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Tetsuro Matsuzawa

Professor, Section of Language and Intelligence, Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University

Career

Born on 15th Oct. 1950,
Professor of Section of Language and Intelligence,
Primate Research Institute of Kyoto University, Japan.

Research Summary

Matsuzawa has been studying chimpanzee intelligence both in the laboratory and in the wild. The laboratory work, known as "Ai-project", focusing on the language-like skills and the concept of numbers established in a female chimpanzee named Ai. Chimpanzee Ai, 29 year old at present, has a 6year-old boy named "Ayumu". They live in the PRI community of 14 chimpanzees as a group including 3 generations of 5 to 40 year old. Ai project started in 1978, and one of the longest laboratory research on chimpanzee intelligence.

Matsuzawa has also been studying the tool use in the wild chimpanzees at Bossou, Guinea, West Africa, since 1986. There is a community of about 12 individuals that has been studied for 30 years by Japanese researchers. The Bossou chimpanzees are well known to use a pair of stones as hammer and anvil to crack open oil-palm nuts. His long-term research on wild chimpanzee tool use revealed interesting topics like handedness of use of hammer, critical period of learning nut-cracking at around 3 to 5 year old, "education by master-apprenticeship" and observational learning, possession of stones, deception, new tool use like algae-scooping, use of leaves for cushions, cultural variation in adjacent communities, etc.

Matsuzawa tries to synthesize the field work and the laboratory work to understand the nature of chimpanzees, our evolutionary neighbors. He got several prizes including Prince Chichibu Memorial Science Award in 1991, Jane Goodall Award in 2001, and The Medal with Purple Ribbon in 2004. He published many books and articles.

Selected publication

Original articles (peer-reviewed)

Books

  • Matsuzawa T, Humle, T. & Sugiyama, Y. (2011). The Chimpanzees of Bossou and Nimba. Springer.
  • Lonsdorf, E., Ross, S. & Matsuzawa T (2010). The mind of the chimpanzee: Ecological and experimental perspectives. The University of Chicago Press.
  • Matsuzawa T Tomonaga M. Tanaka M.(2006) Cognitive Development in Chimpanzees, Springer.
  • Matsuzawa T (2001) Primate origins of human cognition and behavior, T. Matsuzawa ed., Springer-Verlag Tokyo: Tokyo, pp.587.

Book chapters

  • Matsuzawa T (2010). A trade-off theory of intelligence. In: Mareschal, D. et al. (eds.), The making of human concepts. Pp. 227–245, Oxford University Press.
  • Matsuzawa T & Kourouma, M. (2008). The green corridor project: Long-term research and conservation in Bossou, Guinea. In: Wrangham, R. & Ross, E. (eds.), Science and conservation in African forests: The benefits of long-term research. Pp. 201–212, Cambridge University Press.
  • Matsuzawa T, Nakamura, M. (2004) Caregiving: mother-infant relations in chimpanzees. In: M. Bekoff (ed.) "Encyclopedia of animal behavior", Greenwood press, pp.196-203.
  • Matsuzawa T (2002) Chimpanzee Ai and her son Ayumu: An episode of education by master-apprenticeship. In: M. Bekoff, C. Allen, & Burghardt, G. (eds.) "The cognitive animal" (pp.189-195), Cambridge: The MIT Press.
  • Matsuzawa, M. (2001) Primate foundations of human intelligence: A view of tool use in nonhuman primates and fossil hominids. In: Primate origins of human cognition and behavior, T. Matsuzawa ed., Springer-Verlag Tokyo: Tokyo, pp.3-25.
  • Matsuzawa T, Biro, D., Humle, T., Inoue-Nakamura, N., Tonooka, R. & Yamakoshi, G. (2001) Emergence of culture in wild chimpanzees: Education by master-apprenticeship. In: Primate origins of human cognition and behavior, T. Matsuzawa ed., Springer-Verlag Tokyo: Tokyo, pp.557-574.
  • Matsuzawa T (1999) Communication and tool use in chimpanzee: Cultural and social contexts. In: Hauser, M. & Konishi, M. eds., "The design of Animal communication", Cambridge University Press, 645-671.
  • Matsuzawa T (1998) Chimpanzee behavior: comparative cognitive perspective. In: Greenberg, G. & Haraway, M. eds., "Comparative psychology: A handbook", Garland Publishers Inc., NY, 360-375.
  • Matsuzawa T & Yamakoshi, G. (1996) Comparison of chimpanzee material culture between Bossou and Nimba, West Africa. In Russon, A., Bard, K., & Parker, S. (eds.), "Reaching into thought". Cambridge Univ. Press, 211-232.
  • Matsuzawa T (1996) Chimpanzee intelligence in nature and in captivity: isomorphism of symbol use and tool use. In McGrew, W. et al. (eds.), "Great Ape Societies". Cambridge Univ. Press, 196-209.
  • Matsuzawa T (1994) Field experiments on use of stone tools by chimpanzees in the wild. In Wrangham, R. et al.(eds.), "Chimpanzee Cultures". Harvard Univ. Press, 351-370.
  • Itakura, S., & Matsuzawa,T. (1993) Acquisition of personal pronouns by a chimpanzee. Roitblat, H.,Herman, L., Nachtigall, P. (eds.), "Language and Communication:Comparative Perspectives". Lawrence Erlbaum, 347-363.
  • Tomonaga, M., Matsuzawa T, & Matano, S. (1991) Perception and processing of complex geometrical figures in chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes). In Ehara, A., Kimura, T., Takenaka, O., and Iwamoto, M. (Eds.), "Primatology today". Elsevier: Amsterdam, 313-316.
  • Matsuzawa T (1991) The duality of language-like skill in a chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes). In Ehara, A., Kimura, T., Takenaka, O., and Iwamoto, M. (Eds.), "Primatology today". Elsevier: Amsterdam, 317-320.
  • Matsuzawa T (1990) Spontaneous sorting in human and chimpanzee. In Parker, S. and Gibson, K. (Eds.), "Language and intelligence in monkeys and apes: Comparative developmental perspectives". Cambridge University Press, 451-468.
  • Matsuzawa T (1989) Spontaneous pattern construction in a chimpanzee. In Heltne, P. and Marquardt, L. (Eds.), "Understanding chimpanzees". Harvard University Press, 252-265.
  • Matsuzawa T, Asano, T., Kubota, K., & Murofushi, K. (1986) Acquisition and Generalization of numerical labeling by a chimpanzee. In D.M.Taub and F.A.,King (Eds.), "Current perspectives in primate social dynamics". Van Nostrand Reinhold: New York.

Contact

Section of Language and Intelligence,
Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University,
41-2, Kanrin, Inuyama, Aichi, 484-8506, Japan
Fax: +81-568-62-2428
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