Kathleen Rita Gibson

A developmental model for the evolution of language and intelligence in early hominids

This paper presents a model for the nature and adaptive significance of intelligence and language in early hominids based on comparative developmental, ecological, and neurological data. We propose that the common ancestor of the great apes and man displayed rudimentary forms of late sensorimotor and early preoperational intelligence similar to that of one- to four-year-old children. These abilities arose as adaptations for extractive foraging with tools, which requires a long postweaning apprenticeship. They were elaborated in the first hominids with the shift to primary dependence on this feeding strategy. These first hominids evolved a protolanguage, similar to that of two-year-old human children, with which they could describe the nature and location of food and request help in obtaining it. The descendents of the first hominids displayed intuitive intelligence, similar to that of four- to seven-year-old children, which arose as an adaptation for complex hunting involving aimed-missile throwing, stone-tool manufacture, animal butchery, food division, and shelter construction. The comparative developmental and paleontological data are consistent with the hypothesis that the stages of development of intelligence and language and their neural substrates in our species recapitulate the stages of their evolution.

The use of tools by human and non-human primates

Anthropologists and philosophers long described humans with terms such as Man-the-Toolmaker and Homo faber. After learning of chimpanzee toolmaking abilities, however, many scholars discarded toolmaking from their repertoire of uniquely human skills. Some began arguing that social behavior, rather than toolmaking, played the most critical role in the evolution of human mental abilities. These views failed to acknowledge the obvious superiority of human technology, the profoundly social nature of human toolmaking endeavors, and neuropsychological findings that procedural and factual learning are mediated by different neural circuits. This refreshing volume corrects these errors and begins to place the study of human technical evolution on more solid scientific grounds. It also represents what may be the most comprehensive approach to the evolution of human tool use and toolmaking ever published because it encompasses all aspects of tool use from the anatomy of the hand to ritualized human tool exchange. Data on nonhuman primates is included primarily within the first three sections of the volume. Papers in section I review the functional anatomy of primate and human hands, the neural control of manipulative actions, and the biomechanical programming required for the design of hand prostheses. The neural papers are especially valuable, and the conclusions of Rabischongs prosthetic analysis should be heeded by all who speculate on the evolution of tool use: Mechanical changes in hand structure or the freeing of the hands by bipedalism could not have led to toolmaking in the absence of accompanying neurological reprogramming. Papers in sections II and III focus directly on primate tool behaviors. Unfortunately, little information in these sections is likely to be new to primatologists. Thus, Visalberghi again reviews evidence that capuchins fail

“Language” and intelligence in monkeys and apes: Theoretical frameworks for comparative developmental studies

List of contributors Foreword Howard E. Gruber Preface Acknowledgements 1. Theoretical frameworks for comparative developmental studies Sue Taylor Parker, Bernard Baars and Kathleen Rita Gibson 2. Comparative developmental perspectives on Cebus intelligence Francesco Antinucci, Dorothy Munkenbeck Fragaszy, Kathleen Rita Gibson, Sue Taylor Parker and Patricia Poti 3. Questions regarding imitation, language and cultural transmission in apes and monkeys Elisabetta Visalberghi, Dorothy Munkenbeck Fragaszy, Michael Tomasello and Jacques Vauclair 4. Developmental perspectives on social intelligence and communication in great apes Juan Carlos Gomez, Kim A. Bard, Anne E. Russon and Ben G. Blount 5. Development of numerical and classificatory abilities in chimpanzees and other vertebrates Sarah T. Boysen, Gary G. Barntson, Tetsuro Matsuzawa and Irene Maxine Pepperberg 6. Comparative developmental perspectives on ape language H. Lyn White Miles, Patricia Marks Greenfield and E. Sue Savage-Rumbaugh Index.

