Comparative Cognition

Experimental Explorations of Animal Intelligence

Edward A Wasserman and Thomas R Zentall

Comparative Cognition

Experimental Explorations of Animal Intelligence

Edward A Wasserman and Thomas R Zentall

Description

In 1978, Hulse, Fowler, and Honig published Cognitive Processes in Animal Behavior, an edited volume that was a landmark in the scientific study of animal intelligence. It liberated interest in complex learning and cognition from the grasp of the rigid theoretical structures of behaviorism that had prevailed during the previous four decades, and as a result, the field of comparative cognition was born. At long last, the study of the cognitive capacities of animals other than humans emerged as a worthwhile scientific enterprise. No less rigorous than purely behavioristic investigations, studies of animal intelligence spanned such wide-ranging topics as perception, spatial learning and memory, timing and numerical competence, categorization and conceptualization, problem solving, rule learning, and creativity.

During the ensuing 25 years, the field of comparative cognition has thrived and grown, and public interest in it has risen to unprecedented levels. In their quest to understand the nature and mechanisms of intelligence, researchers have studied animals from bees to chimpanzees. Sessions on comparative cognition have become common at meetings of the major societies for psychology and neuroscience, and in fact, research in comparative cognition has increased so much that a separate society, the Comparative Cognition Society, has been formed to bring it together. This volume celebrates comparative cognition's first quarter century with a state-of-the-art collection of chapters covering the broad realm of the scientific study of animal intelligence. Comparative Cognition will be an invaluable resource for students and professional researchers in all areas of psychology and neuroscience.

Comparative Cognition

Experimental Explorations of Animal Intelligence

Edward A Wasserman and Thomas R Zentall

Introduction
Comparative Cognition: A Natural Science Approach to the Study of Animal Intelligence, Edward A. Wasserman and Thomas R. Zentall
I. Perception and Illusion
1. Grouping and Segmentation of Visual Objects by Baboons (Papio papio) and Humans (Homo sapiens), Joël Fagot and Isabelle Barbet
2. Seeing What Is Not There: Illusion, Completion, and Spatio-Temporal Boundary Formation in Comparative Perspective, Kazuo Fujita
3. The Cognitive Chicken: Visual and Spatial Cognition in a Non-Mammalian Brain, Giorgio Vallortigara
4. The Comparative Psychology of Absolute Pitch, Ronald G. Weisman, Mitchel T. Williams, Jerome S. Cohen, Milan G. Njegovan, and Christopher B. Sturdy
II. Attention and Search
5. Reaction-Time Explorations of Visual Perception, Attention, and Decision in Pigeons, Donald S. Blough
6. Selective Attention, Priming, and Foraging Behavior, Alan C. Kamil and Alan B. Bond
7. Attention as it is Manifest across Species, David A. Washburn and Lauren A. Taglialatela
III. Memory Processes
8. The Questions of Temporal and Spatial Displacement in Animal Cognition, William A. Roberts
9. Memory Processing, Anthony A. Wright
IV. Spatial Cognition
10. Arthropod Navigation: Ants, Bees, Crabs, Spiders Finding Their Way, Ken Cheng
11. Comparative Spatial Cognition: Processes in Landmark and Surface-Based Place Finding, Marcia L. Spetch and Debbie M. Kelly
12. Properties of Time-Place Learning, Donald M. Wilkie and Christina M. Thorpe
V. Timing and Counting
13. Behavioristic, Cognitive, Biological, and Quantitative Explanations of Timing, Russell M. Church
14. Sensitivity to Time: Implications for the Representation of Time, Jonathon D. Crystal
15. Time and Number: Learning, Psychophysics, Stimulus Control, and Retention, J. Gregor Fetterman
VI. Conceptualization and Categorization
16. Relational Discrimination Learning in Pigeons, Robert G. Cook and Edward A. Wasserman
17. A Modified Feature Theory as an Account of Pigeon Visual Categorization, Ludwig Huber and Ulrike Aust
18. Category Structure and Typicality Effects, Masako Jitsumori
19. Similarity and Difference in the Conceptual Systems of Primates: The Unobservability Hypothesis, Jennifer Vonk and Daniel J. Povinelli
20. Rule Learning, Memorization Strategies, Switching Attention Between Local and Global Levels of Perception, and Optimality in Avian Visual Categorization, Charles P. Shimp, Walter T. Herbranson, Thane Fremouw, Alyson L. Froehlich
21. Responses and Acquired Equivalence Classes, Peter J. Urcuioli
VII. Pattern Learning
22. Spatial Patterns: Behavioral Control and Cognitive Representation, Michael F. Brown
23. The Structure of Sequential Behavior, Stephen B. Fountain
24. Truly Random Operant Responding: Results & Reasons, Greg Jensen, Claire Miller, and Allen Neuringer
25. The Simultaneous Chain: A New Look at Serially Organized Behavior, Herbert S. Terrace
VIII. Tool Fabrication and Use
26. Cognitive Adaptations for Tool-Related Behaviour in New Caledonian Crows, Alex Kacelnik, Jackie Chappell, Ben Kenward, and Alex A. S. Weir
27. What is Challenging About Tool Use? The Capuchin's Perspective, Elisabetta Visalberghi and Dorothy Fragaszy
IX. Problem Solving and Behavioral Flexibility
28. Intelligences and Brains: An Evolutionary Bird's Eye View, Juan D. Delius and Julia A. M. Delius
29. How Do Dolphins Solve Problems?, Stan A. Kuczaj II and Rachel Thames Walker
30. The Comparative Cognition of Caching, S. R. de Kort, S. Tebbich, J. M. Dally, N. J. Emery, and N. S. Clayton
31. The Neural Basis of Cognitive Flexibility in Birds, Shigeru Watanabe
X. Social Cognition Processes
32. Chimpanzee Social Cognition in Early Life: Comparative-Developmental Perspective, Masaki Tomonaga, Masako Myowa-Yamakoshi, Yuu Mizuno, Sanae Okamoto, Masami K. Yamaguchi, Daisuke Kosugi, Kim A. Bard, Masayuki Tanaka, and Tetsuro Matsuzawa
33. Stimuli Signaling Rewards that Follow a Less Preferred Event are Themselves Preferred: Implications for Cognitive Dissonance, Thomas R. Zentall, Tricia S. Clement, Andrea M. Friedrich, and Kelly A. DiGian
Epilogue:
Postscript: An Essay on the Study of Cognition in Animals Stewart M. Hulse

