The behavioural ecology of primate cognition

人们普遍认为，灵长类动物的大脑和认知能力在很大程度上是社会生活的产物。对于这种社会认知的特殊性质，以及如果我们观察野生灵长类动物，我们将如何识别它，人们的看法就不那么一致了。毕竟，对野生灵长类动物来说，社会认知具有最重要的进化意义。我们认为灵长类动物的认知能力并没有被选择来允许动物通过支持有价值的关系来提前计划。相反，它是一种对不断变化的环境迅速做出反应的能力，不考虑未来，并利用社会和物理世界的结构来减少决策的认知负荷。

It is generally agreed that primate brains and cognition are, in large measure, a product of social life. There is less agreement on both the particular nature of this social cognition and how we would recognise it if we were to observe wild primates for whom, after all, it has had the most evolutionary importance. We argue that primate cognition has not been selected to allow animals to plan ahead by shoring up valuable relationships. It is, instead, an ability to respond rapidly to changing circumstances, without regard for the future, and to make use of the structure of both the social and physical worlds to reduce the cognitive load of decision-making.