“Language” and intelligence in monkeys and apes: Frontmatter

List of contributors Foreword Howard E. Gruber Preface Acknowledgements 1. Theoretical frameworks for comparative developmental studies Sue Taylor Parker, Bernard Baars and Kathleen Rita Gibson 2. Comparative developmental perspectives on Cebus intelligence Francesco Antinucci, Dorothy Munkenbeck Fragaszy, Kathleen Rita Gibson, Sue Taylor Parker and Patricia Poti 3. Questions regarding imitation, language and cultural transmission in apes and monkeys Elisabetta Visalberghi, Dorothy Munkenbeck Fragaszy, Michael Tomasello and Jacques Vauclair 4. Developmental perspectives on social intelligence and communication in great apes Juan Carlos Gomez, Kim A. Bard, Anne E. Russon and Ben G. Blount 5. Development of numerical and classificatory abilities in chimpanzees and other vertebrates Sarah T. Boysen, Gary G. Barntson, Tetsuro Matsuzawa and Irene Maxine Pepperberg 6. Comparative developmental perspectives on ape language H. Lyn White Miles, Patricia Marks Greenfield and E. Sue Savage-Rumbaugh Index.

“Language” and intelligence in monkeys and apes: Questions regarding imitation, “language,” and cultural transmission in apes and monkeys

List of contributors Foreword Howard E. Gruber Preface Acknowledgements 1. Theoretical frameworks for comparative developmental studies Sue Taylor Parker, Bernard Baars and Kathleen Rita Gibson 2. Comparative developmental perspectives on Cebus intelligence Francesco Antinucci, Dorothy Munkenbeck Fragaszy, Kathleen Rita Gibson, Sue Taylor Parker and Patricia Poti 3. Questions regarding imitation, language and cultural transmission in apes and monkeys Elisabetta Visalberghi, Dorothy Munkenbeck Fragaszy, Michael Tomasello and Jacques Vauclair 4. Developmental perspectives on social intelligence and communication in great apes Juan Carlos Gomez, Kim A. Bard, Anne E. Russon and Ben G. Blount 5. Development of numerical and classificatory abilities in chimpanzees and other vertebrates Sarah T. Boysen, Gary G. Barntson, Tetsuro Matsuzawa and Irene Maxine Pepperberg 6. Comparative developmental perspectives on ape language H. Lyn White Miles, Patricia Marks Greenfield and E. Sue Savage-Rumbaugh Index.

“Language” and intelligence in monkeys and apes: Developmental perspectives on social intelligence and communication in great apes

List of contributors Foreword Howard E. Gruber Preface Acknowledgements 1. Theoretical frameworks for comparative developmental studies Sue Taylor Parker, Bernard Baars and Kathleen Rita Gibson 2. Comparative developmental perspectives on Cebus intelligence Francesco Antinucci, Dorothy Munkenbeck Fragaszy, Kathleen Rita Gibson, Sue Taylor Parker and Patricia Poti 3. Questions regarding imitation, language and cultural transmission in apes and monkeys Elisabetta Visalberghi, Dorothy Munkenbeck Fragaszy, Michael Tomasello and Jacques Vauclair 4. Developmental perspectives on social intelligence and communication in great apes Juan Carlos Gomez, Kim A. Bard, Anne E. Russon and Ben G. Blount 5. Development of numerical and classificatory abilities in chimpanzees and other vertebrates Sarah T. Boysen, Gary G. Barntson, Tetsuro Matsuzawa and Irene Maxine Pepperberg 6. Comparative developmental perspectives on ape language H. Lyn White Miles, Patricia Marks Greenfield and E. Sue Savage-Rumbaugh Index.

“Language” and intelligence in monkeys and apes: Comparative developmental perspectives on ape “language”

List of contributors Foreword Howard E. Gruber Preface Acknowledgements 1. Theoretical frameworks for comparative developmental studies Sue Taylor Parker, Bernard Baars and Kathleen Rita Gibson 2. Comparative developmental perspectives on Cebus intelligence Francesco Antinucci, Dorothy Munkenbeck Fragaszy, Kathleen Rita Gibson, Sue Taylor Parker and Patricia Poti 3. Questions regarding imitation, language and cultural transmission in apes and monkeys Elisabetta Visalberghi, Dorothy Munkenbeck Fragaszy, Michael Tomasello and Jacques Vauclair 4. Developmental perspectives on social intelligence and communication in great apes Juan Carlos Gomez, Kim A. Bard, Anne E. Russon and Ben G. Blount 5. Development of numerical and classificatory abilities in chimpanzees and other vertebrates Sarah T. Boysen, Gary G. Barntson, Tetsuro Matsuzawa and Irene Maxine Pepperberg 6. Comparative developmental perspectives on ape language H. Lyn White Miles, Patricia Marks Greenfield and E. Sue Savage-Rumbaugh Index.

