The Surprisingly Complex Behavior of Animals

Chapter 21 explores cognitive psychology and comparative cognition, beginning with the contributions of some of the major psychologists in history. The chapter continues with a description of how ideas during what is known as the cognitive revolution in the 1960s challenged the ideas of the then-dominating behavioral perspective, stating that the study of mental processes was unnecessary for understanding behavior. It explains how two turning points, the rise of computer science, which led to the information processing approach, and Noam Chomsky’s critique of Skinner’s book Verbal Behavior , cast doubt on this notion. The chapter continues with Tolman’s proposal and demonstration that animals can form cognitive maps of space and acquire new information without any evidence that they have done so in a phenomenon he called latent learning. The chapter then compares the fields of comparative cognition, the branch of psychology that compares cognitive processes across species and cognitive ethology, which tends to commit anthropomorphic error. The chapter describes evidence showing that animals can engage in complex behaviors learned through social learning and social transmission. Finally, the chapter shows that the complex human-like behaviors in animals likely stem from shaping and stimulus-response associations.