Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Question Of Animal Awareness, Francoise Wemelsfelder

Françoise Wemelsfelder, PhD

The problem of animal awareness lies at the interface of science and philosophy. As a starting point for the study of phenomena such as awareness, mind, consciousness, etc., we hardly have any reference other than our own human experience and in the context of a nondualistic ontology this can be justified. In philosophy and psychology it appears to be very difficult to give direct operational definitions of terms such as consciousness, etc. So we might expect this to be even more difficult in the study of animals. A detailed knowledge of animals and their behaviour is necessary in order to …

Thinking Chickens: A Review Of Cognition, Emotion, And Behavior In The Domestic Chicken, Lori Marino

Lori Marino, PhD

Domestic chickens are members of an order, Aves, which has been the focus of a revolution in our understanding of neuroanatomical, cognitive, and social complexity. At least some birds are now known to be on par with many mammals in terms of their level of intelligence, emotional sophistication, and social interaction. Yet, views of chickens have largely remained unrevised by this new evidence. In this paper, I examine the peer-reviewed scientific data on the leading edge of cognition, emotions, personality, and sociality in chickens, exploring such areas as self-awareness, cognitive bias, social learning and self-control, and comparing their abilities in …

Deepening Our Understanding Of Sheep, Lori Marino, Debra Merskin

Lori Marino, PhD

Our Response is centered on five major themes: (1) our presentation of human mythologies about sheep; (2) the relevance of cognitive complexity (“intelligence”) as a dimension underlying the way people perceive and treat sheep; (3) whether our review is too anthropocentric or anthropomorphic; (4) animal welfare versus animal rights (abolitionism); and (5) whether knowledge and education are enough to change human attitudes and behavior.

Intelligence, Complexity, And Individuality In Sheep, Lori Marino, Debra Merskin

Lori Marino, PhD

Domestic sheep (Ovis aries) are among the earliest animals domesticated for human use. They are consumed worldwide as mutton, hogget, and lamb, kept as wool and milk producers, and used extensively in scientific research. The popular stereotype is that sheep are docile, passive, unintelligent, and timid, but a review of the research on their behavior, affect, cognition, and personality reveals that they are complex, individualistic, and social.

Cephalopod Complex Cognition, Jennifer Mather

Jennifer Mather, PhD

Cephalopods, especially octopuses, offer a different model for the development of complex cognitive operations. They are phylogenetically distant from the mammals and birds that we normally think of as ‘intelligent’ and without the pervasive social interactions and long lives that we associate with this capacity. Additionally, they have a distributed nervous system — central brain, peripheral coordination of arm actions and a completely separate skin appearance system based on muscle-controlled chromatophores. Recent research has begun to show how these apparently separate systems are coordinated. Learning and cognition are used toward prey, in antipredator actions and in courtship. These examples show …

Fish Intelligence, Sentience And Ethics, Culum Brown

Culum Brown, PhD

Fish are one of the most highly utilised vertebrate taxa by humans; they are harvested from wild stocks as part of global fishing industries, grown under intensive aquaculture conditions, are the most common pet and are widely used for scientific research. But fish are seldom afforded the same level of compassion or welfare as warm-blooded vertebrates. Part of the problem is the large gap between people’s perception of fish intelligence and the scientific reality. This is an important issue because public perception guides government policy. The perception of an animal’s intelligence often drives our decision whether or not to include …

Above-Level Test Item Functioning Across Examinee Age Groups, Russell Warne, Kristine Doty, Anne Marie Malbica, Victor Angeles, Scott Innes, Jared Hall, Kelli Masterson-Nixon

Russell T Warne

Does The Normal Curve Accurately Model The Distribution Of Intelligence?, Lindsey R. Godwin, Kyle V. Smith, Russell T. Warne

Russell T Warne

Complex Problem Solving And Intelligence: Empirical Relation And Causal Direction, Dorit Wenke, Peter A. Frensch, Joachim Funke

Joachim Funke

Confirmation Of Correlation Between Brain Nerve Conduction Velocity And Intelligence Level In Normal Adults, T. Reed, Philip Vernon, Andrew Johnson

Andrew M. Johnson

In 1992, Reed and Jensen [Intelligence 16 (1992) 259–272] reported a positive correlation (.26; p=.002; .37 after correcting for restricted intelligence range) between a brain nerve conduction velocity (NCV) and intelligence level in 147 normal male students. In the first follow-up of their study, we report on a study using similar NCV methodologies, but testing both male and female students and using more extensive measures of cognitive abilities. One-hundred eighty-six males and 201 females, aged 18–25 years, were tested in three different NCV conditions and with nine cognitive tests, including Raven Progressive Matrices as used by Reed and Jensen. None …

Norm-Of-Reaction: Definition And Misinterpretation Of Animal Research, Steve A. Platt, Charles A. Sanislow

Charles A. Sanislow, Ph.D.

The development of a phenotype is due to an interaction of the genotype with the environment. Two terms have been used to describe the outcome of this interaction, the norm-of-reaction and the reaction range. The first represents the theoretically limitless distribution of the phenotypes that may be expressed by a given genotype. The reaction range implies an upper and lower limit for phenotype expression possible from a given genotype. A critical distinction between the reaction range and the norm-of-reaction is that the norm-of-reaction is a statement of the conceivable interactions found but does not imply any predictability other than that …