具体描述
In 1978, Hulse, Fowler, and Honig published Cognitive Processes in Animal Behavior, an edited volume that was a landmark in the scientific study of animal intelligence. It liberated interest in complex learning and cognition from the grasp of the rigid theoretical structures of behaviorism that had prevailed during the previous four decades, and as a result, the field of comparative cognition was born. At long last, the study of the cognitive capacities of animals other than humans emerged as a worthwhile scientific enterprise. No less rigorous than purely behavioristic investigations, studies of animal intelligence spanned such wide-ranging topics as perception, spatial learning and memory, timing and numerical competence, categorization and conceptualization, problem solving, rule learning, and creativity. During the ensuing 25 years, the field of comparative cognition has thrived and grown, and public interest in it has risen to unprecedented levels. In their quest to understand the nature and mechanisms of intelligence, researchers have studied animals from bees to chimpanzees. Sessions on comparative cognition have become common at meetings of the major societies for psychology and neuroscience, and in fact, research in comparative cognition has increased so much that a separate society, the Comparative Cognition Society, has been formed to bring it together. This volume celebrates comparative cognition's first quarter century with a state-of-the-art collection of chapters covering the broad realm of the scientific study of animal intelligence. Comparative Cognition will be an invaluable resource for students and professional researchers in all areas of psychology and neuroscience.
作者简介
目录信息
Contributors......Page 12
Comparative Cognition: A Natural Science Approach to the Study of Animal Intelligence......Page 18
I. Perception and Illusion......Page 28
1. Grouping and Segmentation of Visual Objects by Baboons (Papio papio) and Humans (Homo sapiens)......Page 30
2. Seeing What Is Not There: Illusion, Completion, and Spatiotemporal Boundary Formation in Comparative Perspective......Page 44
3. The Cognitive Chicken: Visual and Spatial Cognition in a Nonmammalian Brain......Page 68
4. The Comparative Psychology of Absolute Pitch......Page 86
II. Attention and Search......Page 102
5. Reaction-Time Explorations of Visual Perception, Attention, and Decision in Pigeons......Page 104
6. Selective Attention, Priming, and Foraging Behavior......Page 121
7. Attention as It Is Manifest Across Species......Page 142
III. Memory Processes......Page 158
8. The Questions of Temporal and Spatial Displacement in Animal Cognition......Page 160
9. Memory Processing......Page 179
IV. Spatial Cognition......Page 202
10. Arthropod Navigation: Ants, Bees, Crabs, Spiders Finding Their Way......Page 204
11. Comparative Spatial Cognition: Processes in Landmark- and Surface-Based Place Finding......Page 225
12. Properties of Time-Place Learning......Page 244
V. Timing and Counting......Page 262
13. Behavioristic, Cognitive, Biological, and Quantitative Explanations of Timing......Page 264
14. Sensitivity to Time: Implications for the Representation of Time......Page 285
15. Time and Number: Learning, Psychophysics, Stimulus Control, and Retention......Page 300
VI. Conceptualization and Categorization......Page 320
