DOCSLIB.ORG

What Can Developmental and Comparative Cognitive Neuroscience Tell Us About the Adult Human Brain? Michael L Platt and Elizabeth S Spelke

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
What Can Developmental and Comparative Cognitive Neuroscience Tell Us About the Adult Human Brain? Michael L Platt and Elizabeth S Spelke Available online at www.sciencedirect.com What can developmental and comparative cognitive neuroscience tell us about the adult human brain? Michael L Platt and Elizabeth S Spelke Current Opinion in Neurobiology 2009, 19:1–5 0959-4388/$ – see front matter Published by Elsevier Ltd. DOI 10.1016/j.conb.2009.06.002 Michael L Platt Introduction Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke An oft-repeated dictum in biology holds that ontogeny recapitulates phy- University, United States logeny. Despite failures of Haeckl’s principle to predict in strict form the e-mail: [email protected] morphological, behavioral, or cognitive stages an organism passes through Michael Platt is an associate during development, the underlying sentiment continues to inform con- temporary approaches to mind and brain. For example, studies of behavior professor of Neurobiology and and cognition in developing humans provide an anchor for understanding Evolutionary Anthropology at Duke both intellectual primitives and the nature of representation in animal University, and Director of the minds. Conversely, comparative studies of cognition in animals serve to Center for Cognitive Neuroscience. address seemingly intractable questions concerning the roles of innate His research focuses on the capacities, culture, and language in the development of mature human neuroethology and neuroeconomics cognition. And both comparative and developmental studies shed light on of human and nonhuman primate the neural mechanisms that subserve the most complex and distinctive behavior and cognition. Michael cognitive abilities of adult humans, such as the capacity for abstract thought. received his BA from Yale and his PhD from the University of Both developmental and comparative approaches to cognition provide Pennsylvania, both in biological uniquely powerful data that can inform the search for homologies in brain anthropology, and was a post- and mind. Homologous features of cognition are defined as those psycho- doctoral fellow in neuroscience at logical and neurobiological traits that evolved in the common ancestor of New York University. related phyletic groups that emerge from shared developmental pathways and serve closely related behavioral functions. Nothing in this definition Elizabeth S Spelke requires that such traits emerge early in development: the developmental Department of Psychology, Harvard pathways that produce homologous patterns of sexual or parental behavior, University, United States for example, may be long. Nevertheless, a central discovery of develop- e-mail: [email protected] mental and comparative research on cognitive neuroscience, over the past decades, is that the cognitive traits that humans share with other animals Elizabeth Spelke is The Marshall L. tend to emerge early in human development. This conclusion stems from Berkman Professor of Psychology research probing the behavioral and neurobiological signatures of specific at Harvard University. Her cognitive abilities in human children and nonhuman animals. laboratory focuses on the sources of uniquely human cognitive Consider, for example, the sense of number. Even in adults, sensitivity to capacities, including the capacity numerosity – a fuzzy sense of number – follows psychophysical principles for formal mathematics, the that characterize the number sense in preverbal infants and animals. Most capacity for constructing and using importantly, the number sense follows Weber’s Law in that sensitivity symbolic representations such as improves with numerical distance and declines with numerical magnitude, maps, the capacity for developing as if the underlying representation of numerosity (at least for collections of comprehensive taxonomies of objects or events greater than 2 or 3) were encoded on a ratio scale (i.e. objects, and the capacity for logarithmically). Moreover, nonhuman animals, human infants, and human reasoning about other humans and adults represent number abstractly, detecting the common cardinal values of their social groups. visuo-spatial arrays of objects and temporal sequences of sounds or actions [1–3,18]. And finally, numerical representations enter into arithmetic oper- ations of ordering, addition, and subtraction for animals, infants, and adults [4–6,19,20]. www.sciencedirect.com Current Opinion in Neurobiology 2009, 19:1–5 2 Signalling