The Cognitive Animal: Empirical and Theoretical Perspectives on Animal Cognition

The fifty-seven original essays in this book provide a comprehensiveoverview of the interdisciplinary field of animal cognition. The contributorsinclude cognitive ethologists, behavioral ecologists, experimental and developmentalpsychologists, behaviorists, philosophers, neuroscientists, computer scientists andmodelers, field biologists, and others. The diversity of approa

The fifty-seven original essays in this book provide a comprehensiveoverview of the interdisciplinary field of animal cognition. The contributorsinclude cognitive ethologists, behavioral ecologists, experimental and developmentalpsychologists, behaviorists, philosophers, neuroscientists, computer scientists andmodelers, field biologists, and others. The diversity of approaches is bothphilosophical and methodological, with contributors demonstrating various degrees ofacceptance or disdain for such terms as "consciousness" and varying degrees ofconcern for laboratory experimentation versus naturalistic research. In addition toprimates, particularly the nonhuman great apes, the animals discussed includeantelopes, bees, dogs, dolphins, earthworms, fish, hyenas, parrots, prairie dogs, rats, ravens, sea lions, snakes, spiders, and squirrels.The topics include (but arenot limited to) definitions of cognition, the role of anecdotes in the study ofanimal cognition, anthropomorphism, attention, perception, learning, memory, thinking, consciousness, intentionality, communication, planning, play, aggression, dominance, predation, recognition, assessment of self and others, social knowledge, empathy, conflict resolution, reproduction, parent-young interactions andcaregiving, ecology, evolution, kin selection, and neuroethology.