Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Rational rats

  • News & Views
  • Published:

From Nature Neuroscience

View current issue Submit your manuscript

Traditional learning theory suggests that animals do not understand that actions cause their consequences. A new paper uses sophisticated behavioral experiments to conclude that rats are capable of causal reasoning.

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

Figure 1: Design of the experiments of Blaisdell and colleagues.

Ann Thomson

References

  1. Terkel, J. Adv. Study Behav. 24, 119–154 (1995).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Skinner, B.F. The Behavior of Organisms (Appleton-Century-Crofts, New York, 1938).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Blaisdell, A.P., Sawa, K., Leising, K.J. & Waldmann, M.R. Science 311, 1020–1022 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Walmann, M.R. & Hagmayer, Y. J. Exp. Psychol. Learn. Mem. Cogn. 31, 216–227 (2005).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Gopnik, A. & Schulz, L. Trends Cogn. Sci. 8, 371–377 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Dickinson, A. Contemporary Animal Learning Theory (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, UK, 1980).

    Google Scholar 

  7. Dickinson, A. & Shanks, D. in Causal Cognition (eds. Sperber, D. & Premack, A.J.) (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1995).

    Google Scholar 

  8. Köhler, W. The Mentality of Apes (trans. Winter, E.). (Kegan Paul, Trench & Trubner, London (1925/1963).

    Google Scholar 

  9. Beck, B.B. Animal Tool Behavior: the Use and Manufacture of Tools by Animals (Garland, STMP Press, New York, 1980).

    Google Scholar 

  10. Tomasello, M. & Call, J. Primate Cognition (Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford, 1997).

    Google Scholar 

  11. Emery, N.J. & Clayton, N.S. Science 306, 1903–1907 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Povinelli, D. Folk Physics for Apes. The Chimpanzee's Theory of How the Word Works (Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford, 2000).

    Google Scholar 

  13. Weir, A.A.S., Chappell, J. & Kacelnik, A. Science 297, 981 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Seed, A.M. Tebbich, Emery, N.J. & Clayton, N.S. Current Biol. (published online 4 April 2006, doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2006.066).

    Google Scholar 

  15. Visalberghi, E. & Limongelli, L. J. Comp. Psychol. 108, 15–22 (1994).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EB, UK

    Nicola Clayton & Anthony Dickinson

Authors
  1. Nicola Clayton
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Anthony Dickinson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Clayton, N., Dickinson, A. Rational rats. Nat Neurosci 9, 472–474 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn0406-472

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nn0406-472

  • Springer Nature America, Inc.

This article is cited by

Search

Navigation