PSYC3362 · Psychology

Mind of a Dog: How Canine Cognition Informs Human Psychology

Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences

This course explores intelligence and cognitive processes across a variety of animal species, including humans. It addresses such questions as, do chimpanzees lie? Can dolphins count? What makes us uniquely human? Topics include mental representation, memory, tool use, counting, problem-solving, self-awareness, social knowledge, and communication/language. For each area, we will examine the evidence from both wild and laboratory settings, continually returning to the questions of what such knowledge tells us about non-human animals, and how this knowledge informs our theories of human cognition.