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Rats and infants as propositional reasoners: A plausible possibility?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 April 2009

Leyre Castro  and
Edward A. Wasserman
Leyre Castro
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242. leyre-castroruiz@uiowa.edued-wasserman@uiowa.eduhttp://www.psychology.uiowa.edu/
Edward A. Wasserman
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242. leyre-castroruiz@uiowa.edued-wasserman@uiowa.eduhttp://www.psychology.uiowa.edu/
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Abstract

Mitchell et al. contemplate the possibility of rats being capable of propositional reasoning. We suggest that this is an unlikely and unsubstantiated possibility. Nonhuman animals and human infants do learn about the contingencies in the world; however, such learning seems not to be based on propositional reasoning, but on more elementary associative processes.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 32 , Issue 2 , April 2009 , pp. 203 - 204
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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