ABSTRACT
The capuchins are among the most numerous and widespread nonhuman primates of the New World, widely diffused in Central and South America from Belize to northern Argentina. This chapter aims to provide baseline longitudinal data on the cognitive development of cebus. The comparatively advanced cognitive abilities of cebus were discovered by Kluver in his classic studies devoted to investigate the cognitive mechanisms underlying various forms of intelligent behavior in some species of New and Old World monkeys. Data analysis is based on the identification in cebus of those behaviors described by Piaget as characterizing the several stages of sensorimotor development in the human infant. cebus were also completely unable to locomote or move in space. They could support their head erect and could turn themselves from supine to prone position. Further development of the cebus, however, did show interesting differences with respect to the other nonhuman primate species.
