![]() ![]() The first chapter introduces the subfield of "animal cognition" and many of the stumbling blocks it has run into as a field, many of which are due to humans being unwilling to consider that "cognition" is a thing that animals do. As we'll see, it's a field with a history at least as tumultuous as psychology, with an early amateurish "wild west", a strict over-correction, and these days a hopefully more productive synthesis. ![]() Ethologists these days are certainly knowledgeable about evolutionary lineages, cladistics, and animal anatomy, but the heart of the field has always been observing animals interacting with their environments (whether a wild or experimental environment). So, just what is ethology? It is the study animal behavior. "Animal Cognition" is a relatively new subfield that borrows much from psychology, neuroscience, and evolutionary biology, but it is firmly rooted in its parent field of ethology. Are We Smart Enough gives an overview of the study of animal cognition, its history, past and current controversies, and where the field might go next (as of 2016). ![]()
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