PS261 Chapter Notes - Chapter 11: Morris Water Navigation Task, Procedural Memory, Spatial Memory
Document Summary
Exploring cognitive skills of animals tells us about the uniqueness of various human cognitive skills. Thinking is regarded as voluntary, deliberate and conscious reflection on some topic, usually involving language. Comparative cognition can lead to actions that cannot be explained on the basis of the external stimuli. Cognitive ethology: claim that animals are capable of conscious thought and intentionality. The claim that nonhuman animals are capable of consciousness and intentionality is based on the complexity, flexibility, and cleverness of various examples of animal behaviour. Cognitive mechanisms: involve an internal representation or mental record of something, and rules for manipulating that mental record. Internal representations may encode various types of information, such as particular features of stimuli or relations between stimuli: they cannot however be investigated directly by looking into the brain. Evidence of learning is also identified on the bass of changes in behaviour due to earlier experiences.
