Introduction

In this free course, Living psychology: animal minds, you will explore various questions about non-human animal minds, including whether animals have similar mental states to humans, such as emotions and cognitions. You will also consider whether animals may even have an understanding of others’ mental states, such as beliefs, desires, intentions and so on, known as Theory of Mind (ToM).

Not only is this an interesting topic in its own right, but studying animals’ mental abilities also sheds light on how human minds have evolved, and how they are similar to, and different from, the minds of other species. Indeed, many important findings in psychology have been, and continue to be, made by studying the behaviours and abilities of animals.

This OpenLearn course is an adapted extract from the Open University course DD210 Living psychology: from the everyday to the extraordinary.