My interest in cognition as an evolved characteristic marks me as an ethologist. I am grateful to all the Dutch ethologists, who influenced my early career. I began my graduate studies at the University of Groningen, in the Netherlands, under Gerard Baerends, who was Niko Tinbergen’s first student. Afterward I wrote my dissertation on primate behavior at the University of Utrecht with Jan van Hooff, an expert of facial expressions and emotions. My exposure to comparative psychology, the other approach to animal behavior, came mostly after my move across the Atlantic. Input from both schools has been critical to constructing the new field of evolutionary cognition. This book relates my own journey and involvement in this field as it gradually moved to the forefront of the study of animal behavior.
I am grateful to the many people who have accompanied me on this journey, from colleagues and collaborators to students and postdocs. Just to thank those of the last few years: Sarah Brosnan, Kimberly Burke, Sarah Calcutt, Matthew Campbell, Devyn Carter, Zanna Clay, Marietta Danforth, Tim and Katie Eppley, Pier Francesco Ferrari, Yuko Hattori, Victoria Horner, Joshua Plotnik, Stephanie Preston, Darby Proctor, Teresa Romero, Malini Suchak, Julia Watzek, Christine Webb, and Andrew Whiten. I am grateful to the Yerkes National Primate Research Center and Emory University for the opportunity to conduct our studies, and to the many monkeys and apes who have participated and become part of my life.
This book was initially undertaken as a relatively short overview of recent findings in primate cognition but quickly grew in scope and size to what it is now. Inclusion of other species has been paramount, because the field of animal cognition has become much more varied in the last two decades. This overview is obviously incomplete, but my main objective is to convey enthusiasm for evolutionary cognition and to illustrate how it has grown into a respectable science based on rigorous observations and experiments. Since the book covers so many different aspects and species, I have asked colleagues to read parts of it. For their invaluable feedback, I thank Michael Beran, Gregory Berns, Redouan Bshary, Zanna Clay, Harold Gouzoules, Russell Gray, Roger Hanlon, Robert Hampton, Vincent Janik, Karline Janmaat, Gema Martin-Ordas, Gerald Massey, Jennifer Mather, Tetsuro Matsuzawa, Caitlin O’Connell, Irene Pepperberg, Bonnie Perdue, Susan Perry, Joshua Plotnik, Rebecca Snyder, and Malini Suchak.
I thank my agent Michelle Tessler for her continued support, and my editor at Norton, John Glusman, for critical reading of the manuscript. As always, my wife and number-one fan, Catherine, has read my daily production with enthusiasm and helped me stylistically. I thank her for the love in my life.