Article contents
The limits of chimpanzee-human comparisons for understanding human cognition
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 June 2012
Abstract
Evolutionary questions require specialized approaches, part of which are comparisons between close relatives. However, to understand the origins of human tool behavior, comparisons with solely chimpanzees are insufficient, lacking the power to identify derived traits. Moreover, tool use is unlikely a unitary phenomenon. Large-scale comparative analyses provide an alternative and suggest that tool use co-evolves with a suite of cognitive traits.
- Type
- Open Peer Commentary
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012
References
- 2
- Cited by
Target article
The cognitive bases of human tool use
Related commentaries (30)
An area specifically devoted to tool use in human left inferior parietal lobule
Brain structures playing a crucial role in the representation of tools in humans and non-human primates
Can object affordances impact on human social learning of tool use?
Cathedrals, symphony orchestras, and iPhones: The cultural basis of modern technology
Childhood and advances in human tool use
Cultural intelligence is key to explaining human tool use
Evidence from convergent evolution and causal reasoning suggests that conclusions on human uniqueness may be premature
Evidence of recursion in tool use
Foresight, function representation, and social intelligence in the great apes
Human tool behavior is species-specific and remains unique
Human tool-making capacities reflect increased information-processing capacities: Continuity resides in the eyes of the beholder
Language and tool making are similar cognitive processes
Look, no hands!
Motor planning in primates
Neurocognitive anthropology: What are the options?
Not by thoughts alone: How language supersizes the cognitive toolkit
Prosthetic gestures: How the tool shapes the mind
So, are we the massively lucky species?
Technological selection: A missing link
The dual nature of tools and their makeover
The key to cultural innovation lies in the group dynamic rather than in the individual mind
The limits of chimpanzee-human comparisons for understanding human cognition
The role of executive control in tool use
Thinking tools: Acquired skills, cultural niche construction, and thinking with things
Tool innovation may be a critical limiting step for the establishment of a rich tool-using culture: A perspective from child development
Tool use and constructions
Tool use as situated cognition
Tool use induces complex and flexible plasticity of human body representations
Unique features of human movement control predicted by the leading joint hypothesis
What exists in the environment that motivates the emergence, transmission, and sophistication of tool use?
Author response
From individual cognition to populational culture