Behavioral and Cognitive Complexity in Great Apes
A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Human-Animal Interactions, Animal Behaviour and Emotion".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 July 2026 | Viewed by 8
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Would it be going too far to say that the past few decades in comparative cognition research have been the era of the great apes, such as chimpanzees? At the very least, the rise of theory of mind research, proposed around the same time as the decline of ape-language studies, together with the subsequent Machiavellian intelligence hypothesis, served as catalysts for a considerable body of research focusing on great apes. Particularly in the social domain, findings from research on great apes extended to other taxa. It seems clear that the great apes played a leading role.
Compared with that golden era, recent research on great apes seems to have entered a period of stability, or perhaps a plateau. Of course, this does not mean that comparative cognition research as a whole is stagnating. Rather, it may simply reflect that studies on other taxa have advanced more than ever. It might be better to regard the current phase not as a plateau, but as a transitional period toward the next stage of development.
With this in mind, I decided to organize a Special Issue, "Behavioral and Cognitive Complexity in Great Apes," in order to consolidate this transitional period and encourage the next leap forward. In recent decades, research on social intelligence and social cognition has dominated, and as a result, our understanding in this domain has advanced greatly. Building on these achievements, the next quarter-century is expected to see further progress across a wider range of domains. Accordingly, in this Special Issue, I welcome contributions covering diverse areas, including sensation and perception, physical and ecological intelligence, social intelligence, animal welfare, and conservation. I also hope to see studies conducted in varied settings and with diverse methodologies, ranging from laboratories and zoos to semi-natural environments and wild habitats, and encompassing both experimental and observational approaches.
Together with examinations of existing hypotheses, I also encourage bottom-up research that accumulates data and aims to generate new hypotheses. In addition to empirical studies, I welcome systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and theoretical articles.
I expect this Special Issue to be an anthology bridging comparative cognition research on great apes, now and then, to the future.
Prof. Dr. Masaki Tomonaga
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- comparative cognition
- behavioral complexity
- social cognition
- physical cognition
- ecological cognition
- evolution
- great apes
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