“Language” and intelligence in monkeys and apes: Acknowledgments

List of contributors Foreword Howard E. Gruber Preface Acknowledgements 1. Theoretical frameworks for comparative developmental studies Sue Taylor Parker, Bernard Baars and Kathleen Rita Gibson 2. Comparative developmental perspectives on Cebus intelligence Francesco Antinucci, Dorothy Munkenbeck Fragaszy, Kathleen Rita Gibson, Sue Taylor Parker and Patricia Poti 3. Questions regarding imitation, language and cultural transmission in apes and monkeys Elisabetta Visalberghi, Dorothy Munkenbeck Fragaszy, Michael Tomasello and Jacques Vauclair 4. Developmental perspectives on social intelligence and communication in great apes Juan Carlos Gomez, Kim A. Bard, Anne E. Russon and Ben G. Blount 5. Development of numerical and classificatory abilities in chimpanzees and other vertebrates Sarah T. Boysen, Gary G. Barntson, Tetsuro Matsuzawa and Irene Maxine Pepperberg 6. Comparative developmental perspectives on ape language H. Lyn White Miles, Patricia Marks Greenfield and E. Sue Savage-Rumbaugh Index.

“Language” and intelligence in monkeys and apes: Index

List of contributors Foreword Howard E. Gruber Preface Acknowledgements 1. Theoretical frameworks for comparative developmental studies Sue Taylor Parker, Bernard Baars and Kathleen Rita Gibson 2. Comparative developmental perspectives on Cebus intelligence Francesco Antinucci, Dorothy Munkenbeck Fragaszy, Kathleen Rita Gibson, Sue Taylor Parker and Patricia Poti 3. Questions regarding imitation, language and cultural transmission in apes and monkeys Elisabetta Visalberghi, Dorothy Munkenbeck Fragaszy, Michael Tomasello and Jacques Vauclair 4. Developmental perspectives on social intelligence and communication in great apes Juan Carlos Gomez, Kim A. Bard, Anne E. Russon and Ben G. Blount 5. Development of numerical and classificatory abilities in chimpanzees and other vertebrates Sarah T. Boysen, Gary G. Barntson, Tetsuro Matsuzawa and Irene Maxine Pepperberg 6. Comparative developmental perspectives on ape language H. Lyn White Miles, Patricia Marks Greenfield and E. Sue Savage-Rumbaugh Index.

“Language” and intelligence in monkeys and apes: Development of numerical and classificatory abilities in chimpanzees and other vertebrates

List of contributors Foreword Howard E. Gruber Preface Acknowledgements 1. Theoretical frameworks for comparative developmental studies Sue Taylor Parker, Bernard Baars and Kathleen Rita Gibson 2. Comparative developmental perspectives on Cebus intelligence Francesco Antinucci, Dorothy Munkenbeck Fragaszy, Kathleen Rita Gibson, Sue Taylor Parker and Patricia Poti 3. Questions regarding imitation, language and cultural transmission in apes and monkeys Elisabetta Visalberghi, Dorothy Munkenbeck Fragaszy, Michael Tomasello and Jacques Vauclair 4. Developmental perspectives on social intelligence and communication in great apes Juan Carlos Gomez, Kim A. Bard, Anne E. Russon and Ben G. Blount 5. Development of numerical and classificatory abilities in chimpanzees and other vertebrates Sarah T. Boysen, Gary G. Barntson, Tetsuro Matsuzawa and Irene Maxine Pepperberg 6. Comparative developmental perspectives on ape language H. Lyn White Miles, Patricia Marks Greenfield and E. Sue Savage-Rumbaugh Index.