The Symbolic Mind: Apes, symbols, and the evolution of language

The debate whether most profitably to study nonhuman apes, henceforth "apes", in the field or in captivity rests on questionable conceptions about the history of the two research traditions and on questionable notions such as the idea of a species' natural environment. Exposing these assumptions lets us more readily examine the current evidence we have for early rearing influence on ape cognition and the measures currently taken in laboratories to address biases in the studies. Development is taking on a new meaning in evolutionary biology, which has not yet been incorporated thoroughly into primatology. Language plays a significant role in human cognition and in giving instructions to subjects when carrying out experiments. Comparative studies should address this issue, and primatology should have measures to take symbolic capacities into account.