Cognitive Development in Chimpanzees

- Introduction to Cognitive Development in Chimpanzees

- Behavioral and Physical Foundation

- Communication and Mother-Infant Relationship

- Social Cognition: Imitation and Understanding Others

- Conceptual Cognition

- Tools and Culture

Prof. Tetsuro Matsuzawa is world renowned for blending captive and field approaches to advance our understanding and appreciation of chimpanzee intelligence. He leads the Ai-project and is the director of Primate Research Institute of the University of Kyoto, Japan. He is also the director of the Bossou/Nimba field research station. He has more than 30 years of experience with working with chimpanzees in captivity, and more than 20 with chimpanzees in their natural habitat. He has received several prestigious awards for his achievements so far including the Prince Chichibu Memorial Science Award in 1991, the Jane Goodall Award in 2001 and the Medal with Purple Ribbon in 2004. He is also a member of the executive committee of the IUCN (The International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) Primate Specialist Group on Great Ape Conservation.

From the reviews:

From the reviews:



"An edited volume answering my earnest request to broaden our treatment of cognitive development. ... I add to the list offered by Matsuzawa three more features that distinguish this volume. The first is the inclusion of material that is not explicitly developmental. ... The second ... is the depth of knowledge about individuals, particularly among the members of the KUPRI community. ... The third distinguishing feature of the volume is the use in several of the studies of the 'participation observation' method ... ." (Dorothy M. Fragaszy, Primates, 2006)

"The book ... offers fascinating insights into the cognitive life of our closest extant relatives. ... The book addresses a broad audience and will be fascinating for readers with different specializations, not only because of the topics but also because of the easily accessible style. The authors integrate their own remarkable findings with thoughtful discussions of decades of research. ... Every chapter in this book provides some novel insights, often in combination with a review on the state of the art in the respective topic." (Signe Preuschoft and Christine Hrubesch, Folio Primatologica, Vol. 78, 2007)

"This book is the first of its kind to cover such a broad range of topics concerning chimpanzee development ... . it is easy for me to declare that this book represents a landmark contribution to the study of the comparative development of humans and chimpanzees. It is a must read for students and experts interested in cognitive development, human evolution and the cognitive neurosciences." (Brian Hare, Nature Neuroscience, Vol. 10 (9), 2007)

"The excellence of the research and the clarity of the presentation lead to the charm of the book ... . Anyone interested in primates-indeed, anyone interest in how animal behavior can best be studied thoughtfully and humanely-will find reason to be grateful for this work and thereby to the editors,