First published in 1997, Primate Cognition was a groundbreaking and highly successful book that set the agenda for a new field of study. Borrowing theoretical constructs and paradigms from human cognitive science and developmental psychology, the book reviewed all of the empirical research existing at that time concerning both physical cognition (space and objects, tools and causality, features and categories, and quantities) as well as social cognition (social knowledge and interaction, social strategies and communication, social learning and culture, and theory of mind).

Since that time research on primate cognition has burgeoned, and this all-new second edition mainly focuses on research conducted after 1997. It is divided into two volumes, the current volume on Primate Social Cognition and a forthcoming volume on Primate Physical Cognition. Existing areas of research are updated with the latest findings, and there are several areas of research that for all practical purposes did not exist at the time of the first edition, for example, on prosocial behavior, behavior in social dilemmas, and metacognition. There is also a chapter on theories of primate social cognition and an account of how the human primate fits into the overall evolutionary picture. This second edition of Primate Cognition provides an up-to-date survey of the field.