Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

New evidence of animal consciousness

  • Review
  • Published:
Animal Cognition Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper reviews evidence that increases the probability that many animals experience at least simple levels of consciousness. First, the search for neural correlates of consciousness has not found any consciousness-producing structure or process that is limited to human brains. Second, appropriate responses to novel challenges for which the animal has not been prepared by genetic programming or previous experience provide suggestive evidence of animal consciousness because such versatility is most effectively organized by conscious thinking. For example, certain types of classical conditioning require awareness of the learned contingency in human subjects, suggesting comparable awareness in similarly conditioned animals. Other significant examples of versatile behavior suggestive of conscious thinking are scrub jays that exhibit all the objective attributes of episodic memory, evidence that monkeys sometimes know what they know, creative tool-making by crows, and recent interpretation of goal-directed behavior of rats as requiring simple nonreflexive consciousness. Third, animal communication often reports subjective experiences. Apes have demonstrated increased ability to use gestures or keyboard symbols to make requests and answer questions; and parrots have refined their ability to use the imitation of human words to ask for things they want and answer moderately complex questions. New data have demonstrated increased flexibility in the gestural communication of swarming honey bees that leads to vitally important group decisions as to which cavity a swarm should select as its new home. Although no single piece of evidence provides absolute proof of consciousness, this accumulation of strongly suggestive evidence increases significantly the likelihood that some animals experience at least simple conscious thoughts and feelings. The next challenge for cognitive ethologists is to investigate for particular animals the content of their awareness and what life is actually like, for them.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Aguilar I, Briceno D (2002) Sounds of Melipona costaricensis (Apidae: Meliponini): effects of sugar concentration and nectar source distance. Apidologie 33:375–388

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson C, Ratnieks FLW (1999) Worker allocation in insect societies: coordination of nectar foragers and nectar receivers in honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 46:73–81

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baars RJ (2002) The conscious access hypothesis: origins and recent evidence. Trends Cogn Sci 6:47–52

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Baeyens F, Eelen P, Van den Bergh O, Crombez G (1990) Flavor-flavor and color-flavor conditioning in humans. Learn Motiv 21:434–455

    Google Scholar 

  • Balda, RP, Pepperberg IM, Kamil, AC (eds) (1998) Animal cognition in nature. Academic, San Diego

  • Bekoff, M, Allen C, Burghardt GM (eds) (2002) The cognitive animal, empirical and theoretical perspectives. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.

    Google Scholar 

  • Biesmeijer JC, Ermers MCW (1999) Social foraging in stingless bees: how colonies of Melipona fasciata choose among nectar sources. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 46:129–140

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bitterman ME (1996) Comparative analysis of learning in honeybees. Anim Learn Behav 24:123–141

    Google Scholar 

  • Bitterman ME (2000) Cognitive evolution: a psychological perspective. In: Heyes C, Huber L (eds) The evolution of cognition. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., pp 61–79

  • Boysen S, Hines GT (1999) Current issues and emerging theories in animal cognition. Annu Rev Psychol 50:683–705

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Büchel C, Morris JS, Dolan RJ, Friston KJ (1998) Brain systems mediating aversive conditioning: an event-related MRI study. Neuron 20:947–957

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Büchel C, Dolan RJ, Armony JL, Friston KJ (1999) Amygdala-hippocampal involvement in human aversive trace conditioning revealed through event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging. J Neurosci 19:10869–10876

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Byrne RW (2002) Imitation of novel complex actions: what does the evidence from animals mean? Adv Stud Behav 31:77–105

    Google Scholar 

  • Camazine S, Visscher PH, Finley J, Vetter RS (1999) House-hunting by honey bee swarms: collective decisions and individual behaviors. Insect Soc 46:348–360

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Capaldi EA, Robinson GE, Fahrbach, SE (1999) Neuroethology of spatial learning: the birds and the bees. Annu Rev Psychol 50:651–682

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cartmill M, Lofstrom I (eds) (2000) Animal consciousness: some philosophical, methodological, and evolutionary problems. Am Zool 4:835–846

    Google Scholar 

  • Chapell JA, Kacelnik A (2002) Tool selectivity in a non-primate, the New Caledonian crow (Corvus moneduloides). Anim Cogn 5:71–78

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cheney DL, Seyfarth RM (1990) How monkeys see the world, inside the mind of other species. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

  • Churchland PM (2002) Brain-wise. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.

