ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that the evolution of cognition has entailed the selection of covert psychological processes which served the interests of social behaviors. Cognition is held by the authors to be an advanced form of intellectual function. Basically it provides for the perception of relationships among the attributes of diverse things and events. Chimpanzee social living is viewed by many researchers as infinitely more complex and demanding than that of monkeys. The gestural propensity and capability of the pygmy chimpanzee far exceeds that yet reported for any other ape. Human language systems allow for the ultimate separation between events and the communications which are in reference to them. In the ape-language projects, it is not at all uncommon for the apes to "talk" about that which is not present-evidence of significant ability to separate events from specific times.