16. Relational Discrimination Learning in Pigeons......Page 322
17. A Modified Feature Theory as an Account of Pigeon Visual Categorization......Page 340
18. Category Structure and Typicality Effects......Page 358
19. Similarity and Difference in the Conceptual Systems of Primates: The Unobservability Hypothesis......Page 378
20. Rule Learning, Memorization Strategies, Switching Attention Between Local and Global Levels of Perception, and Optimality in Avian Visual Categorization......Page 403
21. Responses and Acquired Equivalence Classes......Page 420
VII. Pattern Learning......Page 438
22. Spatial Patterns: Behavioral Control and Cognitive Representation......Page 440
23. The Structure of Sequential Behavior......Page 454
24. Truly Random Operant Responding: Results and Reasons......Page 474
25. The Simultaneous Chain: A New Look at Serially Organized Behavior......Page 496
VIII. Tool Fabrication and Use......Page 528
26. Cognitive Adaptations for Tool-Related Behavior in New Caledonian Crows......Page 530
27. What Is Challenging About Tool Use? The Capuchin’s Perspective......Page 544
IX. Problem Solving and Behavioral Flexibility......Page 568
28. Intelligences and Brains: An Evolutionary Bird’s Eye View......Page 570
29. How Do Dolphins Solve Problems?......Page 595
30. The Comparative Cognition of Caching......Page 617
31. The Neural Basis of Cognitive Flexibility in Birds......Page 634
X. Social Cognition Processes......Page 652
32. Chimpanzee Social Cognition in Early Life: Comparative–Developmental Perspective......Page 654
33. Stimuli Signaling Rewards That Follow a Less-Preferred Event Are Themselves Preferred: Implications for Cognitive Dissonance......Page 666
Postscript: An Essay on the Study of Cognition in Animals......Page 683
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读后感
用户评价
从实践应用的角度来看，这本书的价值远超其理论层面。它为跨学科研究人员提供了一个极具前瞻性的工具箱。我发现书中提出的许多比较框架和测量标准，可以直接应用于我正在进行的其他领域的研究，例如在设计复杂系统的人机交互界面时，那些关于信息处理效率的比较分析提供了宝贵的启发。它不仅是关于“动物如何思考”的知识汇集，更是一部关于“我们如何科学地思考和提问”的方法论指南。对于那些希望将认知科学的原理应用到人工智能、行为经济学乃至教育学领域的人士来说，这本书无疑是绕不开的里程碑。它真正做到了将纯粹的学术探索与现实世界的复杂问题紧密地联系起来，展现了基础研究的强大生命力。
我必须得说，这本书的内容组织结构简直是教科书级别的典范。作者显然在构建知识体系上花费了巨大的心力。它不是那种零散堆砌事实和发现的合集，而是一个逻辑严密、层层递进的论证过程。开篇部分对基础概念的回顾和界定非常扎实，为后续的复杂讨论奠定了坚实的基础，避免了初学者在术语理解上的障碍。随后，章节的推进仿佛是沿着一条精心规划的路径行走，从宏观的比较框架逐步深入到微观的神经机制。尤其赞赏的是，作者非常巧妙地穿插了大量的案例研究和跨学科的参照，比如将动物行为学与认知心理学的最新进展进行了富有洞察力的结合。这种结构上的清晰度，使得即便是初次接触这个领域的读者，也能顺畅地跟上作者的思路，不会感到迷失在浩如烟海的信息流中。
这本书给我带来的最大震撼来自于其对现有理论局限性的批判性审视。很多同类书籍倾向于罗列已有的成功案例和主流观点，但这本书显然不满足于此。作者勇敢地指出了当前研究范式中存在的“人本主义偏见”和过度简化的倾向。通过细致地剖析那些未能被现有模型完美解释的“异常”现象，作者拓宽了我们对“智能”和“心智”的定义边界。我特别喜欢其中关于“生态有效性”的讨论，它提醒我们，实验室条件下观察到的行为，必须置于生物体自然生存环境的压力下去评估其真正的认知价值。这种不满足于现状、不断追问“还有没有其他可能性”的科学精神，是这本书最宝贵的财富，它极大地激发了我进行更深层次思考的欲望。
读完这本书的第一个感觉是，作者的语言风格既有学者的严谨，又不失叙述者的生动。它成功地避开了纯粹学术论文的晦涩难懂，也没有陷入科普读物过于简化的窠臼。作者在阐述复杂理论时，经常采用类比和富有画面感的描述，仿佛能把抽象的认知过程具象化地呈现在读者面前。例如，在描述某些物种解决问题时的“顿悟”瞬间，作者的文字充满了感染力，让人对这些非人类个体的好奇心油然而生。当然，在关键的实验数据和模型展示部分，语言的精确性又被提升到了最高级别，每一个修饰词都经过了审慎的斟酌。这种在严谨与流畅之间游刃有余的平衡感，极大地提高了阅读的愉悦度和信息吸收的效率。阅读过程更像是一场引人入胜的对话，而不是单向的灌输。
这本书的装帧设计给我留下了深刻的印象，封面采用了深邃的藏青色调，搭配烫金的标题字体，散发着一种沉稳而又引人深思的气息。装帧的纸张质感非常好，拿在手里分量适中，内页的印刷清晰锐利，即便是那些复杂的图表和实验示意图，细节处理得也一丝不苟。我尤其欣赏出版社在排版上所下的功夫，行距和字间距拿捏得恰到好处，即便是长时间阅读，眼睛也不会感到过分疲劳。对于一本探讨专业领域的书籍来说，这种对物理形态的尊重和精细打磨，无疑提升了阅读体验的档次。光是翻阅这本书，就能感受到背后编辑团队的专业素养和对知识传播的认真态度。它不仅仅是知识的载体，更像是一件值得收藏的艺术品。封底的简介虽然言简意赅，但寥寥数语便勾勒出了该领域的前沿动态，让人迫不及待地想要深入其中一探究竟。
