Causal Reasoning in Rats

by: Aaron P Blaisdell, Kosuke Sawa, Kenneth J Leising, Michael R Waldmann

Science, Vol. 311, No. 5763. (17 February 2006), pp. 1020-1022.

View FullText article

DOI, HighWire, Pubmed, Hubmed

Reviews [Write a review of this article]

There are no reviews of this article

Find related articles from these CiteULike users

apeyrache, brian, stefanherzog, garyfeng, Borelli, memphisphil, Tansu_citeulike, arnia, ReadingLab (group), ACS-Basel (group)

Find related articles with these CiteULike tags

animals, apfc, association, bayesian, behavior, causality, causal-reasoning, causation, cognition, context, knowledge-representation, motorlearning, no-tag, probability, rat, rats, reasoning

Abstract

Empirical research with nonhuman primates appears to support the view that causal reasoning is a key cognitive faculty that divides humans from animals. The claim is that animals approximate causal learning using associative processes. The present results cast doubt on that conclusion. Rats made causal inferences in a basic task that taps into core features of causal reasoning without requiring complex physical knowledge. They derived predictions of the outcomes of interventions after passive observational learning of different kinds of causal models. These competencies cannot be explained by current associative theories but are consistent with causal Bayes net theories.

@article{Blaisdell2006, abstract = {Empirical research with nonhuman primates appears to support the view that causal reasoning is a key cognitive faculty that divides humans from animals. The claim is that animals approximate causal learning using associative processes. The present results cast doubt on that conclusion. Rats made causal inferences in a basic task that taps into core features of causal reasoning without requiring complex physical knowledge. They derived predictions of the outcomes of interventions after passive observational learning of different kinds of causal models. These competencies cannot be explained by current associative theories but are consistent with causal Bayes net theories.}, author = {Blaisdell, Aaron P. and Sawa, Kosuke and Leising, Kenneth J. and Waldmann, Michael R. }, citeulike-article-id = {507525}, doi = {10.1126/science.1121872}, journal = {Science}, keywords = {behavior}, month = {February}, number = {5763}, pages = {1020--1022}, posted-at = {2008-05-13 17:26:30}, priority = {2}, title = {Causal Reasoning in Rats}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1121872}, volume = {311}, year = {2006} }

RIS record

TY - JOUR ID - Blaisdell2006 L3 - citeulike-article-id:507525 TI - Causal Reasoning in Rats JF - Science VL - 311 IS - 5763 SP - 1020 EP - 1022 N2 - Empirical research with nonhuman primates appears to support the view that causal reasoning is a key cognitive faculty that divides humans from animals. The claim is that animals approximate causal learning using associative processes. The present results cast doubt on that conclusion. Rats made causal inferences in a basic task that taps into core features of causal reasoning without requiring complex physical knowledge. They derived predictions of the outcomes of interventions after passive observational learning of different kinds of causal models. These competencies cannot be explained by current associative theories but are consistent with causal Bayes net theories. KW - behavior AU - Blaisdell, Aaron AU - Sawa, Kosuke AU - Leising, Kenneth AU - Waldmann, Michael PY - 2006/02/17/ UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1121872 ER -

RIS BibTeX