{"product_id":"animal-cognition-9780674037038","title":"Animal Cognition","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnimal 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eAnimal Cognition\u003c\/i\u003e accounts for all the main study areas as well as some key experiments [in comparative psychology]. The treatment is economical, empirical, and overtly psychological...Straightforward chapters cover the cognitive implications of tool use, spatial orientation, communication, imitation, theory of mind and self-awareness. [Vauclair] has a knack for distilling out the essence of experiments and letting the reader decide. But the book is not devoid of theoretical context. A whole chapter is devoted to Piaget's 'experimental epistemology' and its application to comparative psychology and the book concludes with a sketch of semiotics and its application. Animal cognition has been in danger of becoming something of a bandwagon, with researchers nourishing their own theoretical idiosyncrasies, speculating on the basis of their own particular experiments on their own particular species. Since ideas come rather cheaply, \u003ci\u003eAnimal Cognition\u003c\/i\u003e has wisely built its foundations on empirical ground. -- Thomas Sambrook * Times Higher Education Supplement *\u003cbr\u003eVauclair has a clear agenda: progress in this field is not to be made with fuzzy concepts, interest in what it is like to be a certain kind of animal, and assumptions of continuity where none exists; the experimental path that eschews issues of animal consciousness is the one to follow. Yet, those with a broader focus than Vauclair's, who welcome richer, more qualitative methods, will still feel comfortable with his presentation of experimental research. Without a polemicist's stick, beating the drum of human uniqueness and grossly underestimating the abilities of animals, he discusses animal cognition, often concluding that the glass is half-empty rather than half-full, but with an eye to reason, not dogma...Clear and very readable, this excellent volume will serve graduate and advanced students well in courses dealing with animal cognition, cognitive studies, primate studies, or philosophy of mind. But, it is best taken as an extended review of current research and essay arguing for methodological precision. Those outside of comparative psychology and cognitive research will be enlightened by reading this careful summation of experimental approaches to questions of animal cognition, along with Vauclair's arguments both for and against continuity between humans and other animals. -- H.L. Miles * Contemporary Psychology *\u003cbr\u003eVauclair has produced a state-of-the-field review that reveals contemporary comparative psychology to be vital, interesting and heuristically rich. Eschewing the many parametric investigations of classical and instrumental conditioning (leaving their summary to the excellent volumes already in print) and focusing instead on topics comparable to those typical of human cognition, Vauclair has provided a tool that should encourage a new generation of students to consider a research career in comparative cognition. -- David A. Washburn * Trends in Cognitive Sciences *\u003cbr\u003eThe book can be recommended to those seeking an overview of experimental studies of animal cognition that have been conducted in the last decade or so. Within the topics that are covered, the review of the relevant literature is on the whole thorough. Moreover, the conclusions that are drawn from experimental findings are fair and, when necessary, appropriately cautious. -- J.M. Pearce * Animal Behaviour *\u003cbr\u003eVauclair emphasizes Piagetian studies and laudably presents its framework, chief findings and criticisms of these...Social cognition is considered functionally and experimentally, with appropriate attention to problems of methodology and interpretation (e.g., conditioning or concept-formation as explanatory mechanisms)...The especially illusive topics of imitation, self-recognition, and theory of mind are well treated, with due acknowledgement of controversies...In the final chapter, ambitiously titled \u003ci\u003eAgenda for Comparative Studies\u003c\/i\u003e, Vauclair attempts to criticize and reconcile different approaches, including Donald Griffin's animal thinking...The style of writing is straightforward; each chapter helpfully ends with a critical summary...This book gives a thoughtful introduction to comparative psychology. * Behavioural Processes *\u003cbr\u003eThis is an interesting and thought-provoking book that works well at several levels. It provides a good introduction to animal cognition for the reader new to the subject, and its crisp approach and fresh organisation of material means that experts, too, will have something to learn from it. * Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology *\u003cbr\u003eVauclair's well-referenced volume provides an excellent introduction to the scientific study of cognition in animals. The book traces the roots of modern comparative psychology and describes the typical laboratory methods for assessing mental representations of knowledge; it then discusses diverse topics such as animal applications of Piagetian concepts, tool use in animals, spatial and temporal representations, social cognition, animal communication, and theory of mind in a straightforward, easily comprehensible manner...An excellent resource. * Choice *\u003cbr\u003eA concise and very useful introduction to what the author identifies as 'modern comparative psychology'. Although the text is kept simple and accessible to the non-specialized reader, the treatment is rigorous and reliable. -- Juan Carlos Gómez * Estudios de Psicología *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePreface    1. Origins and Development of the Study of Animal Cognition    The Darwinian Heritage and Nineteenth-Century Psychology   The Behaviorist Break   The Emergence of the Cognitive Approach    The Modern Concepts of Representation and Memory    The Study of Representation in Animals    Problems Posed by the Study of Cognition in Animals     2. Laboratory Methods for Assessing Representation in Animals    Learning Sets    Mastery of Relations between Stimuli    Category Formation    Serial Learning as Evidence of Nonverbal Thought    Mental Images in Animals    Summary and Current Debate    3. Piagetian Studies in Animal Psychology    Developmental Psychology and Comparative Psychology    The Development of Intelligence    Sensorimotor Activities in Animals    \"Concrete Operations\" in Animals    Summary and Current Debate    4. Tool Use and Spatial and Temporal Representations    Tool Use    Spatial Representations    Temporal Representations    Summary and Current Debate    5. Social Cognition    Experimental Methods for the Study of Social Cognition    Social Cognition in Monkeys    Social versus Nonsocial Cognition    Suggestions for Future Research    Summary and Current Debate    6. Animal Communication and Human Language    Comparisons of Animal and Human Communication    Language-Trained Animals    Differences in the Use of Signs by Apes and Children    Pre-Linguistic Communication in Human Infants and Chimpanzee Infants    Summary and Current Debate    7. Imitation, Self-Recognition, and the Theory of Mind    Is There Evidence for Imitation in Animals?    The Attribution of Mental States in Animals    Self-Knowledge and Self-Recognition    Relationships between Mirror Recognition, Social Attribution, Imitation, and Teaching    Summary and Current Debate    8. An Agenda for Comparative Cognitive Studies    Cognitive Ethology: Mental Representations or Mental Experiences?    The Generalist versus Ecological Approach to Animal Cognition    Conclusions    References   Index","brand":"Harvard University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49403539587415,"sku":"9780674037038","price":54.36,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780674037038.jpg?v=1730483768","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/animal-cognition-9780674037038","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}