Records |
Author |
Helton, W.S. |
Title |
Animal expertise, conscious or not |
Type |
Journal Article |
Year |
2005 |
Publication |
Animal Cognition |
Abbreviated Journal |
Anim. Cogn. |
Volume |
8 |
Issue |
2 |
Pages |
67-74 |
Keywords |
Animals; *Behavior, Animal; *Cognition; *Consciousness; *Learning; Motor Skills; *Practice (Psychology) |
Abstract |
Rossano (Cognition 89:207, 2003) proposes expertise as an indicator of consciousness in humans and other animals. Since there is strong evidence that the development of expertise requires deliberate practice (Ericsson in The road to excellence: the acquisition of expert performance in the arts and sciences, sports and games 1996), and deliberate practice appears to be outside of the bounds of unconscious processing, then any signs of expertise development in an animal are indicators of consciousness. Rossano's argument may lead to an unsolvable debate about animal consciousness while causing researchers to overlook the underlying reality of animal expertise. This article provides evidence indicative of animals meeting each of the three definitions of expertise established in the scientific literature: expertise as a social construction, expertise as exceptional performance, and expertise as knowledge. In addition, cases of deliberate practice by non-human animals are offered. Acknowledging some animals as experts, regardless of consciousness, is warranted by the research findings and would prove useful in solving many issues remaining in the human expertise literature. |
Address |
Department of Psychology, Wilmington College, Wilmington, OH 45177, USA, deak_helton@yahoo.com |
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1435-9448 |
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PMID:15365876 |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
Serial |
2511 |
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Author |
Panksepp, J. |
Title |
Affective consciousness: Core emotional feelings in animals and humans |
Type |
Journal Article |
Year |
2005 |
Publication |
Consciousness and Cognition |
Abbreviated Journal |
Conscious Cogn |
Volume |
14 |
Issue |
1 |
Pages |
30-80 |
Keywords |
Affect/*physiology; Animals; Bonding, Human-Pet; Brain/*physiology; Consciousness/*physiology; Fear; Humans; Limbic System/physiology; Social Behavior; Species Specificity; Unconscious (Psychology) |
Abstract |
The position advanced in this paper is that the bedrock of emotional feelings is contained within the evolved emotional action apparatus of mammalian brains. This dual-aspect monism approach to brain-mind functions, which asserts that emotional feelings may reflect the neurodynamics of brain systems that generate instinctual emotional behaviors, saves us from various conceptual conundrums. In coarse form, primary process affective consciousness seems to be fundamentally an unconditional “gift of nature” rather than an acquired skill, even though those systems facilitate skill acquisition via various felt reinforcements. Affective consciousness, being a comparatively intrinsic function of the brain, shared homologously by all mammalian species, should be the easiest variant of consciousness to study in animals. This is not to deny that some secondary processes (e.g., awareness of feelings in the generation of behavioral choices) cannot be evaluated in animals with sufficiently clever behavioral learning procedures, as with place-preference procedures and the analysis of changes in learned behaviors after one has induced re-valuation of incentives. Rather, the claim is that a direct neuroscientific study of primary process emotional/affective states is best achieved through the study of the intrinsic (“instinctual”), albeit experientially refined, emotional action tendencies of other animals. In this view, core emotional feelings may reflect the neurodynamic attractor landscapes of a variety of extended trans-diencephalic, limbic emotional action systems-including SEEKING, FEAR, RAGE, LUST, CARE, PANIC, and PLAY. Through a study of these brain systems, the neural infrastructure of human and animal affective consciousness may be revealed. Emotional feelings are instantiated in large-scale neurodynamics that can be most effectively monitored via the ethological analysis of emotional action tendencies and the accompanying brain neurochemical/electrical changes. The intrinsic coherence of such emotional responses is demonstrated by the fact that they can be provoked by electrical and chemical stimulation of specific brain zones-effects that are affectively laden. For substantive progress in this emerging research arena, animal brain researchers need to discuss affective brain functions more openly. Secondary awareness processes, because of their more conditional, contextually situated nature, are more difficult to understand in any neuroscientific detail. In other words, the information-processing brain functions, critical for cognitive consciousness, are harder to study in other animals than the more homologous emotional/motivational affective state functions of the brain. |
Address |
Department of Psychology, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH 43403, USA. jpankse@bgnet.bgsu.ed |
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ISSN |
1053-8100 |
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Notes |
PMID:15766890 |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
Serial |
4159 |
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Author |
Tavernor, W.D.; Lees, P. |
Title |
A pharmacological investigation of the influence of suxamethonium on cardiac function in the horse |
Type |
Journal Article |
Year |
1968 |
Publication |
Experientia |
Abbreviated Journal |
Experientia |
Volume |
24 |
Issue |
6 |
Pages |
582-583 |
Keywords |
Animals; Arrhythmia/chemically induced; Consciousness; Halothane; Heart/innervation; Heart Rate/*drug effects; Horses/*physiology; Oxygen; Propranolol/pharmacology; Receptors, Sensory/drug effects; Stimulation, Chemical; Succinylcholine/antagonists & inhibitors/*pharmacology; Sympathetic Nervous System/physiology; Tachycardia/chemically induced; Thiopental |
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0014-4754 |
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PMID:5697737 |
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Call Number |
refbase @ user @ |
Serial |
104 |
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