By Juan Carlos Gomez Harvard University Press, 2004 From the publisher's release: 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. About the Author: Juan Carlos Gomez is Lecturer in Psychology at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland. TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface ix 1. Hands, Faces, and Infancy: The Origins of Primate Minds 1 2. Perceiving a World of Objects 28 3. Practical Intelligence: Doing Things with Objects 58 4. Understanding Relations Between Objects: Causality 94 5. The Logic of Object Relations 124 6. Objects in the World 150 7. Faces, Gestures, and Calls 173 8. Understanding Other Subjects 204 9. Social Learning, Imitation, and Culture 238 10. Consciousness and Language 266 11. Learning from Comparisons: The Evolution of Cognitive Developments 292 References 311 Index 333 ***************************************************** ISBN: 0674011457 (hardcover) $39.95 USD WHERE TO ORDER: United States and Canada: Harvard University Press Customer Service Department 79 Garden Street Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138 Phone:1-800-405-1619 Fax:1-800-405-9145 Email: customer.care@triliteral.org The United Kingdom, Continental Europe, Africa, India, and the Middle East (Excluding Israel): John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Southern Cross Trading Estate 1 Oldlands Way Bognor Regis, PO 22 9SA England UK Telephone:(+44) (0) 1243 779777 Freephone: 0800 243 407 (UK only) Fax: (+44) 12243 820250 Email: cs-books@wiley.co.uk All other regions: Email: customer.care@triliteral.org Phone: 1-401-531-2800 Direct link to the HUP catalog entry: http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/GOMAPE.html Posted Date: 5/26/04
URL: http://www.primate.wisc.edu/pin/review/apesmonkeyschildren.html
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