mechanisms These three behavioral signatures of number sense are that will be necessary to adjudicate current hypotheses joined by evidence of common brain mechanisms for regarding cognitive homologies and differences in these representing number in nonhuman animals, human chil- domains. dren, and adults. Brain imaging studies show activation of parietal cortex in both adult humans and children when The evidence they make numerical discriminations [17,21], and Our reviews begin with a paper by Passingham who neurons in the fundus of the intraparietal sulcus in evaluates the evidence for and against the macaque macaque monkeys show approximately logarithmic tun- monkey as a model for human brain function. The author ing functions for numerosity [7]. In both types of exper- notes that although macaques are often used in neuro- iments, responses to number are independent of sensory biological studies to understand the way the human brain modality and stimulus format, providing evidence for works, there are important differences in both cognition abstract numerical representations [8]. And these and brain structure between the two species. Although quantity representations are transformed by the oper- these differences might appear to limit the strong com- ations of numerical comparison and arithmetic. parisons that can be drawn, Passingham argues that a parallel approach using brain imaging in humans and The above studies also begin to shed light on the neural single neuron recordings in monkeys performing similar, mechanisms by which abstract concepts of number are if not identical, tasks provides an important means for formed and used. Studies of humans and monkeys impli- assessing functional homology in brain and cognition. cate the intraparietal sulcus as an important locus of numerical processing. Yet this cannot be the whole story, Our focus next turns to the cognitive and neural mech- since a wide array of animals, including birds, fish, and anisms underlying spatial cognition in adult humans, insects, without a cerebral cortex – let alone a parietal lobe children, and animals. Landau and Lakusta review evi- – can discriminate number and do so in a way that obeys dence that reorienting behavior in humans and animals Weber’s Law (e.g. [9–11]). Number is such a fundamental relies on geometric representations of spatial layout, and, aspect of the world that its core representation may moreover, that this information is encapsulated in a way depend on mechanisms that evolved early in the history consistent with a cognitive module (cf. [12]). The authors of animal life: mechanisms whose operation was amplified show that although infants as young as 18 months use by the higher brain systems that emerged later in evol- geometry to reorient, this capacity changes dramatically ution. Further studies of the underlying neurobiological over development by incorporating non-geometric infor- mechanisms of numerical representation will be instru- mation. The authors argue that the uniquely human mental in reconstructing this evolutionary history and faculty of language provides a tool that strengthens the enriching understanding of how the human brain integration of geometric and non-geometric information, represents number abstractly. thus enabling the uniquely human construction of maps of the environment. Complementing this review, Vallor- The goal of this issue is to evaluate critically the case for tigara reviews recent work on controlled rearing studies in cognitive homology in five domains considered funda- animals to study the role of experience in the use of mental to adult human cognition. Specifically, we have geometric information for navigation. He finds that, at invited reviews of the literature on cognitive develop- least in domestic chicks, experience with specific geo- ment, comparative cognition, and where these studies metries contributes little to the ability to learn and are sufficiently advanced, neural mechanism, by leading remember geometric information in other environments. experts in their respective fields. We focus on the prin- He concludes that basic features of natural geometry are ciples governing spatial cognition, tool use and physical largely innate, but in agreement with Landau and cognition, social cognition, economic decision making, Lakusta allows that language and other types of non- and numerical thinking as a precursor for symbolic geometric experience influence the development of representation. On balance, these reviews favor the hy- uniquely human forms of spatial knowledge. pothesis that both animals and preverbal children are endowed with biological primitives of adult human cog- These reviews exemplify how understanding of spatial nition in all these domains. Yet, uncertainties remain cognition has advanced through synergistic comparative regarding the specific mechanisms that mediate these and developmental studies. Studies of reorientation in processes. Further, some of these reviews begin to shed human adults and children were based directly on pioneer- light on unique features of cognition in humans and in ing studies of reorientation in rodents [13,14]. The system other species that have confronted