  • Clark RE, Squire LR (1998) Classical conditioning and brain systems: the role for awareness. Science 280:77–81

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Clark RE, Squire LR (1999) Human eyeblink conditioning: effects of manipulating awareness of the stimulus contingencies. Psychol Sci 10:14–18

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clark RE, Zola S (1998) Trace eyeblink classical conditioning in the monkey: a nonsurgical method and behavioral analysis. Behav Neurosci 112:1062–1068

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Clark RE, Manns JR, Squire LR (2002) Classical conditioning, awareness, and brain systems. Trends Cogn Sci 6:524–531

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Clayton NS, Dickinson A (1998) Episodic-like memory during cache recovery by scrub jays. Nature 398:272–74

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clayton NS, Griffiths DP, Dickinson A (2000) Declarative and episodic-like memory in animals: personal musings of a scrub jay. In: Heyes C, Huber L (eds) The evolution of cognition. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., pp 273–288

  • Clayton NS, Yu KS, Dickinson A (2001) Scrub jays (Aphelocoma coerulescens) form integrated memories of the multiple features of caching episodes. J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process 27:17–29

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Clayton NS, Yu KS, Dickinson A (2003) Interacting cache memories: evidence for flexible memory use by western scrub-jays (Aphelocoma californica). J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process 29:14–22

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cowey A, Stoerig P (1992) Reflections on blindsight. In: Milner D, Rugg MD (eds) The neurophysiology of consciousness. Academic, London, pp 11–37

  • Cowey A, Stoerig P (1995) Blindsight in monkeys. Nature 373:247–249

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cowey A, Stoerig P (1997) Visual detection in monkeys with blindsight. Neuropsychologia 35:929–939

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Crick F, Koch C (1998) Consciousness and neuroscience. Cereb Cortex 8:97–107

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Crick F, Koch C (2000) The unconscious homunculus. In: Metzinger T (ed) Neural correlates of consciousness, empirical and conceptual questions. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., pp 103–110

  • Crick F, Koch C (2003) A framework for consciousness. Nat Neurosci 6:119–126

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Crist E (1999) Images of animals: anthropomorphism and animal mind. Temple University Press, Philadelphia

    Google Scholar 

  • Crist E (2002) The inner life of earthworms: Darwin’s argument and its implications. In: Bekoff M, Allen C, Burghardt GM (eds) The cognitive animal, empirical and theoretical perspectives on animal cognition. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., pp 3–8

  • Damasio AR (1999) The feeling of what happens: body and emotion in the making of consciousness. Harcourt, Orlando, Fla.

    Google Scholar 

  • Damasio AR (2000) A neurobiology for consciousness. In: Metzinger T (ed) Neural correlates of consciousness, empirical and conceptual questions. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., pp 111–120

  • Dawkins MS (2000) Animal mind and animal emotions. Am Zool 40:883–888

    Google Scholar 

  • Dawson ME, Schell AM (1987) Human autonomic and skeletal classical conditioning: the role of conscious cognitive factors. In: Davey G (ed) Cognitive processes and Pavlovian conditioning in humans. Wiley, New York, pp 27–55

  • Dehaene S, Naccache L (2001) Towards a cognitive neuroscience of consciousness: basic evidence and a workspace framework. Cognition 79:1–37

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dickinson A, Balleine BW (2000) Causal cognition and goal-directed action. In: Heyes C, Huber L (eds) The evolution of cognition. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., pp 185–204

  • Donald M (2001) A mind so rare, the evolution of human consciousness. Norton, New York

  • Edelman GM, Tononi G (2000) Reentry and the dynamic core: neural correlates of conscious experience. In: Metzinger T (ed) Neural correlates of consciousness, empirical and conceptual questions. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., pp 139–151

  • Eichenbaum H (1997) Declarative memory: insights from cognitive neurobiology. Annu Rev Psychol 48:547–572

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Emery NJ, Clayton NS (2001) Effects of experience and social context on prospective caching strategies by scrub jays. Nature 414:443–446

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Engel AK, Singer W (2001) Temporal binding and the neural correlates of sensory awareness. Trends Cogn Sci 5:16–26

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fichtel C, Kappeler PM (2002) Referential alarm calls in lemurs. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 51:267–275

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fouts RS (1997) Next of kin: what chimpanzees have taught me about who we are. Morrow, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Fouts RS, Jensvold MLA (2002) Armchair dilusions versus empirical realities: a neurological model for the continuity of ape and human languaging. In: Goodman M, Moffat MLA (ed) Probing human origins. American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Cambridge, Mass., pp 87–101

