Differences in the early cognitive development of children and great apes.

dc.contributor.author

Wobber, Victoria

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Herrmann, Esther

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Hare, Brian

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Wrangham, Richard

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Tomasello, Michael

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United States

dc.date.accessioned

2017-02-17T17:17:46Z

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2014-04

dc.description.abstract

There is very little research comparing great ape and human cognition developmentally. In the current studies we compared a cross-sectional sample of 2- to 4-year-old human children (n=48) with a large sample of chimpanzees and bonobos in the same age range (n=42, hereafter: apes) on a broad array of cognitive tasks. We then followed a group of juvenile apes (n=44) longitudinally over 3 years to track their cognitive development in greater detail. In skills of physical cognition (space, causality, quantities), children and apes performed comparably at 2 years of age, but by 4 years of age children were more advanced (whereas apes stayed at their 2-year-old performance levels). In skills of social cognition (communication, social learning, theory of mind), children out-performed apes already at 2 years, and increased this difference even more by 4 years. Patterns of development differed more between children and apes in the social domain than the physical domain, with support for these patterns present in both the cross-sectional and longitudinal ape data sets. These results indicate key differences in the pattern and pace of cognitive development between humans and other apes, particularly in the early emergence of specific social cognitive capacities in humans.

dc.identifier

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23765870

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1098-2302

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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/13650

dc.language

eng

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Wiley

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Dev Psychobiol

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10.1002/dev.21125

dc.subject

bonobos

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chimpanzees

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cognitive development

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comparative psychology

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social cognition

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Animals

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Child Development

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Child, Preschool

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Cognition

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Communication

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Cross-Sectional Studies

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Female

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Humans

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Learning

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Male

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Pan paniscus

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Pan troglodytes

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Psychology, Child

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Social Behavior

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Theory of Mind

dc.title

Differences in the early cognitive development of children and great apes.

dc.type

Journal article

duke.contributor.orcid

Tomasello, Michael|0000-0002-1649-088X

pubs.author-url

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23765870

pubs.begin-page

547

pubs.end-page

573

pubs.issue

3

pubs.organisational-group

Center for Cognitive Neuroscience

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Duke

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Duke Institute for Brain Sciences

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Duke Science & Society

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Evolutionary Anthropology

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Initiatives

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Institutes and Provost's Academic Units

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Psychology and Neuroscience

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Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

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University Institutes and Centers

pubs.publication-status

Published

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56

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