Main description:

A foremost scholar in comparative cognition-a discipline closely connected to behavioral biology, evolution, and cognitive neuroscience-author Sara J. Shettleworth delivers a focused treatment of the essentials in writing that is both lucid and captivating.

Brief, yet brimming with detail, Fundamentals of Comparative Cognition conveys the richness and complexity of this diverse field while addressing two fundamental questions: "What makes us uniquely human?" and "What do our minds share with other creatures?"

Contents:

Series Introduction ; Preface ; Chapter 1. What Is Comparative Cognition About? ; "From Darwin to Behaviorism": A Little History ; Research in the Twenty-First Century: Tool-Using Crows ; How This Book Is Organized ; Chapter 2. Basic Processes ; Perception and Attention ; Memory ; Associative Learning ; Discrimination, Classification, and Concepts ; Chapter 3. Physical Cognition ; Spatial Cognition: How Do Animals Find Their Way Around? ; Two Timing Systems ; Numerical Cognition ; Putting It Together: Foraging and Planning ; Using Tools ; Chapter 4. Social Cognition ; Social Behavior: The Basics ; Social Learning ; Communication ; Chapter 5. Comparative Cognition and Human Uniqueness ; Different in Degree or Kind? ; Clues from Modularity and Development ; References ; Index