Spring 2027

Primate Psychology: Insights Into Human Behavior

Explores the psychology and biology of primates to provide insights into human behavior and cognition, covering development, learning, memory, evolution of the brain, social behavior, and ethics.

no offering record for this termCredits unavailable
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 No instructors listed

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Christopher Coe

Under Christopher Coe, exams were 130 multiple-choice questions focused on memorization, and students reported the workload was not a ton.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Understand more than 650+ species that comprise the Order Primates.

  • Understand how studying nonhuman primates has helped to inform our knowledge about human behavior and physiology, psychological processes, and environmental factors that influence both other animals and us.

  • Apply different levels of analysis (proximate, developmental, evolutionary, and phylogenetic) when asking and answering questions about primates and to understand that these levels of analysis offer complementary insights into primate psychology

  • Identify how variation in experience, environments, and development shape individual variation within and across primate species.

  • Critically evaluate empirical evidence about primate psychological processes as presented in popular media and scientific research articles.

  • Recognize the various methods used to study primates in captive and natural settings, including behavioral, cognitive, physiological, and neuroscience methods.

  • Reflect on ethical and animal welfare considerations for nonhuman primates across the settings in which they live.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

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average GPA
letter grades
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All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

PSYCH 202,ZOOLOGY/​BIOLOGY 101,ZOOLOGY/​BIOLOGY/​BOTANY 151, or (BIOCORE 381 and 382)

PSYCH 450 used by

“Used by” includes alternatives; linked courses may have other requirements. This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree

Professors

Spring 2027

No instructors recorded for this selection.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

ALLYSON BENNETT is recorded teaching in Spring 2023, Spring 2024. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

CHRISTOPHER L COE is recorded teaching in Spring 2007, Spring 2008, Spring 2009, Spring 2010, Spring 2011, Spring 2012, Spring 2013, Spring 2014, Spring 2015, Spring 2016, Spring 2017, Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2020. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

JULIA GREENBERG is recorded teaching in Spring 2023, Spring 2024. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections.

Meeting source records

No records available.

Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Christopher Coe

Christopher Coe taught this primate-focused course with passionate, funny lectures that students described as fun.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2020: 3.55 GPA, 76.7% A/AB (n=266 letter grades); Spring 2023: 3.17 GPA, 55.0% A/AB (n=129 letter grades); Spring 2024: 3.35 GPA, 62.5% A/AB (n=112 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Christopher Coe

Under Christopher Coe, exams were 130 multiple-choice questions focused on memorization, and students reported the workload was not a ton.

Past student reviews · Allyson Bennett, Julia Greenberg

Students of Allyson Bennett and Julia Greenberg found lectures slow, and noted that exam content was never clearly defined.

Topics

  • Development, learning, memory, evolution of the brain, spatial navigation, tool-use, social behavior, parental behavior, communication, self-recognition, theory of mind, ethical issues, and conservation.

Skills

  • Applying proximate, developmental, evolutionary, and phylogenetic levels of analysis to primate psychology.
  • Critically evaluating empirical evidence about primate psychological processes in media and research articles.
  • Reflecting on ethical and animal welfare considerations for nonhuman primates.

Grades

Latest available · Spring 2024— not enough history to project Spring 2027.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Spring 2024

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2024 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1238 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

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Selected offering source records

No offering records for the selected term.

Raw records 
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Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
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Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
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Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

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Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "c1c642f2b300a51b3e0eb551e3a8737a20f44914da2c89d53f0d40651708e72e",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}