3.0

credits

Average Course Rating

Humans are unique in many ways but we are also members of the Primate order. As a result, we share rich foundations of our psychology with the other living primates, foundations we inherited from our common evolutionary ancestors. This course will explore the minds and mental lives of our closest primate relatives. What does the world look like from the perspective of a chimpanzee, or a lemur? How do they think, reason, and make decisions? How has their cognition evolved? We’ll cover basic aspects of primate biology, sociality, evolution, and cognitive representation, and then survey the many foundations of human thought that we share with other primates—from memory and planning to social intelligence and physical problem-solving. Psychology, behavioral biology & cog sci majors are preferred, but other majors are welcome.