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Cognitive control, or executive function, is a key feature of human cognition, allowing individuals to plan, acquire new information, or adopt new strategies when the circumstances change. Yet it is unclear which factors promote the evolution of more sophisticated executive-function abilities such as those possessed by humans. Examining cognitive control in nonhuman primates, our closest relatives, can help to identify these evolutionary processes. Here, we developed a novel battery to experimentally measure multiple aspects of cognitive control in primates: temporal discounting, motor inhibition, short-term memory, reversal learning, novelty responses, and persistence. We tested lemur species with targeted, independent variation in both ecological and social features (ruffed lemurs, Coquerel’s sifakas, ring-tailed lemurs, and mongoose lemurs; N = 39) and found that ecological rather than social characteristics best predicted patterns of cognitive control across these species. This highlights the importance of integrating cognitive data with species’ natural history to understand the origins of complex cognition.
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This content will become publicly available on January 1, 2027
Cognitive adaptations in humans and other great apes
What are the cognitive mechanisms that support human behavior, and are they distinct from those in other species? This review examines proposed human-unique cognitive adaptations in comparison to nonhuman primates, including facets of social cognition, mental time travel, and executive function. Current data suggests that within each domain, differences between human and nonhuman great ape cognition are ones of degree. I propose that the novel ‘adaptation’ of human cognition is an integration across these domains to support flexible social and ecological behaviors, an elaboration of patterns already present in nonhuman great apes. Understanding how this synthesis emerges can therefore reveal the biological origins of human cognition.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1944881
- PAR ID:
- 10697195
- Publisher / Repository:
- Elsevier
- Date Published:
- ISBN:
- 9780443273810
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 384 to 396
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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