  • Frith D, Perry R, Lumer E (1999) The neural correlates of conscious experience: an experimental framework. Trends Cogn Sci 3:105–114

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Giurfa M, Zhang S, Jenett A, Menzel R, Srinivasan MV (2001) The concepts of “sameness” and “difference” in an insect. Nature 410:930–933

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Goschke T (1997) Implicit learning and unconscious knowledge: mental representations, computational mechanisms, and brain structures. In: Lamberts K, Shanks D (eds) Knowledge, concepts and categories. Psychology Press, Hove, England, pp 247–333

  • Green JT, Woodruff-Pak DS (2000) Eyeblink classical conditioning: hippocampal formation is for neutral stimulus associations as cerebellum is for association response. Psychol Bull 126:138–158

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Griffin DR (1976) The question of animal awareness. Rockefeller University Press, New York

  • Griffin DR (1984) Animal thinking. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass.

  • Griffin DR (1998) From cognition to consciousness. Anim Cogn 1:3–16

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Griffin DR (2001) Animal minds, beyond cognition to consciousness. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

  • Griffiths D, Dickinson A, Clayton, NS (1999) Episodic memory: what can animals remember about their past? Trends Cogn Sci 3:74–80

    Google Scholar 

  • Hampton RR (2001) Rhesus monkeys know when they remember. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 98:5359–5362

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hart BL, Hart LA, McCoy M, Sarath CR (2001) Cognitive behaviour in Asian elephants; use and modification of branches for fly switching. Anim Behav 62:839–847

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hauser MD (2000) Wild minds, what animals really think. Holt, New York

  • Hauser MD, Konishi M (eds) (1999) The design of animal communication. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.

  • Heinrich B (1999) The mind of the raven, investigations and adventures with wolf-birds. Cliff Street Books (Harper-Collins), New York

  • Herman LM (2002) Exploring the cognitive world of the bottlenose dolphin. In: Bekoff, M, Allen C, Burghardt GM (eds) The cognitive animal, empirical and theoretical perspectives. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., pp 275–283

  • Hesslow G (2002) Conscious thoughts as simulation of behaviour and perception. Trends Cogn Sci 6:242–247

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Heyes C, Huber L (eds) (2000) The evolution of cognition. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.

  • Hunt GR (1996) Manufacture and use of hook-tools by New Caledonian crows (Corvus moneduloides). Nature 379:249–251

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hunt GR (2000a) Tool use by the New Caledonian crow (Corvus moneduloides) to obtain Cerambycidae from dead wood. Emu 100:109–114

    Google Scholar 

  • Hunt GR (2000b) Human-like, population-level specialization in the manufacture of pandanus tools by New Caledonian crows Corvus moneduloides. Proc R Soc Lond B 267:403–413

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hunt GR, Gray RD (2003) Diversification and cumulative evolution in New Caledonian crow tool manufacture. Proc R Soc Lond B 270:867–874

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Inman A, Shettleworth SJ (1999) Detecting metamemory in nonverbal subjects: a test with pigeons. J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process 25:389–395

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kanwisher N (2001) Neural events and perceptual awareness. Cognition 79:89–113

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kentridge RW, Heywood CA (1999) The status of blindsight. J Conscious Stud 6(5):3–11

    Google Scholar 

  • Koch C, Laurent G (1999) Complexity and the nervous system. Science 284:96–98

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Logothetis NK (1999) Vision: a window on consciousness. Sci Am Nov:69–75

    Google Scholar 

  • Logothetis NK, Schall JD (1989) Neuronal correlates of subjective perception. Science 245:761–763

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Logothetis NK, Guggenberger H, Peled S, Pauls J (1999) Functional imaging of the monkey brain. Nat Neurosci 2:555–562

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Logothetis NK, Merkle H, Augarth M, Trinath T, Ugurbul K (2002) Ultrahigh-resolution fMRI in monkeys with implanted RF coils. Neuron 35:227–242

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lovibond PF, Shanks DR (2002) The role of awareness in Pavlovian conditioning: empirical evidence and theoretical implications. J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process 28:3–26

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Manns JR, Clark RE, Squire LR (2000a) Awareness predicts the magnitude of single-cue trace eyeblink conditioning. Hippocampus 10:181–186

