Social intelligence, innovation, and enhanced brain size in primates
University of Cambridge · Stanford University
Abstract
Despite considerable current interest in the evolution of intelligence, the intuitively appealing notion that brain volume and "intelligence" are linked remains untested. Here, we use ecologically relevant measures of cognitive ability, the reported incidence of behavioral innovation, social learning, and tool use, to show that brain size and cognitive capacity are indeed correlated. A comparative analysis of 533 instances of innovation, 445 observations of social learning, and 607 episodes of tool use established that social learning, innovation, and tool use frequencies are positively correlated with species' relative and absolute "executive" brain volumes, after controlling for phylogeny and research…
Citation impact
- FWCI
- 26.04
- Percentile
- 100%
- References
- 80
Authors
2Topics & keywords
- Brain size
- Social learning
- Cognition
- Cognitive psychology
- Psychology
- Primate
- Social complexity
- Social cognition