ABSTRACT
The emerging synthesis in animal cognition has provided a common theoretical framework for both laboratory-oriented psychologists and field-oriented ethologists to characterize behaviors that are not amenable to interpretations based on classical behaviorism or mechanisms of inheritance (Griffin, 1984; Roitblat, 1987; Roitblat, Bever, & Terrace, 1984). As a consequence, it is now common to hear ethologists discuss memory capabilities as an important evolutionary adaptation that permit organisms to better exploit their environment, thus leading to improved reproductive success. Further, concepts such as information processing and representations are viewed by ethologists as useful heuristic approaches in understanding how memories may be employed in coordinating behavior.
