de Waal, F. B. M. (2008). Putting the Altruism Back into Altruism: The Evolution of Empathy. Annu Rev Psychol, 59(1), 279–300.
Abstract: Evolutionary theory postulates that altruistic behavior evolved for the return-benefits it bears the performer. For return-benefits to play a motivational role, however, they need to be experienced by the organism. Motivational analyses should restrict themselves, therefore, to the altruistic impulse and its knowable consequences. Empathy is an ideal candidate mechanism to underlie so-called directed altruism, i.e., altruism in response to anothers's pain, need, or distress. Evidence is accumulating that this mechanism is phylogenetically ancient, probably as old as mammals and birds. Perception of the emotional state of another automatically activates shared representations causing a matching emotional state in the observer. With increasing cognition, state-matching evolved into more complex forms, including concern for the other and perspective-taking. Empathy-induced altruism derives its strength from the emotional stake it offers the self in the other's welfare. The dynamics of the empathy mechanism agree with predictions from kin selection and reciprocal altruism theory.
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Penn, D. C., & Povinelli, D. J. (2007). Causal Cognition in Human and Nonhuman Animals: A Comparative, Critical Review. Annual Review of Psychology, 58(1), 97–118.
Abstract: In this article, we review some of the most provocative experimental results to have emerged from comparative labs in the past few years, starting with research focusing on contingency learning and finishing with experiments exploring nonhuman animals' understanding of causal-logical relations. Although the theoretical explanation for these results is often inchoate, a clear pattern nevertheless emerges. The comparative evidence does not fit comfortably into either the traditional associationist or inferential alternatives that have dominated comparative debate for many decades now. Indeed, the similarities and differences between human and nonhuman causal cognition seem to be much more multifarious than these dichotomous alternatives allow.
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Seyfarth, R. M., & Cheney, D. L. (2003). Signalers and receivers in animal communication. Annu Rev Psychol, 54, 145–173.
Abstract: In animal communication natural selection favors callers who vocalize to affect the behavior of listeners and listeners who acquire information from vocalizations, using this information to represent their environment. The acquisition of information in the wild is similar to the learning that occurs in laboratory conditioning experiments. It also has some parallels with language. The dichotomous view that animal signals must be either referential or emotional is false, because they can easily be both: The mechanisms that cause a signaler to vocalize do not limit a listener's ability to extract information from the call. The inability of most animals to recognize the mental states of others distinguishes animal communication most clearly from human language. Whereas signalers may vocalize to change a listener's behavior, they do not call to inform others. Listeners acquire information from signalers who do not, in the human sense, intend to provide it.
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Boysen, S. T., & Himes, G. T. (1999). Current Issues And Emerging Theories In Animal Cognition. Annual Review of Psychology, 50(1), 683–705.
Abstract: Comparative cognition is an emerging interdisciplinary field with contributions from comparative psychology, cognitive/experimental and developmental psychology, animal learning, and ethology, and is poised to move toward greater understanding of animal and human information-processing, reasoning, memory, and the phylogenetic emergence of mind. This chapter highlights some current issues and discusses four areas within comparative cognition that are yielding new approaches and hypotheses for studying basic conceptual capacities in nonhuman species. These include studies of imitation, tool use, mirror self-recognition, and the potential for attribution of mental states by nonhuman animals. Though a very old question in psychology, the study of imitation continues to provide new avenues for examining the complex relationships among and between the levels of imitative behaviors exhibited by many species. Similarly, recent work in animal tool use, mirror self-recognition (with all its contentious issues), and recent attempts to empirically study the potential for attributional capacities in nonhumans, all continue to provide fresh insights and novel paradigms for addressing the defining characteristics of these complex phenomena.
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Gallagher, M., & Rapp, P. R. (1997). The Use Of Animal Models To Study The Effects Of Aging On Cognition. Annual Review of Psychology, 48(1), 339–370.
Abstract: This review addresses the importance of animal models for understanding the effects of normal aging on the brain and cognitive functions. First, studies of laboratory animals can help to distinguish between healthy aging and pathological conditions that may contribute to cognitive decline late in life. Second, research on individual differences in aging, a theme of interest in studies of elderly human beings, can be advanced by the experimental control afforded in the use of animal models. The review offers a neuropsychological framework to compare the effects of aging in human beings, monkeys, and rodents. We consider aging in relation to the role of the medial temporal lobe in memory, the information processing functions of the prefrontal cortex in the strategic use of memory, and the regulation of attention by distributed neural circuitry. We also provide an overview of the neurobiological effects of aging that may account for alterations in psychological functions.
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Timberlake, W. (1993). Animal Behavior: A Continuing Synthesis. Annual Review of Psychology, 44(1), 675–706.
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Spear, N. E., Miller, J. S., & Jagielo, J. A. (1990). Animal Memory and Learning. Annual Review of Psychology, 41(1), 169–211.
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Gallistel, C. R. (1989). Animal Cognition: The Representation of Space, Time and Number. Annual Review of Psychology, 40(1), 155–189.
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Dewsbury, D. A. (1989). Comparative Psychology, Ethology, and Animal Behavior. Annual Review of Psychology, 40(1), 581–602.
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Kamil, A. C., & Roitblat, H. L. (1985). The Ecology of Foraging Behavior: Implications for Animal Learning and Memory. Annual Review of Psychology, 36(1), 141–169.
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