Animal Cognition

I read Clive D.L. Wynne's text book Animal Cognition - the Mental Lives of Animals (#881) in preparation for 2020's BookMania!.  Published in 2001, it's a standard college textbook intended as an introduction to this field of study.  Though interesting enough, his 2004 book Do Animals Think? (See my post of 2/4/2020.) is really a better choice for a wider range of readers who simply have curiosity about the subject, not a potential academic interest.  Much of what is of interest in his textbook is also discussed in his later book.

The discussion of the science behind the tests conducted her to test animal intelligence is revealing.  For instance, Dr. Wynne is not a proponent of those scientists who claim to have made breakthroughs in teaching apes (like Koko the gorilla) language.  He just as easily makes the point that the apes simply learned how to get their testers to give them food rewards by choosing objects or symbols in the correct order.  Do they really understand what "Color = green" means, other than they will get food by pressing this blue key, then that red key, then that yellow key?  Probably not.  Dr. Wynne also suggests some simple experiments the reader can try at home with their own pets to compare how Fido or Fluffy reacts compared to the animals in the studies described here.

One thing I did appreciate about this textbook is the selection of illustrations at the beginning of each chapter by J. J. Grandville done to illustrate an 1838 edition of Jean de La Fontaine's fables.  They add just the right touch of whimsy to what could otherwise be seen as a tedious text.