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Manns JR, Clark RE, Squire LR (2000b) Parallel acquisition of awareness and trace eyeblink conditioning. Learn Mem 7:267–272

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Manns JR, Clark RE, Squire LR (2002) Standard delay eyeblink classical conditioning is independent of awareness. J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process 28:32–37

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Manser MB (2001) The acoustic structure of suricates’ alarm calls varies with predator type and the level of response urgency. Proc R Soc Lond B Biol 268:2315–2324

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mather J (2003) Cephalopod skin displays: from concealment to communication. In: Oller K, Griebel U (eds) Evolution of communication (Theoretical biology series). MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass. (in press)

  • Matsuzawa T (ed) (2001) Primate origins of human cognition and behavior. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York

  • Menzel R, Giurfa M, Gerber B, Hellstern F (2001) Cognition in insects: the honey bee as a study case. In: Roth G, Wullimann MF (eds) Brain evolution and cognition. Wiley, New York, pp 333–366

  • Metzinger T (ed) (2000) Neural correlates of consciousness, empirical and conceptual questions. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.

  • Michelsen A (2003) Signals and flexibility in the dance communication of honeybees. J Comp Physiol A 189:165–174

    Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell RW (2002) Imitation as a perceptual process. In: Dautenhahn K, Nehanivc L (eds) Imitation in animals and artifacts. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., pp 441–469

  • Natsoulas TN (1983) Concepts of consciousness. J Mind Behav 4:13–59

    Google Scholar 

  • Nelson TO, Rey G (eds) (2000) Metacognition and consciousness. Conscious Cogn 9:147–327

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Nieh JC (1998) The food recruitment dance of the stingless bee, Melipona panamica. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 43:133–145

    Google Scholar 

  • Nieh JC (1999) Stingless-bee communication. Am Sci 87:428–435

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nieh JC, Roubik DW (1995) A stingless bee Melipona panamica indicates food location without using a scent mark. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 37:63–70

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Öhman A, Esteves F, Soares JJF (1995) Preparedness and preattentive association learning: electrodermal conditioning to masked stimuli. J Psychophysiol 9:99–108

    Google Scholar 

  • Pepperberg IM (1999) The Alex studies, cognitive and communicative abilities of grey parrots. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass.

  • Pepperberg IM, Lynn SK (2001) Possible levels of animal consciousness with reference to grey parrots (Psittacus eritiacus). Am Zool 40:893–901

    Google Scholar 

  • Piggins D, Phillips CJC (1998) Awareness in domesticated animals—concepts and definitions. Appl Anim Behav Sci 57:181–200 (and related papers pp 201–325).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Placer J, Slobodchikoff CN (2000) A fuzzy-neural system for identification of species-specific alarm calls of Gunnison’s prairie dogs. Behav Process 52:1–9

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Polakoff LM (1998) Dancing bees and the language controversy. Integr Biol 1:187-194

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Povinelli DJ (2000) Folk physics for apes, the chimpanzees’ theory of how the world works. Oxford University Press, New York

  • Pryor, K, Haag R, O’Reilly J (1969) The creative porpoise: training for novel behavior. J Exp Anal Behav 12:653–661

    Google Scholar 

  • Reed ES (1982) Darwin’s earthworms: a case study in evolutionary psychology. Behaviorism 10:165–185

    Google Scholar 

  • Rees G, Kreiman G, Koch C (2002) Neural correlates of consciousness in humans. Nature Rev 3:261–270

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rescorla RA (1988a) Pavlovian conditioning: it’s not what you think it is. Am Psychol 43:151–160

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rescorla RA (1988b) Behavioral studies of Pavlovian conditioning. Annu Rev Neurosci 11:329–352

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Roberts LE, Young R (1971) Electrodermal responses are independent of movement during aversive conditioning in rats, but heart rate is not. J Comp Physiol Psychol 77:495–512

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Roth G (2000) The evolution and ontogeny of consciousness. In: Metzinger T (ed) Neural correlates of consciousness, empirical and conceptual questions. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., pp 77–97

  • Roth G, Wullimann MF (eds) (2001) Brain evolution and cognition. Wiley, New York

  • Sahraie A, Weiskrantz L, Barbur JL, Simmons A, Williams SCR, Brammer MJ (1997) Pattern of neuronal activity associated with conscious and unconscious processing of visual signals. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 94:9406–9411

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sandeman DC, Tautz J, Lindauer M (1996) Transmission of vibration across honeycombs and its detection by bee leg receptors. J Exp Biol 199:2585–2594

