Attribution of Cognitive States to Animals: Anthropomorphism in Comparative Perspective

Eddy, Timothy J.; Gallup, Gordon G.; Povinelli, Daniel J.

doi:10.1111/j.1540-4560.1993.tb00910.x

Cited by 190 publications

(150 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Some participants made comments to justify their opinion, such as; "it is natural" and "in nature, it is normal". It has been suggested that there is a "hierarchy of concern" which is a function of the distance of relationship between the prey animal and primates (Eddy et al, 1993;Ings et al, 1997), and our results are consistent with this idea. The more closely a prey animal was related to primates, the fewer participants agreed that it should be fed alive to zoo animals or, if so, that it should be done off-exhibit.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Feeding live prey to zoo animals: response of zoo visitors in Switzerland

et al. 2009

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Feeding life-prey to zoo animals: response of zoo visitors in Switzerland AbstractIn summer 2007, with the help of a written questionnaire, the attitudes of more than 400 visitors to the zoological garden of Zurich, Switzerland, towards the idea of feeding live insects to lizards, live fish to otters, and live rabbits to tigers were investigated. The majority of Swiss zoo visitors agreed with the idea of feeding live prey (invertebrates and vertebrates) to zoo animals, both off-and on-exhibit, except in the case of feeding live rabbits to tigers on-exhibit. Women and frequent visitors of the zoo disagreed more often with the on-exhibit feeding of live rabbits to tigers. Study participants with a higher level of education were more likely to agree with the idea of feeding live invertebrates and vertebrates to zoo animals off-exhibit. In comparison to an earlier study undertaken in Scotland, zoo visitors in Switzerland were more often in favor of the live feeding of vertebrates. Feeding live prey can counter the loss of hunting skills of carnivores and improve the animals' well-being. However, feeding enrichments have to strike a balance between optimal living conditions of animals and the quality of visitor experience. Our results show that such a balance can be found, especially when live feeding of mammals is carried out off-exhibit. A good interpretation of food enrichment might help zoos to win more support for the issue, and for re-introduction programs and conservation. Cottle, L., Bühler, D., Hyseni, M., Tamir, D., Lindemann-Matthies, P. 2009. Feeding life-prey to zoo animals: response of zoo visitors in Switzerland. Zoo Biology 28: 1-7.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Feeding live prey to zoo animals: response of zoo visitors in Switzerland

et al. 2009

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“…With careful design, the task should be adaptable to any animal species. The test has particular value as a tool to assess emotion in taxa for which measures of emotion do not currently exist, are limited, are considered too difficult to study, or are simply ignored due to our anthropocentric approach to the study and attribution of animal emotions (Morris, Knight, & Lesley, 2012) and cognitive abilities (Eddy, Gallup, & Povinelli, 1993).…”

Section: Why Is Judgement Bias Important?mentioning

confidence: 99%

A “How-To” Guide for Designing Judgment Bias Studies to Assess Captive Animal Welfare

Bethell

2015

Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science

114

130

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“…Given the human tendency to attribute mental states to some (but not all) animals (see Eddy et al 1993), this becomes a distinct possibility when applied to chimpanzees.…”

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confidence: 99%

Constructing an understanding of mind: The development of children's social understanding within social interaction

2004

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Abstract:Theories of children's developing understanding of mind tend to emphasize either individualistic processes of theory formation, maturation, or introspection, or the process of enculturation. However, such theories must be able to account for the accumulating evidence of the role of social interaction in the development of social understanding. We propose an alternative account, according to which the development of children's social understanding occurs within triadic interaction involving the child's experience of the world as well as communicative interaction with others about their experience and beliefs (Chapman 1991;. It is through such triadic interaction that children gradually construct knowledge of the world as well as knowledge of other people. We contend that the extent and nature of the social interaction children experience will influence the development of children's social understanding. Increased opportunity to engage in cooperative social interaction and exposure to talk about mental states should facilitate the development of social understanding. We review evidence suggesting that children's understanding of mind develops gradually in the context of social interaction. Therefore, we need a theory of development in this area that accords a fundamental role to social interaction, yet does not assume that children simply adopt socially available knowledge but rather that children construct an understanding of mind within social interaction.Keywords: language; Piaget; social interaction; theories of mind; Vygotsky; Wittgenstein et al. 1998;Symons & Clark 2000), mothers' education (Cutting & Dunn 1999), and socioeconomic circumstances (Holmes et al. 1996).Furthermore, a number of studies have found correlations between language and social understanding (e.g., Cutting & Dunn 1999; de Villers 2000; Happé 1995;Jenkins & Astington 1996). In longitudinal studies, forms of family talk about mental states have been found to be related to later success on false belief tests (e.g., Brown et al. 1996;Dunn et al. 1991a;Ruffman et al. 2002). In addition, mothers who think of their children in mentalistic terms ("mindmindedness"), and therefore, presumably talk to their children about the psychological world, have children who are more advanced in understanding beliefs than are other children (Meins & Fernyhough 1999;Meins et al. 1998). Similar correlations between family interaction and the development of children's understanding of emotions have also been reported (e.g., Dunn et al. 1991b;Hooven et al. 1995;Kuebli et al. 1995;Steele et al. 1999). In a longitudinal study, Astington and Jenkins (1999) found that earlier language abilities predict later false belief performance but earlier false belief competence does not predict later language abilities, supporting the conclusion that language is important in social cognitive development.Another source of evidence that social interaction is important for the development of a mentalistic understanding comes from research with deaf children. A number o...

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Attribution of Cognitive States to Animals: Anthropomorphism in Comparative Perspective

Cited by 190 publications

References 24 publications

Feeding live prey to zoo animals: response of zoo visitors in Switzerland

Feeding live prey to zoo animals: response of zoo visitors in Switzerland

A “How-To” Guide for Designing Judgment Bias Studies to Assess Captive Animal Welfare

Constructing an understanding of mind: The development of children's social understanding within social interaction

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