Since Darwin's time, comparative psychologists have searched for a good way to compare cognition in humans and nonhuman primates. In Origins of Intelligence, Sue Parker and Michael McKinney offer such a framework and make a strong case for using human development theory (both Piagetian and neo-Piagetian) to study the evolution of intelligence across primate species. Their approach is comprehensive, covering a broad range of social, symbolic, physical, and logical domains, which fall under the all-encompassing and much-debated term intelligence. A widely held theory among developmental psychologists and social and biological anthropologists is that cognitive evolution in humans has occurred through juvenilization–the gradual accentuation and lengthening of childhood in the evolutionary process. In this work, however, Parker and McKinney argue instead that new stages were added at the end of cognitive development in our hominid ancestors, coining the term adultification by terminal extension to explain this process. Drawing evidence from scores of studies on monkeys, great apes, and human children, this book provides unique insights into ontogenetic constraints that have interacted with selective forces to shape the evolution of cognitive development in our lineage.
Contents:
Preface Acknowledgments Introduction
PART I COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT IN HUMAN AND NONHUMAN PRIMATES Comparative Developmental Studies of Primate Cognition Development of Physical Cognition in Children, Apes, and Monkeys Development of Logical-Mathematical Cognition in Children, Apes, and Monkeys Development of Social Cognition in Children, Apes, and Monkeys Development of Language in Young Children and Apes Comparing Primate Cognition across Domains: Integration or Isolation? Cognitive Development in the Context of Life History
PART II THE EVOLUTION OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT Development and Evolution: A Primer The Evolution of Human Mental Development Cognitive Adaptations of Apes and Humans Comparing Adaptive Scenarios for Primate Cognition The Evolution and Development of the Brain Cognitive Complexity and Progress in Evolution
References Index
""Parker and McKinney's attempt to address the Origins of Intelligence is to be welcomed. Although the 'glittering prize' for unraveling the evolutionary history of modern human intelligence is probably still unclaimed, the authors' broad integration of ontogenetic, comparative, and evolutionary evidence is an approach that holds much promise. If you are interested in the evolution of primate cognition (whether a primatologist, paleoanthropologist, psychologist, etc.) you should read Origins of Intelligence.""
