Physical and social domains of primate cognition: a review

In the comparative literature, three theories have emerged to try and explain the evolution of primate intelligence. Two of these theories, the tool use theory and the social brain theory, posit the existence of distinct physical and social domains of intelligence. The cultural intelligence hypothesis, on the other hand, favours the development of co-evolved, and so correlated, domains of intelligence. We set out to collect, compare and summarise the evidence for these theories.