (as well as other species).......2002-04-09

This book gives the ranging patterns of various species of primates, from ring-tailed lemurs, to mountain gorillas to sulawasi black crested macaques. Most of the chapters are based on the reseachers own work, but some chapters are only reviews of others' work. Very good resource for those interested in ranging as a general topic, not quite as good for specific primate info, although the chapter on the lemurs gives a great summary chart, and so do a couple of other chapters. We used this text for a class at State University of New York, Stonybrook campus and it served our class well. Good springboard for research papers, although the chapter sequence seems to be haphazard. All in all, a very good, solid text on primate ranging, recommended for anyone with a serious interest in primatology. The methods are given for each research undertaking (note the various forms used), and while some may leave you scratching your head (a little to much info on tree diameter), if nothing else this will surely make you appreciate all the work that goes into animal tracking (there are some chapters on other species, including one on human nomadic travelers).

Memory in the Cerebral Cortex: An Empirical Approach to Neural Networks in the Human and Nonhuman Primate

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A Comprehensive & Direct Understanding of Memory Formation.

Memory in the Cerebral Cortex: An Empirical Approach to Neural Networks in the Human and Nonhuman Primate
Joaquín M. Fuster
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0262561247

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In Memory in the Cerebral Cortex, Joaquín M. Fuster presents the insights of more than three decades of empirical research on the neural processes by which memory is formed, stored, and retrieved. Spanning the field from neuroanatomy to modeling, this book brings together all that we presently know about the role of the cerebral cortex of the primate in memory.

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A Comprehensive & Direct Understanding of Memory Formation........1999-06-29

Dr. Joaquin Fuster, in Memory in the Cerebral Cortex : An Empirical Approach to Neural Networks in the Human and Nonhuman Primate, has organized and integrated a wealth of neurobiological and neuropsychological information concerning cortical memory processing and formation. He provides the reader with a clear and succinct understanding of how the cerebral cortex processes information for ultimate storage into memory. The book starts with an overview of cortical specialization of function and then examines developmental issues and memory formation, different models for understanding memory networks, provides a detailed, but concise, description of perceptual and motor memory organization, examines the dynamics of cortical memory retrieval and attention, as well as the phenomenology of memory. In response to this book's thorough and concise presentation, I highly recommend its review by the many professionals who study and work with cortical memory.

Apes, Monkeys, Children, and the Growth of Mind (The Developing Child)

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Very interesting comparison nicely written

Apes, Monkeys, Children, and the Growth of Mind (The Developing Child)
Juan Carlos Gomez
Manufacturer: Harvard University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0674022394

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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.

Customer Reviews:

Very interesting comparison nicely written.......2006-08-09

p. 20 "...one of the crucial tenets of the book. The behavioral flexibility associated with prolonged development is the result of flexibility in forming representations of the world. My argument is that a crucial characteristic of primates is their ability to construct representation of the physical and social world and mediate their behavior by means of those representations."
p. 23 "The debate about continuity of human and nonhuman primates cognition critically hinges on the notion of representation."
Studying perception - show surprise = "look for longer". This can be used to compare age development and species development. Example: adult rhesus monkey with 12 month old child on a certain task.
p. 45 "...human adults typically tend to perceive first the global outline of a stimulus and only secondarily its local details." This is different for different primates and p. 47 "These results are potentially very important. They point to the possibility of different "cognitive styles" present in different primate species otherwise endowed with similar perceptual abilities."
P. 54 Monkeys prefer watching other monkeys to other things. (I find this interesting in relating it to dogs that prefer to bark at other dogs in the neighborhood then people or cars, but also bark at cats. Even puppies prefer to watch other dogs to watching other things.) Monkeys also learn from watching others solve problems. (p. 55) (Some skills cats and dogs can reach in two weeks compared to human infants around 8 or 9 months! (p. 68) (I wonder if it is because the dogs can still smell the object that is hidden.) I no sooner thought this then the next paragraph refers to tests that avoided olfactory cues. (notes up to page 74.)

Primate Origins of Human Cognition and Behavior

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Primate Origins of Human Cognition and Behavior

Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Biologists and anthropologists in Japan have played a crucial role in the development of primatology as a scientific discipline. Publication of Primate Origins of Human Cognition and Behavior under the editorship of Tetsuro Matsuzawa reaffirms the pervasive and creative role played by the intellectual descendants of Kinji Imanishi and Junichiro Itani in the fields of behavioral ecology, psychology, and cognitive science. Matsuzawa and his colleagues-humans and other primate partners- explore a broad range of issues including the phylogeny of perception and cognition; the origin of human speech; learning and memory; recognition of self, others, and species; society and social interaction; and culture. With data from field and laboratory studies of more than 90 primate species and of more than 50 years of long-term research, the intellectual breadth represented in this volume makes it a major contribution to comparative cognitive science and to current views on the origin of the mind and behavior of humans.

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