Animal cognition is the name given to the study of the mental capacities of non-human animals. It has developed out of comparative psychology, including the study of animal conditioning and learning, but has also been strongly influenced by research in ethology, behavioral ecology, and evolutionary psychology. The alternative name cognitive ethology is therefore sometimes used; much of what used to be considered under the title of animal intelligence is now thought of under this heading.
Research in animal cognition mostly concerns mammals, especially primates, cetaceans, and elephants, as well as dogs, cats, and rodents. However, research also extends to non-mammalian vertebrates such as birds including parrots, corvids, and pigeons, as well as lizards, snakes, and fish, even to invertebrates such as cephalopods, spiders, and insects.
Read more about Animal Cognition: Methods, Research Questions, Cognitive Faculty By Species
Famous quotes containing the words animal and/or cognition:
“The African race evidently are made to excel in that department which lies between the sensuousness and the intellectual—what we call the elegant arts. These require rich and abundant animal nature, such as they possess; and if ever they become highly civilised, they will excel in music, dancing and elocution.”
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“There can be no knowledge without emotion. We may be aware of a truth, yet until we have felt its force, it is not ours. To the cognition of the brain must be added the experience of the soul.”
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