Abstract for Sally Boysen
Our understanding of the cognitive potential
in chimpanzees has grown significantly in the past 25 years, as new reports
of unprecedented skills have emerged from numerous laboratories in the
U.S. and Japan, in particular. These studies have revealed greater
sophistication and likely represent an underestimation of the cognitive
capacities of a species which shares a significant evolutionary heritage
with humans. Our project has been exploring both capacities and limitations
in number-related skills, as well as comprehension of scale models by chimpanzees.
In addition, provocative new findings which document referential content
in natural chimpanzee vocalizations will be presented. This new evidence
for a flexible comprehension and productive vocal repertoire in chimpanzees
represents previously-undocumented capacities for representational reference
in this species. Consideration of such capacities, relative to renewed
attention to cognitive evolution and the emergence of language in humans
will also be addressed.