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Current Perspectives in Cognitive Processing by Domesticated Animals
    EDITORIAL published: 23 August 2021 doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.736717 Editorial: Current Perspectives in Cognitive Processing by Domesticated Animals Katherine Bruce 1†, David A. Leavens 2† and Sarah T. Boysen 3,4*† 1 Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Wilmington, Wilmington, NC, United States, 2 School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Brighton, United Kingdom, 3 Center for Animal Welfare Science, Department of Pathobiology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, United States, 4 Comparative Cognition Project, Sunbury, OH, United States Keywords: animal cognition, animals, non-human cognition, cognitive processing, behavior Editorial on the Research Topic Current Perspectives in Cognitive Processing by Domesticated Animals Recently, studies of cognitive processing in domestic animals, especially dogs, seem to have increased exponentially, and research with more typical laboratory animals, such as rats, pigeons, and non-human primates seems to be declining. Funding for behavioral and/or cognitive work with animals has always been challenging, and as costs for animal housing, care, and per diems have increased significantly in the past two decades, researchers have looked to other subject pools that do not require major funding for conducting relevant and important studies that can contribute significantly to our field. Thus, companion animals, notably dogs, have become an important Edited and reviewed by: resource for studies of animal cognition, as well as other accessible and less-studied species like Watanabe Shigeru, goats, horses, and pigs, among others. The Research Topic, entitled “Current Perspectives in Keio University, Japan Cognitive Processing in Domestic Animals,” included 10 papers covering a range of topics and *Correspondence: species, with summaries of each paper provided here.
    [Show full text]
  • Minds Without Spines: Evolutionarily Inclusive Animal Ethics
    Animal Sentience 2020.329: Mikhalevich & Powell on Invertebrate Minds Call for Commentary: Animal Sentience publishes Open Peer Commentary on all accepted target articles. Target articles are peer-reviewed. Commentaries are editorially reviewed. There are submitted commentaries as well as invited commentaries. Commentaries appear as soon as they have been reviewed, revised and accepted. Target article authors may respond to their commentaries individually or in a joint response to multiple commentaries. INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMMENTATORS Minds without spines: Evolutionarily inclusive animal ethics Irina Mikhalevich Department of Philosophy, Rochester Institute of Technology Russell Powell Department of Philosophy, Boston University Abstract: Invertebrate animals are frequently lumped into a single category and denied welfare protections despite their considerable cognitive, behavioral, and evolutionary diversity. Some ethical and policy inroads have been made for cephalopod molluscs and crustaceans, but the vast majority of arthropods, including the insects, remain excluded from moral consideration. We argue that this exclusion is unwarranted given the existing evidence. Anachronistic readings of evolution, which view invertebrates as lower in the scala naturae, continue to influence public policy and common morality. The assumption that small brains are unlikely to support cognition or sentience likewise persists, despite growing evidence that arthropods have converged on cognitive functions comparable to those found in vertebrates. The exclusion of invertebrates is also motivated by cognitive-affective biases that covertly influence moral judgment, as well as a flawed balancing of scientific uncertainty against moral risk. All these factors shape moral attitudes toward basal vertebrates too, but they are particularly acute in the arthropod context. Moral consistency dictates that the same standards of evidence and risk management that justify policy protections for vertebrates also support extending moral consideration to certain invertebrates.
