What animals do not do or fail to find: A novel observational approach for studying cognition in the wild

Karline R. L. Janmaat

doi:10.1002/evan.21794

journal article Open Access Aug 16, 2019

What animals do not do or fail to find: A novel observational approach for studying cognition in the wild

Karline R. L. Janmaat

Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews Vol. 28 No. 6 pp. 303-320 · Wiley

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Abstract

AbstractTo understand how our brain evolved and what it is for, we are in urgent need of knowledge about the cognitive skills of a large variety of animal species and individuals, and their relationships to rapidly disappearing social and ecological conditions. But how do we obtain this knowledge? Studying cognition in the wild is a challenge. Field researchers (and their study subjects) face many factors that can easily interfere with their variables of interest. Although field studies of cognition present unique challenges, they are still invaluable for understanding the evolutionary drivers of cognition. In this review, I discuss the advantages and urgency of field‐based studies on animal cognition and introduce a novel observational approach for field research that is guided by three questions: (a)what do animals fail to find?, (b)what do they not do?, and (c)what do they only do when certain conditions are met?My goal is to provide guidance to future field researchers examining primate cognition.

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Metrics

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Citations

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References

Details

Published: Aug 16, 2019
Vol/Issue: 28(6)
Pages: 303-320
License: View

Authors

K

Karline R. L. Janmaat

Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology Leipzig Germany; Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics University of Amsterdam Amsterdam The Netherlands

Funding

Max-Planck-Institut für Evolutionäre Anthropologie

Cite This Article

Karline R. L. Janmaat (2019). What animals do not do or fail to find: A novel observational approach for studying cognition in the wild. Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews, 28(6), 303-320. https://doi.org/10.1002/evan.21794

What animals do not do or fail to find: A novel observational approach for studying cognition in the wild

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