Introduction

This chapter describes the scientific research on the cognitive abilities of animals comes from many different disciplines and involves many different methodological approaches. In the field, psychologists, biologists, ethologists, ecologists, and anthropologists are interested in documenting what different species do, examining similarities and differences between individuals and groups, and conducting experiments to learn something about the causes of behavior and the contents of animal minds. Some psychologists and ecologists seek to answer questions about animal minds by developing and manipulating functional models of animal behavior based on the interaction between individuals and the environment. And, in the neuroscience lab, scientists are engaged in studying the brains of animals as they process different kinds of information. But for all these sciences, there arise fundamental issues about the concepts used in the investigation, and the usefulness of the methods implemented to address the questions and interpret the data.