    [Show full text]
  • Benvenuti, Anne (2017) Evolutionary Continuity. Animal Sentience 20(4) DOI: 10.51291/2377-7478.1287
    Benvenuti, Anne (2017) Evolutionary continuity. Animal Sentience 20(4) DOI: 10.51291/2377-7478.1287 This article has appeared in the journal Animal Sentience, a peer-reviewed journal on animal cognition and feeling. It has been made open access, free for all, by WellBeing International and deposited in the WBI Studies Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Animal Sentience 2017.092: Benvenuti on Peña-Guzmán on Animal Suicide Evolutionary continuity Commentary on Peña-Guzmán on Animal Suicide Anne Benvenuti University of Winchester Abstract: The principle of evolutionary continuity states that all animal capacities and behaviors exist — with variations in degree — in continuity with other species. Rather than assuming discontinuity, we should ask why any behavior observed in humans would not be found in at least some other sentient animals under similar conditions. In the case of suicide, the more pertinent issue might be the ethical one: our human responsibility for creating conditions under which other animals might deliberately seek to end their own lives. Keywords: evolutionary continuity, animal behavior, animal consciousness, animal grief, animal suicide Anne Benvenuti is the author of Spirit Unleashed: Reimagining Human-Animal Relations. An instructor of critical thinking, she works at the intersections of evolutionary biology, psychology, neuroscience, and philosophy. She is currently focused on articulating the implications of evolutionary continuity for human relations with nonhuman animals. www.annebenvenuti.com Peña-Guzmán (2017) asks whether animals are capable of suicide, citing established philosophical notions of forethought and intention in the definition of suicide. The idea is that one must form the intention intellectually and then choose freely and deliberately to bring about one’s own death.
    [Show full text]
  • Comparative Cognition & Behavior Reviews
    DOI: 10.3819/ccbr.2015.100004 Volume 10, 2015 Comparative Cognition & Behavior Reviews Experimental Divergences in the Visual Cognition of Birds and Mammals Muhammad A. J. Qadri & Robert G. Cook Department of Psychology, Tufts University The comparative analysis of visual cognition across classes of animals yields important information regarding underlying cognitive and neural mechanisms involved with this foundational aspect of behavior. Birds, and pigeons specifically, have been an important source and model for this comparison, especially in relation to mammals. During these investigations, an extensive number of experiments have found divergent results in how pigeons and humans process visual information. Four areas of these divergences are collected, reviewed, and analyzed. We examine the potential contribution and limitations of experimental, spatial, and attentional factors in the interpretation of these findings and their implications for mechanisms of visual cognition in birds and mammals. Recommendations are made to help advance these comparisons in service of understanding the general principles by which different classes and species generate representations of the visual world. Keywords: Pigeons; Humans; Visual cognition; Spatial attention; Perceptual grouping; Perceptual completion; Visual illusions Visual cognition is critical to the behavior of complex 1962; Lettvin, Maturana, McCulloch, & Pitts, 1959; Reich- animals. It generates the working internal cognitive repre- ardt, 1987). An appreciation of the entire spectrum of visu- sentations of the external world that guide action, orien- ally driven cognitive systems and how vision is imple- tation, and navigation. The extensive study of the human mented in different nervous systems is key to a complete animal has dominated the theoretical and empirical inves- and general understanding of the evolution, operations, tigations of vision and visual cognition (Palmer, 1999).
    [Show full text]
  • Animal Consciousness
    The Distribution and Evolution of Animal Consciousness By Joseph Vitti Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts with Honors in Philosophy Harvard University March 26, 2010 1 © Joseph Vitti 2010 Contents Chapter One Preliminaries of Animal Consciousness . 3 Chapter Two Towards a Function of Consciousness: Evolutionary Considerations and Global Workspace Theory . 13 Chapter Three From the Theoretical to the Empirical: The Broadcast Hypothesis, Modularity, and Associative Learning . 27 Chapter Four Evidence of Associative Capacities and Consciousness Across the Animal Kingdom . 35 Chapter Five Animal Consciousness and Ethics . 50 References . 59 2 © Joseph Vitti 2010 CHAPTER 1 Preliminaries of Animal Consciousness Which nonhuman animals (hereafter: animals) are conscious? Many people distinguish first between primary consciousness – which includes awareness of percepts, sensations, immediate thoughts and so on – and higher-order consciousness – which refers to awareness of one's primary awareness, or “thought about thought” (Edelman, 2003). A number of experimental paradigms have been devised in recent years to identify higher-order consciousness in animals (particularly primates, cetaceans, and birds), but the study of primary consciousness is somewhat more elusive. In what follows, I will use the term 'consciousness' to refer to primary consciousness. What does it mean to be a conscious animal? One oft-cited definition is the one Nagel invoked when he asked what it is like to be a bat (1974). An organism or a mental process can be said to be conscious if there is something that it is like to be that organism or to be undergoing that process; essential to consciousness is its phenomenal, experiential, or qualitative feel.
