27 5 Animal Cognition KEY CONCEPT Some animals

27. 5 Animal Cognition KEY CONCEPT Some animals other than humans exhibit behaviors requiring complex cognitive abilities.

27. 5 Animal Cognition Animal intelligence is difficult to define. • Cognition is the mental process of knowing through perception or reasoning. – awareness – ability to judge – ability to solve complex problems • Other factors affecting an animal’s behavior may seem like cognition.

27. 5 Animal Cognition Some animals can solve problems. • Insight is the ability to solve a problem mentally without repeated trial and error. – observed in primates, dolphins, and corvids – chimpanzee retrieving hanging bananas

27. 5 Animal Cognition • Tool use helps an animal accomplish a task. – some dolphins use sponges to protect and hunt – crows and chimpanzees make probing sticks – capuchin monkeys use rocks to crack nuts

27. 5 Animal Cognition Cognitive ability may provide an adaptive advantage for living in social groups. • Intelligence in animals seems to be correlated with two characteristics. – relatively large brains for their body size – live in complex social groups

27. 5 Animal Cognition • Cultural behavior spreads through a population by learning, not by selection. – taught to one generation by another – aided by living in close proximity