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Great Apes and Human Development: A Personal History
Author(s) -
Tomasello Michael
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
child development perspectives
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3
H-Index - 71
eISSN - 1750-8606
pISSN - 1750-8592
DOI - 10.1111/cdep.12281
Subject(s) - intentionality , psychology , theory of mind , cognitive science , comparative psychology , social cognition , cognition , cognitive development , cognitive psychology , comparative cognition , developmental psychology , epistemology , philosophy , neuroscience
In this article, I recount my history of research with great apes. From the beginning, the idea was to compare apes to human children, with an eye to discovering facts relevant to describing and explaining processes of human development. The research went through three more or less distinct stages, focusing on communication and social learning, social cognition and theory of mind, and cooperation and shared intentionality. I conclude by identifying problems and prospects for comparative research in developmental psychology.