    [Show full text]
  • 26Th Annual International Conference on Comparative Cognition
    26th Annual International Conference on Comparative Cognition Sponsored by the Comparative Cognition Society April 10th to 13th, 2019 Radisson Hotel Melbourne Beach, Florida President Steve Fountain Conference Organizers Kent Bodily, Lauren Guillette Secretary Ken Leising Treasurer Mike Brown Program Committee Lauren Guillette (Chair), Kent Bodily, Jonathon Crystal, Jeffrey Katz, Suzanne MacDonald, W. David Stahlman Team CO3 Erin Baum, Katherine Dyer, Vincent Edwards, Claire Jackman, Jeremy Jasmer, Jessica Sharp, Tanya Shoot, Caroline Strang Awards Committee David Brodbeck (Chair), Bob Cook, Marisa Hoeschele, Olga Lazareva, Reggie Gazes, Chris Sturdy Member-at-Large Noam Miller Past Presidents Olga Lazareva , Debbie Kelly, Mike Brown, Bob Cook, Jonathon Crystal, Jeffrey Katz, Suzanne MacDonald, Marcia Spetch, Ed Wasserman, Ron Weisman, Tom Zentall 1 | P a g e CO3 2019 Abstracts & Presenter Index Contents Wednesday Talks .......................................................................................................................................... 2 Thursday Talks.............................................................................................................................................. 7 Friday Talks ................................................................................................................................................ 15 Saturday Talks ............................................................................................................................................ 19 Thursday
    [Show full text]
  • Clever Animals and Killjoy Explanations in Comparative Psychology
    TICS-903; No. of Pages 5 Opinion Clever animals and killjoy explanations in comparative psychology Sara J. Shettleworth Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, 100 St George Street, room 4020, Toronto, Ontario M5R 2R7, Canada From the process of organic evolution to the analysis of Justification for valuing anthropomorphic explanations insect societies as self-organizing systems, biology is full of animal behavior can be traced to Darwin. Nowadays of awe-inspiring examples of complexity arising from support for them is sometimes based on limited under- simplicity. Yet in the contemporary study of animal standing of the alternatives offered by contemporary cognition, demonstrations that complex human-like experimental psychology and ethology and on outdated behavior arises from simple mechanisms rather than folk psychology. Contemporary human social and cognitive from ‘higher’ processes, such as insight or theory of psychology is revealing that folk psychology is often mis- mind, are often seen as uninteresting and ‘killjoy’, leading, and the very sorts of simple, unconscious mech- almost a denial of mental continuity between other anisms that explain much animal behavior are more species and humans. At the same time, however, important in human behavior than intuition suggests. research elsewhere in psychology increasingly reveals Consistent with this trend, comparative psychologists an unexpected role in human behavior for simple, uncon- are beginning to appreciate that sweeping anthropo- scious and sometimes irrational processes shared by morphic questions such as ‘Do animals have insight?’ other animals. Greater appreciation of such mechanisms (Box 1) or ‘Do animals count?’ are best answered by dis- in nonhuman species would contribute to a deeper, secting broad abilities into elements, some of which are more truly comparative psychology.
