The ?Cognitive Map? (Tolman, 1948) is a key notion in spatial processing studies. It refers to high level spatial representations. Although widely used, this term remains ambiguous. The aim of this book is two-fold: (1) to examine the most noteworthy studies (in laboratory settings) which have contributed during the last five decades to a better understanding of animal spatial representations; (2) to provide some hints for future research.Spatial tests designed by psychologists are useful tools for understanding the brain substrates of spatial memory. Conversely, brain treatments allow us to analyse the complex psychological mechanisms underlying spatial orientation. Within this interdisciplinary context, it is extremely important to take stock of a notion used (and sometimes misused) in cognitive neurosciences.

Animal Cognition presents a lucid and comprehensive overview of cognitive processes in animals--bees and wasps, cats and dogs, dolphins and sea otters, pigeons, titmice, and chimpanzees--and offers a novel discussion of the ways in which Piagetian concepts may be used to develop models for the study of animal cognition.

Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Study Institute, La-Baume-les-Aix (Aix-en-Provence), France, June 27-July 7, 1985

Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Study Institute, La-Baume-les-Aix (Aix-en-Provence), France, June 27-July 7, 1985

How do animals perceive the world, learn, remember, search for food or mates, communicate, and find their way around? Do any nonhuman animals count, imitate one another, use a language, or have a culture? What are the uses of cognition in nature and how might it have evolved? What is the current status of Darwin's claim that other species share the same "mental powers" as humans, but to different degrees? In this completely revised second edition of Cognition, Evolution, and Behavior, Sara Shettleworth addresses these questions, among others, by integrating findings from psychology, behavioral ecology, and ethology in a unique and wide-ranging synthesis of theory and research on animal cognition, in the broadest sense--from species-specific adaptations of vision in fish and associative learning in rats to discussions of theory of mind in chimpanzees, dogs, and ravens. She reviews the latest research on topics such as episodic memory, metacognition, and cooperation and other-regarding behavior in animals, as well as recent theories about what makes human cognition unique. In every part of this new edition, Shettleworth incorporates findings and theoretical approaches that have emerged since the first edition was published in 1998. The chapters are now organized into three sections: Fundamental Mechanisms (perception, learning, categorization, memory), Physical Cognition (space, time, number, physical causation), and Social Cognition (social knowledge, social learning, communication). Shettleworth has also added new chapters on evolution and the brain and on numerical cognition, and a new chapter on physical causation that integrates theories of instrumental behavior with discussions of foraging, planning, and tool using.

This comprehensive volume illustrates why an understanding of animal intelligence is essential in disclosing the nature of minds other than our own making it a fascinating volume for anyone curious about the state of modern comparative cognition.

The study of animal cognition has undergone enormous growth in the last two decades. In the early part of the 20th century, the work was conducted primarily by psychologists who studied animal behavior in the laboratory as a model of human cognition. By the middle of the century, ethological studies of animal behavior in the natural environment revealed an amazing array of cognitive abilities in different species, worthy of study in their own right. In many cases, scientists in these two disciplines were investigating the same process (e.g., learning, navigation, communication) from very different perspectives. Psychologists tended to focus on developmental or mechanistic explanations, whereas ethologists and behavioral ecologists emphasised adaptive or functional ones. Eventually, it became clear that the two fields are complementary with a full description of any cognitive process, depending on both proximate and ultimate explanations. This text builds on the tradition of combining data from laboratory and field studies of animal behavior as a means of understanding the evolution and function of cognition. In keeping with contemporary terminology, cognition refers to a wide range of processes from modification of simple reflexes to abstract concept learning to social interactions to the expression of emotions, such as guilt. These are examined throughout the text in animal groups ranging from insects to great apes. A general theme across chapters is that the evolution of behavioral patterns is adaptive, thereby reflected in underlying neural structures. Many of the authors go on to examine the adaptive significance of a behavior in relation to a species ecological history in order to develop theories of cognitive evolution. These issues are becoming increasingly important in a world with rapidly changing environments to which all animals, including humans, must adjust. A primary goal of this volume is to introduce the exciting field of animal cognition to a new group of young scientists. The editor also hopes to encourage experienced researchers to expand their ideas of what constitutes animal cognition and how it can be studied in the future. From the editors own reading, one area of potential growth is the development of more formal models of cognition to guide quantitative predictions of behavior. Although no chapter focuses exclusively on humans, readers should have no difficulty extrapolating research findings and theories from other species to those of our own. Differences are clearly based on degree, not kind.