Patience reveals chimpanzee cognitive development

Abstract

What is it about children’s development that allows them to participate in all forms of human culture, including language? Is there something special about the way the human brain develops that allows for the sophisticated cognitive world in which we thrive? One of our best opportunities to answer the big questions like these is to carefully compare the development of our own species with that of one of our two closest living relatives—the chimpanzee. With such comparisons, we can examine how human brain development and cognitive skills differ from those of the other great apes. In this spirit, the authors of this edited volume, together with their colleagues from the Kyoto University Primate Research Institute, report in 28 chapters the findings of their exhaustive research program examining the development of chimpanzee cognition.