    [Show full text]
  • 24Th Annual International Conference on Comparative Cognition
    24th Annual International Conference on Comparative Cognition Sponsored by the Comparative Cognition Society April 19th to 22nd, 2017 Radisson Hotel Melbourne Beach, Florida CO3 - 2017 Program Summary Time Page Wednesday Welcome Reception and Check-In 3:30 2 Opening Remarks – Olga Lazareva, CCS President 7:00 2 Canine Cognition 7:05 2 Temporal Processing 8:04 3 Communication 8:32 4 Numerosity 9:17 5 Thursday CO3 Mentoring Program – Manatee Room 10:30 6 Ron Weisman Outstanding Student Presentation Competition 12:00 7 Choice 12:35 8 Cognitive Processes I 1:41 9 Serial Processes 2:23 10 Cognitive Processes II 3:35 11 Symposium in Honor of Stan Kuczaj 4:36 13 Poster Session I 8:30-11:00 27 Friday Workshop: Multilevel Modeling for Repeated Measures Analysis – Michael Young 9:00-11:00 14 Social Learning I 12:00 15 Spatial Cognition 1:29 16 Song 1:57 17 Memory 2:16 18 In Honor of the Contributions of Ralph Miller 3:30 18 Master Lecture: A Taxonomy of Forgetting and the Fates of Forgotten Memories – Ralph Miller 6:00 20 Group Photo Shoot 7:00 Banquet 7:30 Saturday Associative Learning 7:30 21 Social Learning II 8:40 22 Perception 9:25 23 Cognitive Processes III 10:28 24 Closing Remarks – Olga Lazareva, CCS President 11:31 25 Comparative Cognition Society Business Meeting 8:00 Poster Session II 8:30-11:00 36 PROGRAM NOTE Five-minute talks are designated by a Talk Number with a grey background. They are five minutes in duration followed by two minutes for discussion.
    [Show full text]
  • Canine Emotions As Seen Through Human Social Cognition
    Kujala, Miiamaaria V. (2017) Canine emotions as seen through human social cognition. Animal Sentience 14(1) DOI: 10.51291/2377-7478.1114 This article has appeared in the journal Animal Sentience, a peer-reviewed journal on animal cognition and feeling. It has been made open access, free for all, by WellBeing International and deposited in the WBI Studies Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Animal Sentience 2017.013: Kujala on Canine Emotions CallCall for forCommentary: Commentary: Animal Animal Sentience Sentience publishes publishes Open OpenPeer CommentaryPeer Commentary on all acceptedon all accepted target articles.target articles. Target Targetarticles articles are peer are-reviewed. peer-reviewed. Commentaries Commentaries are editorially are editorially reviewed. reviewed. There are There submittedare submitted commentaries commentaries as well as wellas invited as invited commentaries. commentaries. Commentaries Commentaries appear appear as soon as as soon they as havethey beenhave reviewed,been reviewed, revised revised and accepted. and accepted. Target article Target authors article may authors respond may to respond their to their commentaries individually or in a joint response to multiple commentaries. Instructions:Instructions: http://animalstudiesrepository.org/animsent/guidel http://animalstudiesrepository.org/animsent/guidelines.htmlines.html Canine emotions as seen through human social cognition Miiamaaria V. Kujala Department of Equine and Small Animal Medicine, University of Helsinki, Finland Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, Aalto University, Finland Abstract: It is not possible to demonstrate that dogs (Canis familiaris) feel emotions, but the same is true for all other species, including our own. The issue must therefore be approached indirectly, using premises similar to those used with humans.
