ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2017
Constructive anthropomorphism: a functional evolutionary approach to the study of human-like cognitive mechanisms in animals.
Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed.
- Evolution of diverse (and advanced) cognitive abilities through adaptive fine-tuning of learning and chunking mechanisms.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Using the conditioned place preference paradigm to assess hunger in dairy calves: Preliminary results and methodological issues.Animal welfare (South Mimms, England) · 2024Article
- Hunger affects cognitive performance of dairy calves.Biology letters · 2023Article
- A possible evolutionary function of phenomenal conscious experience of pain.Neuroscience of consciousness · 2021Article
- Pair-bonding influences affective state in a monogamous fish species.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2019Article
- Anti-anthropomorphism and Its Limits.Frontiers in psychology · 2018Review
- Humans as model organisms.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2017Article
- Humans as a model for understanding biological fundamentals.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2017Article
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2 authors.
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Abstract
Anthropomorphism, the attribution of human cognitive processes and emotional states to animals, is commonly viewed as non-scientific and potentially misleading. This is mainly because apparent similarity to humans can usually be explained by alternative, simpler mechanisms in animals, and because there is no explanatory power in analogies to human phenomena when these phenomena are not well understood. Yet, because it is also difficult to preclude real similarity and continuity in the evolution of humans' and animals' cognitive abilities, it may not be productive to completely ignore our understanding of human behaviour when thinking about animals. Here we propose that in applying a functional approach to the evolution of cognitive mechanisms, human cognition may be used to broaden our theoretical thinking and to generate testable hypotheses. Our goal is not to 'elevate' animals, but rather to find the minimal set of mechanistic principles that may explain 'advanced' cognitive abilities in humans, and consider under what conditions these mechanisms were likely to enhance fitness and to evolve in animals. We illustrate this approach, from relatively simple emotional states, to more advanced mechanisms, involved in planning and decision-making, episodic memory, metacognition, theory of mind, and consciousness.
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