Titel: Animal Cognition: Behavioral Studies and Theory Formation

Termin: 28.6.2012 bis 30.6.2012

Weitere Informationen:
http://www.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/philosophy/animalcognition/

Kurzbeschreibung: The workshop aims to discuss the recent developments in the growing field of investigating the cognitive abilities of animals. We intend to structure the presentations and discussions by focusing on five interconnected key questions: 1. What are the main principles to develop an adequate methodology to investigate animal cognition and how should we interpret the observations of animal behavior? 2. How can we integrate neuroscientific data on brain evolution with recent findings of cognition in corvids and primates? How do we have to modify the theories of cognitive evolution given these data? Does this influence our view of an anthropological borderline between humans and animals? 3. To what extent can we find symbolic understanding in animals? Since understanding symbolic and a recursive structure is one of the recent candidates for an anthropological borderline, one question for discussion is whether this is still marking a clear species difference. 4. The general analysis of animal behavior involves a debate between cognitivists and mere associationists: can we explain all abilities of animals by associative mechanisms while we have to explain the same ability in children by cognitive mechanisms? Does mere association even exist or is it cognition all the way down that we find in humans and animals?

Kontakt: Ruhr-Universität Bochum
Universitätsstraße 150
44801 Bochum
http://www.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/

Veranstalter: Ruhr-Universität Bochum

Wissenschaftliche Leitung: Prof. Albert Newen (Bochum), Prof. Colin Allen (Bloomington), Prof. Onur Güntürkün (Bochum), Prof. Cameron Buckner (Houston)

Schlagworte: Hirnforschung, Psychologie, Tierethik, Wissenschaftsethik