    [Show full text]
  • Old and New Approaches to Animal Cognition: There Is Not “One Cognition”
    Journal of Intelligence Review Old and New Approaches to Animal Cognition: There Is Not “One Cognition” Juliane Bräuer 1,2,*, Daniel Hanus 3, Simone Pika 4, Russell Gray 1 and Natalie Uomini 1 1 Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Kahlaische Strasse 10, 07745 Jena, Germany; [email protected] (R.G.); [email protected] (N.U.) 2 Department of General Psychology, Friedrich-Schiller-University, Am Steiger 3, 07743 Jena, Germany 3 Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany; [email protected] 4 Institute of Cognitive Science, Comparative BioCognition, University of Osnabrück, Artilleriestrasse 34, 49076 Osnabrück, Germany; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected] Received: 26 March 2020; Accepted: 22 June 2020; Published: 2 July 2020 Abstract: Using the comparative approach, researchers draw inferences about the evolution of cognition. Psychologists have postulated several hypotheses to explain why certain species are cognitively more flexible than others, and these hypotheses assume that certain cognitive skills are linked together to create a generally “smart” species. However, empirical findings suggest that several animal species are highly specialized, showing exceptional skills in single cognitive domains while performing poorly in others. Although some cognitive skills may indeed overlap, we cannot a priori assume that they do across species. We argue that the term “cognition” has often been used by applying an anthropocentric viewpoint rather than a biocentric one. As a result, researchers tend to overrate cognitive skills that are human-like and assume that certain skills cluster together in other animals as they do in our own species.
    [Show full text]
  • The Value of Research in Comparative Cognition
    2018, 31 Charles I. Abramson Special Issue Editor Peer-reviewed The Value of Research in Comparative Cognition Thomas R. Zentall University of Kentucky, U.S.A. Most research in the field of comparative cognition has focused on the degree to which cognitive phenomena that have been reported in humans, especially children, can also be demonstrated in other animals. The value of such comparative research has not only been the finding that other animals show behavior that is qualitatively similar to that of humans but because the comparative approach calls for the careful control of variables often confounded with the mechanisms being tested, the comparative approach has identified procedures that may also improve the design of research with humans. The comparative approach has also been used to study the degree to which other animals demonstrate human biases and suboptimal behavior (e.g., commercial gambling). When applied to this field of research, the comparative approach has generally taken the position that human biases thought to be established by complex social and societal mechanisms (e.g., social reinforcement and entertainment) may be more parsimoniously accounted for by simpler mechanisms (i.e., conditioned reinforcement and positive contrast). When explained in terms of these mechanisms, the results have implications for explaining in simpler and more general terms the results of similar research with humans. Thus, comparative psychology tells us not only about the similarities and possible differences in behavior among species but it also may have implications for our understanding of similar behavior in humans. Comparative cognition is an area of comparative psychology that deals with the relation between the learning of humans and other animals (Beran, Parrish, Perdue, & Washburn, 2014).
    [Show full text]
  • Cognition, Movement and Morality
    Zentall, Thomas R. (2020) Cognition, movement and morality. Animal Sentience 29(11) DOI: 10.51291/2377-7478.1594 This article has appeared in the journal Animal Sentience, a peer-reviewed journal on animal cognition and feeling. It has been made open access, free for all, by WellBeing International and deposited in the WBI Studies Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Animal Sentience 2020.340: Zentall on Mikhalevich & Powell on Invertebrate Minds Cognition, movement and morality Commentary on Mikhalevich & Powell on Invertebrate Minds Thomas R. Zentall Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky Abstract: Each of the criteria for determining which should be given moral standing has its shortcomings. The criterion of cognitive is especially weak. That research on comparative cognition may default to the simplest account is not grounds for abandoning this scientific practice. Instead, we should dissociate scientific evidence of cognitive ability from moral obligation. In addition to the criteria suggested by Mikhalevich & Powell for including species in welfare protections, I would suggest a very old one — the ability to physically move. Thomas R. Zentall, University of Kentucky Research Professor, is a comparative cognitive psychologist who studies the relation between the behavior of humans and other animals in gambling, imitation, concept learning, transitive inference, and object permanence. Website We use several measures to make distinctions among species and to decide which ones we should care about and even protect. The cognitive ability of many vertebrates has often been emphasized, but there is also growing evidence of remarkable intelligence in bees (Chittka & Thomson 2001; von Frisch 1967).
    [Show full text]