Special issue 'Comparative Cognition in Context' now published

Coinciding with the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin on February 12th, 2009, a special issue of Behavioural Processes "Comparative Cognition in Context" was published by Elsevier. Guest edited by Karen Hollis, the special issue features 16 papers – original research articles as well as insightful theoretical reviews – by leading researchers in the field of comparative cognition, demonstrating how animals perceive, learn about and understand their physical and social worlds.

Prof. Karen Hollis of the Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience & Behavior at Mount Holyoke College South Hadley, commented,"The articles document not only the rapidly expanding dimensions of comparative cognition – an expansion to new study species, new techniques and newly discovered abilities – but also the breadth and depth of the field's multidisciplinary analyses, a field that truly is a realization of Darwin's argument for mental, as well as morphological, continuities."

Titled "Comparative Cognition in Context", the special issue honors the scientific contributions of Sara J. Shettleworth, whose influential book, Cognition, Evolution, and Behavior (Oxford University Press) argues for an evolutionary approach to animal cognition. As Prof. Nicola Clayton, Nature author and contributor to the Special Issue remarked. "Darwin argued for continuities between the minds of animals and humans, claiming it was a case of differences in degree, rather than differences in kind."

"We are very fortunate and proud to have been able to publish, under the guidance of Prof. Karen Hollis, an issue documenting latest discoveries in the field of comparative cognition, and by doing so to mark the 200th anniversary of birth of the very man who identified this territory," commented Ewa Kittel-Prejs, the journal publisher.

Source: Elsevier