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Savage-Rumbaugh S, Shanker SG, Taylor TJ (1998) Apes, language, and the human mind. Oxford University Press, New York

  • Schacter DL (1998) Memory and awareness. Science 280:59–60

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Seager W (1999) Theories of consciousness, an introduction and assessment. Routledge, London

  • Searle JR (1998) How to study consciousness scientifically. Brain Res Rev 26:379–387

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Searle JR (2000) Consciousness. Annu Rev Neurosci 23:557–578

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Searle JR (2002) Consciousness and language. Cambridge University Press, New York

  • Seeley TD (2003) What studies of communication have revealed about the minds of worker honey bees. In: Kikuchi T (ed) Behavior and evolution in social insects. University of Hokkaido Press, Sapparo (in press)

  • Seeley TD, Buhrman SC (1999) Group decision making in swarms of honey bees. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 45:19–31

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Seeley TD, Tautz J (2001) Worker piping in honey bee swarms and its role in preparing for liftoff. J Comp Physiol A 187:667–676

    Google Scholar 

  • Seeley TD, Weidenmüller A, Kühnholtz S (1998) The shaking signal of the honey bee informs workers to prepare for greater activity. Ethology 104:10–26

    Google Scholar 

  • Seward T, Seward MA (2000) Visual awareness due to neuronal activities in subcortical structures: a proposal. Conscious Cogn 9:86–116

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Seyfarth D, Cheney D, Marler P (1980) Vervet monkey alarm calls: evidence for predator classification and semantic communication. Anim Behav 28:1070–1094

    Google Scholar 

  • Shanks DR, Lovibond PF (2002) Autonomic and eyeblink conditioning are closely related to contingency awareness: reply to Wiens and Öhman (2002) and Manns et al. (2002). J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process 28:38–42

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Shanks DR, St. John MF (1994) Characteristics of dissociable human learning systems. Behav Brain Sci 17:367–447 (including commentaries and authors’ response)

    Google Scholar 

  • Sheinberg DL, Logothetis NK (1997) The role of temporal cortical areas in perceptual organization. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 94:3408–3413

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Shettleworth SL (1998) Cognition, evolution, and behavior. Oxford University Press, New York

  • Slobodchikoff CN (2002) Cognition and communication in prairie dogs. In: Bekoff, M, Allen C, Burghardt GM (eds) The cognitive animal, empirical and theoretical perspectives. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., pp 257–264

  • Smith JD, Shields WE, Washburn DA (2003) The comparative psychology of uncertainty monitoring and metacognition. Behav Brain Sci (in press)

  • Sousa C, Matsuzawa T (2001) The use of tokens as rewards and tools by chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Anim Cogn 4:213–221

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stevenson RJ, Boakes RA, Prescott J (1998) Change in odor sweetness resulting from implicit learning of a simultaneous odor-sweetness association: an example of learned synesthesia. Learn Motiv 29:113–132

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stoerig P, Zontanou A, Cowey A (2002) Aware or unaware: assessment of cortical blindness in four men and a monkey. Cereb Cortex 12:565–574

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tautz J (1996) Honeybee waggle dance: recruitment success depends on the dance floor. J Exp Biol 199:1375–1381

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tautz J, Casas J, Sandeman D (2001) Phase reversal of vibratory signals in the honeycomb may assist dancing honeybees to attract their audience. J Exp Biol 204:3737–3746

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor JG (1999) The race for consciousness. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.

  • Thom C, Gilley DC, Tautz J (2003) Worker piping in honey bees (Apis mellifera): the behavior of piping nectar foragers. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 53:199–205

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thompson NS, Derr PG (2000) Intentionality is the mark of the vital. In: Tonneau F, Thompson NS (eds) Evolution, culture and behavior. Perspectives in ethology. Kluwer, Dordrecht 13:213–229

  • Tong F, Nakayama K, Vaughan JT, Kanwisher N (1998) Binocular rivalry and visual awareness in human extrastriate cortex. Neuron 21:753–759

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tononi G, Edelman GM (1998) Consciousness and complexity. Science 282:1846–1851

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tononi G, Srinivasan R, Russell DP, Edelman GM (1998) Investigating neural correlates of conscious perception by frequency-tagged neuromagnetic responses. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 95:3198–3203

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tonooka R (2001) Leaf-folding behavior for drinking water by wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) at Bossou, Guinea. Anim Cogn 4:325–334

