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Prosimian Cognition

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Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior

Synonyms

Galago; Lemur; Loris; Potto; Strepsirrhine; Tarsier

Introduction

Prosimians are a diverse group of primate species including the infraorders Tarsiiformes, Lorisiformes, and Lemuriformes. Primate cognition has interested researchers from varying disciplines ranging from psychology to anthropology. Primates are regularly expected to solve problems and scenarios that require a level of cognitive competence can be classified into two categories, physical and social cognition. Primates are unique among mammals in that they have a larger brain to body size ratio (Isler and van Schaik 2009). The corresponding cognitive capacity varies disproportionately across the order Primates (Dunbar 1992). Lemuriformes are by far the most studied infraorder relative to the other prosimians, but pale in comparison to the number of studies focused on New World primates, Old World primates, and Apes. In order to better understand cognitive abilities in primates, research on cognition in basal...

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Correspondence to Stephanie Poindexter .

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Poindexter, S. (2017). Prosimian Cognition. In: Vonk, J., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_468-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_468-1

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