COMPARATIVE ANIMAL COGNITION

Graduate

This course will expose students to the complexities of animal behavior, beyond typical products of instincts and simple associative learning. Complex behaviors and higher-order cognitive processes will be explored from a critical perspective, as well as the issues and challenges in their evaluation in animals, scientific approaches and standards of proof for the science of Comparative Animal Cognition. The diversity of current theories of animal cognition and abilities across a broad range of complex functions and species will be discussed. Imbedded in the overall course perspective is the continued issue of how our perceptions of the cognitive abilities of animals shape our expectations and relationships with them, including an examination of interpretations of cognitive lives of various species contribute to concerns for animal welfare practices and the impact on natural behavior of animals. Cross-level listed with Psychology 4042 PREREQUISITE: Graduate student HOURS OF CREDIT: 3 LAB/SEMINAR: 2 hours