Abstract
In this article, the author reflects on some of the key issues that have arisen in comparative cognition and the role and impact of the journal Animal Cognition through its first 25 years by pretending to look back at this period from the year 2047. Successes within comparative cognition are described and the role that Animal Cognition has played in the growth of comparative cognition are discussed. Concerns are presented about issues that affect the opportunities that researchers have to work with nonhuman species and to produce good comparative cognitive science. Prescriptions for what the author hopes will happen next also are offered all in the lens of a prospectively imagined retrospective on this field.
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Notes
Thankfully, this did not happen, but almost entirely because of the major positive response of donors who helped keep this lab open. This type of thing was becoming increasingly necessary in the late 2020s, as more and more research labs were forced to find alternate means of funding their research and students and especially housing and caring for their animals.
In 2022, I had gotten through about 6 years of papers looking at how often individual differences were reported and then I missed that deadline. Being retired now I do not have the energy to complete that task, but maybe someone else will tackle it.
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Acknowledgements
I greatly appreciate the opportunity to contribute an article for this special issue celebrating the 25th anniversary of Animal Cognition. This journal is one of the most influential publications in my career, and it has been for 25 years. I wrote this article a bit tongue-in-cheek because I did not want to write another review article on an area of research interest for me. Instead, I thought about what it will be like to read the next 25 years’ worth of Animal Cognition articles (or at least download those with the intention of reading them!), and how I might feel in 2047 after doing that. As part of this I thought about things that I really do hope we will manage to do next in our field, based on what I think we have done well and perhaps not so well in the last 25 years. To me, Animal Cognition has always been at the center of empirical theoretical and policy-based issues for those of us who study animal minds, and I know it will continue to be. And to be honest after the last two very long years for all of us I wanted to write something fun that I hope others might appreciate.
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Beran, M.J. Congratulations to Animal Cognition on its 50th birthday! Some thoughts on the last 50 years of animal cognition research. Anim Cogn 26, 13–23 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-022-01706-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-022-01706-5