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Animal Behavior

Animal Instinct, Learning, and Emotions

What is cognition?

Cognition is the highest form of learning and consists of the perception, storage, and processing of information gathered by sensory receptors. Whether or not animals have such mental abilities has long been studied, and is called cognitive ethnology. Long ago, scientists believed that it was the human’s use of tools that set us apart, thinking-wise, from other animals. Today, the definition is a bit more detailed and involves complex observations of animals, such as whether animals have memory, how do animals make decisions based on their surroundings, or even how do they “remember,” such as a squirrel remembering where he hides nuts in the autumn.



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