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Living psychology: animal minds
Living psychology: animal minds

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Conclusion

This free course, Living psychology: animal minds, has introduced you to research that addresses issues related to psychologists’ understanding of animal minds. You have learned about approaches in comparative psychology and considered how these relate to the area known as evolutionary psychology, and encountered a number of studies addressing the question of the nature of animal minds and cognitive abilities, drawing on examples of brain studies, laboratory-based research and naturalistic observations.

You have also learned that people tend to anthropomorphise when thinking about animals, attributing to them human-like desires, intentions, emotions and other mental states and experiences. But also that there is strong evidence that animals can experience a range of emotions and engage in reasoning and problem solving.

You have also seen that Theory of Mind (ToM) studies can be controversial and open to competing interpretations and conclusions, and that there are both strengths and shortcomings of comparative laboratory-based research studies.

This OpenLearn course is an adapted extract from the Open University course DD210 Living psychology: from the everyday to the extraordinary [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] .