Editing Animal cognition (section)

=== The behavioristic half-century ===

The work of Thorndike, Pavlov and a little later of the outspoken behaviorist [[John B. Watson]]<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Watson JB | s2cid = 145372026 | year = 1913 | title = Psychology as the Behaviorist Views it. | journal = Psychological Review | volume = 20 | issue = 2| pages = 158–177 | doi=10.1037/h0074428| hdl = 21.11116/0000-0001-9182-7 | hdl-access = free}}</ref>  set the direction of much research on animal behavior for more than half a century.  During this time there was considerable progress in understanding simple associations; notably, around 1930 the differences between Thorndike's [[Operant conditioning|instrumental (or operant) conditioning]] and Pavlov's [[Classical conditioning|classical (or Pavlovian) conditioning]] were clarified, first by Miller and Kanorski, and then by [[B. F. Skinner]].<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Miller S, Konorski J | year = 1928 | title = Sur une forme particulière des reflexes conditionels | journal = Comptes Rendus des Séances de la Société de Biologie et de Ses Filiales | volume = 99 | pages = 1155–1157}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Skinner BF | date = 1932 | title = The Behavior of Organisms}}</ref>  Many experiments on conditioning followed; they generated some complex theories,<ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Hull CL | date = 1943 | title = The Principles of Behavior}}</ref> but they made little or no reference to intervening mental processes. Probably the most explicit dismissal of the idea that mental processes control behavior was the [[radical behaviorism]] of Skinner. This view seeks to explain behavior, including "private events" like mental images, solely by reference to the environmental contingencies impinging on the human or animal.<ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Skinner BF | title = About Behaviorism | date = 1976}}</ref>

Despite the predominantly behaviorist orientation of research before 1960, the rejection of mental processes in animals was not universal during those years. Influential exceptions included, for example, [[Wolfgang Köhler]] and his insightful chimpanzees<ref name="Köhler_1917">{{cite book | vauthors = Köhler W | date = 1917 | title = The Mentality of Apes}}</ref> and [[Edward Tolman]] whose proposed [[cognitive map]] was a significant contribution to subsequent cognitive research in both humans and animals.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Tolman EC | date = 1948 | title = Cognitive maps in rats and men | journal = Psychological Review | volume = 55 | issue = 4 | pages = 189–208 | doi = 10.1037/h0061626 | pmid = 18870876 | s2cid = 42496633}}</ref>