Understanding Animal Intelligence

Dr. Stefano Ghirlanda is a Full Professor in the Department of Psychology at Brooklyn College. He received his PhD in zoology, with a concentration in ethology, from Stockholm University. He is also a founder and fellow of the Stockholm University Centre for the Study of Cultural Evolution. He considers himself a "behavior theorist" – he is interested in data-driven, theoretical accounts of all aspects of human and non-human behavior, including their neural underpinnings, and in particular learning and generalization, the architecture of behavior, and cultural evolution. Dr. Magnus Enquist is a Professor of Ethology and the Director of the Centre for the Study of Cultural Evolution at Stockholm University. He received his PhD in Zoology from Stockholm University. His current research focuses on processes of cultural change – cultural evolution – and the differences between humans and other animals. He has published numerous articles, book chapters, and whole books on the evolution of behavior, including behavioral mechanisms such as recognition and learning.

• Part I: Fundamental questions1. What does it mean to understand animal intelligence?2. Different purposes of mechanistic, developmental, and evolutionary explanations3. Describing behavior – responses to stimuli, individual history, evolutionary history4. Modeling animal intelligence – decision-making, learning, and evolutionPart II: Decision-making5. Using available information to select the best action – external stimuli, memories, and motivational states6. Evaluation of current stimuli – perception, generalization, relationship with deep learning7. Memory retrieval – selecting which information to use8. Motivational systems – selecting which goal to pursue9. Inborn contributions to decision-making strategiesPart III: Learning and development10. Associative learning – a modern perspective on reinforcement learning11. Specialized memory systems – purposes and algorithms12. Genetic guidance of learning13. Learned information14. Maturation – changing behavioral mechanisms with age and experience15. Training – teaching animals beyond their inherent scopePart IV: Evolution of behavior16. Evolution’s effect on learning and decision-making17. Innate value landscapes18. Co-evolution of animal intelligence with environmental demands