Hostname: page-component-89b8bd64d-dvtzq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-05-09T05:36:49.475Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Where is the evidence for general intelligence in nonhuman animals?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 August 2017

Ludwig Huber
Ludwig Huber*
Affiliation:
Messerli Research Institute, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Medical University of Vienna, University of Vienna, 1210 Vienna, Austria ludwig.huber@vetmeduni.ac.at www.vetmeduni.ac.at/messerli
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This commentary contrasts evolutionary plausibility with empirical evidence and cognitive continuity with radiation and convergent evolution. So far, neither within-species nor between-species comparisons on the basis of rigorous experimental and species-appropriate tests substantiate the claims made in the target article. Caution is advisable on meta-analytical comparisons that primarily rely on publication frequencies and overgeneralizations (from murids and primates to other nonhuman animals).

Information

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 40 , 2017 , e206
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Anderson, B. (1993) Evidence from the rat for a general factor that underlies cognitive performance and that relates to brain size: Intelligence? Neuroscience Letters 153(1):98–102.Google Scholar
Aust, U., Range, F., Steurer, M. & Huber, L. (2008) Inferential reasoning by exclusion in pigeons, dogs, and humans. Animal Cognition 11:587–97.Google Scholar
Emery, N. J. & Clayton, N. S. (2004) The mentality of crows: Convergent evolution of intelligence in corvids and apes. Science 306(5703):1903–907.Google Scholar
Emery, N. J. & Clayton, N. S. (2009) Tool use and physical cognition in birds and mammals. Current Opinion in Neurobiology 19(1):27–33.Google Scholar
Fitch, W. T., Huber, L. & Bugnyar, T. (2010) Social cognition and the evolution of language: Constructing cognitive phylogenies. Neuron 65(6):795–814.Google Scholar
Gottfredson, L. S. (1997) Mainstream science on intelligence: An editorial with 52 signatories, history, and bibliography. Intelligence 24:13–23.Google Scholar
Gruber, T., Clay, Z. & Zuberbuhler, K. (2010) A comparison of bonobo and chimpanzee tool use: Evidence for a female bias in the Pan lineage. Animal Behaviour 80:1023–33.Google Scholar
Güntürkün, O. & Bugnyar, T. (2016) Cognition without cortex. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 20(4):291–303.Google Scholar
Healy, S. D. & Rowe, C. (2007) A critique of comparative studies of brain size. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences 274(1609):453–64.Google Scholar
Herrmann, E. & Call, J. (2012) Are there geniuses among the apes? Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 367:2753–61.Google Scholar
Herrmann, E., Hare, B., Call, J. & Tomasello, M. (2010a) Differences in the cognitive skills of bonobos and chimpanzees. PLoS One 5(8):e12438.Google Scholar
Hodos, W. & Campbell, C. B. G. (1969) Scala naturae: Why there is no theory in comparative psychology. Psychological Review 76(4):337–50.Google Scholar
Huber, L. (2009) Degrees of rationality in human and non-human animals. In: Rational Animals, Irrational Humans, ed. Watanabe, S., Blaisdell, A. P., Huber, L. & Young, A., pp. 3–21. Keio University Press.Google Scholar
Locurto, C., Benoit, A., Crowley, C. & Miele, A. R. (2006) The structure of individual differences in batteries of rapid acquisition tasks in mice. Journal of Comparative Psychology 120:378–88.Google Scholar
Mendes, N. & Huber, L. (2004) Object permanence in common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus). Journal of Comparative Psychology 118(1):103–12.Google Scholar
O'Hara, M., Auersperg, A. M. I., Bugnyar, T. & Huber, L. (2015) Inference by exclusion in Goffin cockatoos (Cacatua goffini). PLoS One 10(8):e0134894.Google Scholar
O'Hara, M., Schwing, R., Federspiel, I., Gajdon, G. K. & Huber, L. (2016) Reasoning by exclusion in the kea (Nestor notabilis). Animal Cognition 19(5):965–75.Google Scholar
Reader, S. M. & Laland, K. N. (2002) Social intelligence, innovation and enhanced brain size in primates. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 99:4436–41.Google Scholar
Shettleworth, S. J. (2010a) Clever animals and killjoy explanations in comparative psychology. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 14(11):477–81.Google Scholar
Teschke, I., Cartmill, E. A., Stankewitz, S. & Tebbich, S. (2011) Sometimes tool use is not the key: No evidence for cognitive adaptive specializations in tool-using woodpecker finches. Animal Behaviour 82(5):945–56.Google Scholar
Teschke, I., Wascher, C. A., Scriba, M. F., von Bayern, A. M., Huml, V., Siemers, B. & Tebbich, S. (2013) Did tool-use evolve with enhanced physical cognitive abilities? Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 368(1630):20120418.Google Scholar
Voelkl, B. & Huber, L. (2000) True imitation in marmosets. Animal Behaviour 60(2):195–202.Google Scholar
Voelkl, B. & Huber, L. (2007) Imitation as faithful copying of a novel technique in marmoset monkeys. PLoS One 2(7):e611.Google Scholar
Wass, C., Denman-Brice, A., Light, K. R., Kolata, S., Smith, A. M. & Matzel, L. D. (2012) Covariation of learning and “reasoning” abilities in mice: Evolutionary conservation of the operations of intelligence. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes 38(2):109–24.Google Scholar
Wechsler, D., Coalson, D. L. & Raiford, S. E. (2008) WAIS-IV: Wechsler adult intelligence scale. Pearson.Google Scholar