Comparative Cognition

Experimental Explorations of Animal Intelligence

Edward A Wasserman and Thomas R Zentall

Author Information

Edward A. Wasserman earned his B.A. at UCLA and his Ph.D. at Indiana University. He is now Stuit Professor of Experimental Psychology at the University of Iowa.

Thomas R. Zentall earned his B.S. degree in psychology, his B.E.E. in Electrical Engineering from Union College in 1963, and his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley in 1969. After an appointment at the University of Pittsburgh, he joined the faculty at the University of Kentucky, where he is now Professor of Psychology.

Comparative Cognition

Experimental Explorations of Animal Intelligence

Edward A Wasserman and Thomas R Zentall

Reviews and Awards

"...an invaluable resource for all working or being interested in the wide field of comparative psychology and neuroscience."--European Journal of Neurology

"Excellent book...Highly recommended."--Choice

"Those who study comparative cognition find themselves in a particularly prosperous time . . . A diversity of available species to study, opportunities for increased national and international collaboration, and technological advances offer us a greater opportunity for data collection and dissemination than at any time in history. The present book attests to how these opportunities can produce compelling research programs that serve as excellent models for the future of comparative cognition." --Michael J. Beran in PsycCRITIQUES

"...an outstanding collection of chapters by an exceptional group of researchers. A unique aspect is the strong reliance on experimental science in each of the research programs. One chapter after another provides a critical analysis of the state of knowledge about a fascinating cognitive ability . . . Everyone interested in the cognitive and intellectual capacities of animals should read this book."--Peter Balsam, Barnard College and Columbia University

"This book is a gem . . . It will be a 'must read' for students and scientists who are curious about the state of the art of the modern science of comparative cognition."--Mark E. Bouton, University of Vermont

". . . sure to become a major landmark in long history of this continually evolving field." --Michael Domjan, University of Texas

"In this collection, Wasserman (psychology, University of Iowa) and Zentall (Psychology University of Kentucky) present reports of studies done on a variety of animals, including pigeons, mice, monkeys and dolphins...While these studies are intended for professionals, the conclusions are clearly stated for anyone interested in the subject." -- Shannon Hendrickson, Editor, Book News Inc.