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Towne WF, Gould JL (1988) The spatial precision of honey bee dance communication. J Insect Behav 1:129–155

    Google Scholar 

  • Tully T, Quinn WG (1985) Classical conditioning and retention in normal and mutant Drosophila melanogaster J Comp Physiol A 157:263–277

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Tulving E (1972) Episodic and semantic memory. In: Tulving E, Donaldson W (eds) Organization of memory. Academic, New York, pp 382–403

  • Tulving E (2002) Episodic memory: from brain to mind. Annu Rev Psychol 53:1–25

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Visscher PK, Shepardson J, McCart L, Camazine S (1999) Vibration signal modulates the behaviour of house-hunting honey bees (Apis mellifera). Ethology 105:759–769

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Waal FBM de (2001) The ape and the sushi master, cultural reflections of a primatologist. Basic Books, New York

  • Waal FBM de, Tyack PL (2003) Animal social complexity: intelligence, culture, and individual societies. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weidenmüller A, Seeley TD (1999) Imprecision in waggle dances of the honey bee (Apis mellifera) for nearby food sources: error or adaptation? Behav Ecol Sociobiol 46:190–199

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weir AAS, Chappell J, Kacelnik A (2002) Shaping of hooks in New Caledonian crows. Science 297:981

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Weiskrantz L (1986) Blindsight, a case study and implications. Oxford University Press, New York

  • Weiskrantz L (1997) Consciousness lost and found. Oxford University Press, New York

  • Weiskrantz L, Warrington EK, Sanders MD, Marshall J (1974) Visual capacity in the hemianopic field following a restricted cortical ablation. Brain 97:709–728

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wenner A (1998) Honey bee dance language controversy. In: Greenberg G, Haraway MM (eds) Comparative psychology, a handbook. Garland, New York, pp 823–836

  • Wickens DD, Meyers PM, Sullivan SW (1961) Classical GSR conditioning, conditioned discrimination, and interstimulus intervals in cats. J Comp Physiol Psychol 54:572–576

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wiens S, Öhman A (2002) Unawareness is more than a chance event: comment on Lovibond and Shanks (2002). J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process 28:27–31

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wilcox RS, Jackson RR (1998) Cognitive abilities of Areneophagic jumping spiders. In: Balda RP, Pepperberg IM, Kamil AC (eds) Animal cognition in nature: the convergence of psychology and biology in laboratory and field. Academic, San Diego, pp 411–434

  • Wilcox S, Jackson R (2002) Jumping spider tricksters: deceit, predation, and cooperation. In: Bekoff M, Allen C, Burghardt GM (eds) The cognitive animal, empirical and theoretical perspectives on animal cognition. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., pp 27–45

  • Williams LM, Brammer MJ, Skerrett D, Lagopolous J, Rennie C, Peduto A, Gordon E (2000) Neural activity associated with electrodermal orienting: an integrated fMRI and GSR study. Psychophysiology 37: S105 [Suppl]

    Google Scholar 

  • Xitco MJ Jr, Gory JD, Kuczaj SA II (2001) Spontaneous pointing by bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus). Anim Cogn 4:115–123

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zuberbühler K (2000) Interspecies semantic communication in two forest primates. Proc R Soc Lond B 267:713–718

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Zuberbühler K (2001) Predator-specific alarm calls in Campbell’s monkeys, Cercopithecus campbelli. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 50:414–422

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zuberbühler K, Cheney DL, Seyfarth RM (1999a) Conceptual semantics in a nonhuman primate. J Comp Psychol 113:33–42

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zuberbühler K, Jenny D, Bahary R (1999b) The predator deterrence function of primate alarm calls. Ethology 105:471–490

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank Jack W. Bradbury, Ken Nakayama, Petra Stoerig, and five reviewers for thoughtful comments that have stimulated us to make many improvements to this paper.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Concord Field Station, Harvard University, Old Causeway Road, Bedford, MA 01730, USA

    Donald R. Griffin

  2. Vision Sciences Laboratory, Department of Psychology, Harvard University, 33 Kirkland Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA

    Gayle B. Speck

Authors
  1. Donald R. Griffin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Gayle B. Speck
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gayle B. Speck.

Additional information

Donald R. Griffin died on 7 November 2003

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Griffin, D.R., Speck, G.B. New evidence of animal consciousness. Anim Cogn 7, 5–18 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-003-0203-x

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-003-0203-x

Keywords

Search

Navigation